Dr. Adam Johns
Seminar in Composition
October 21, 2008
Growth, A Descending Spiral
In books such as “Enough” by Bill McKibben, “Challenging Nature” by Lee Silver and “The House of Seven Gables” by Nathaniel Hawthorne the growth of humanity is discussed. Whether it was humanity going in a cycle as discussed in “Enough”, moving in a straight line in “Challenging Nature” or a combination of the two in “The House of the Seven Gables” there was some form of growth. The book “Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth” by Chris Ware breaks from this pattern. In the story there seems to be de-evolution of humans. While the family of the protagonist seems to repeat much of their history in the form of a cycle they also seem to be getting worse and moving backward. This whole de-evolution of mankind in “Jimmy Corrigan” can be described as a descending spiral.The circular part of the spiral comes from the fact that the whole Corrigan family seems to relive much of the same dismal history and share many of the same traits. All of the Corrigan males have few accomplishments in their lives and have made many mistakes. These mistakes range from abandoning their children to not taking advantage of opportunities that arose in their life. James William Corrigan even says, “What… you thought you were the only mistake I ever made?” (118) Each generation also has unsuccessful relationships with women whether it is being a womanizer or being completely unable to talk to them as in the case of Jimmy. Another similarity they have involving women is the lack of significant others. William Corrigan’s wife died in childbirth, James Corrigan’s wife died in a car crash and James William Corrigan’s second wife died from a smoking related illness. The biggest similarity in the Corrigan family is their resemblance to one another. This is similar to the resemblance that is shared between many of the members of the Pyncheon family in “House of the Seven Gables”. The similar looking characters in both stories tended to act the same way as the ancestors they were a replica of.
While the development of the Corrigan’s seems to be repeating much of itself it also is moving in a somewhat linear pattern as each generation progressively gets worse. The level of success is one of the things that diminishes with each generation. William Corrigan was involved in building important things such as buildings at the Exposition in Chicago, James Corrigan was in the military but ended up as a lonely old man, James William Corrigan was also in the military but ended up serving drinks at an airport, and Jimmy simply works in an office were he receives little respect and has thoughts of suicide. The linear de-evolution is represented in the comic with a picture of the Corrigan family tree (91). As the tree goes out from the limb it gets thinner but also fails to branch out in more than one direction. The tree grows to become more pathetic instead of prospering and becoming lush.
While there are some similarities in the direction of mankind in “Jimmy Corrigan” and those of “Enough”, “Challenging Nature” and “The House of the Seven Gables”, Chris Ware’s comic does not have the same type of growth as the other works. In “Enough” Bill McKibben discusses mankind moving in a cyclic motion with humanity repeating the same things that drove us in our earlier days, such as competition and the will to succeed. Ware depicts many of the same things in his comic such as mediocrity but the Corrigan’s also seem to change some with each generation. Lee Silver’s work also has similarities too that of Ware. Silver talks of the linear progression of mankind where people keep improving upon things and change. In “Jimmy Corrigan” there is some movement in a linear direction where changes our made with each new generation but, this is decay and not growth. Each generation has new problems instead of solutions to old ones. “The House of Seven Gables” also is similar to the work of Ware. Early into the story Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts life as moving both in a cyclic motion and as a linear progression. In the end a combination of the two is formed to create an ascending spiral where people use the past to progress. This is similar to the movement of progression in “Jimmy Corrigan”, where both a cyclic and linear form of growth our combined to create a spiral in which the family is trapped. However, this spiral is descending where each generation shares the failures of the past generation and also gets worse.
The Corrigan’s are trapped within this vicious spiral. Most of their lives are filled with the same failures and mistakes and the majority of change that occurs in the book seems to be in a negative direction. This is another view on growth different from those of Hawthorne, Silver and McKibben. In “Jimmy Corrigan” Chris Ware presents the future of human nature being de-evolution.
4 comments:
Andre,
I really liked the main idea of your paper and it was well established in the introduction. I thought it was really interesting that you decided to contrast Jimmy Corrigan with the other three books and I also liked how you described the growth in Jimmy Corrigan as a “descending staircase.” I one thing that I would maybe change about the introduction is just to make it more specific because it was a little too broad. You could do this by adding an example or too from one of the other books on the corresponding type of growth (how is “The House of Seven Gables a combination of the different types of growth?)
Your second paragraph was very successful in my opinion. I liked how you talked about the “circular part” of the spiral being the repetition among generations in Jimmy Corrigan. The examples you gave were very appropriate. I might change the last part of this paragraph about “The House of the Seven Gables” because it seemed kind of random. I didn’t understand how this related to your argument about the Corrigan’s “de-evolution”.
I thought that the idea of the third paragraph tied in nicely with your main argument as well. Some things that you might consider adding here are the ways that the different fathers treat their sons progressively cruelly or you could talk about each generation of Corrigan men getting progressively more miserable. Something that you could add to the family tree example is how it looks like it ends with Jimmy and doesn’t show any hopes of expanding since Jimmy is portrayed as the peach. You might also mention how Jimmy is at an even lower level than his father than his other male family members since he hasn’t even managed to have a conversation with a woman.
Something else to add to your entire paper would be to include more specific examples when you talk about the other three books. You write about them in kind of a broad sense in the last body paragraph; just specify using quotes from the books. Also, I noticed a contradiction in your fourth paragraph because you wrote in the introduction that the growth in “Jimmy Corrigan” is different from the other books but then in the fourth paragraph you say that the growth in “Jimmy Corrigan” is similar to that of “The House of the Seven Gables.” I see what you mean, but I would just clear that up a little. Another thing that I thought might be interesting to mention is how the “de-evolution” is affected by Jimmy’s dad dying which kind of disrupts the spiral (at least I think so). Also, you could have mentioned somewhere about the spiral ending (or does it ever really end?).
Your conclusion seemed a little abrupt. You mention that the book seems to follow a negative direction but you don’t say why or how. You many have started with this idea in the body somewhere and just followed up on it in the conclusion. I would expand on the idea of the Corrigans being trapped within the spiral and tie in a few of your ideas from the body just to sum up the paper.
Sorry this is so long! Feel free to disregard any of my suggestions; they are just ideas. I hope this helps you at all! I really liked your overall topic (especially since this was a tough assignment) and organization of your paper though and you definitely are on the right track!
sorry this is kind of all mushed together!
Andre Cedeno
Dr. Adam Johns
Seminar in Composition
October 21, 2008
Growth, A Descending Spiral
In books such as “Enough” by Bill McKibben, “Challenging Nature” by Lee Silver and “The House of Seven Gables” by Nathaniel Hawthorne the growth of humanity is discussed. Whether it was humanity going in a cycle as discussed in “Enough”, moving in a straight line in “Challenging Nature” or a combination of the two in “The House of the Seven Gables” there was some form of growth. The book “Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth” by Chris Ware breaks from this pattern. In the story there seems to be de-evolution of humans. While the family of the protagonist seems to repeat much of their history in the form of a cycle they also seem to be getting worse and moving backward. This whole de-evolution of mankind in “Jimmy Corrigan” can be described as a descending spiral.
The circular part of the spiral comes from the fact that the whole Corrigan family seems to relive much of the same dismal history and share many of the same traits. All of the Corrigan males have few accomplishments in their lives and have made many mistakes. These mistakes range from abandoning their children to not taking advantage of opportunities that arose in their life. James William Corrigan even says, “What… you thought you were the only mistake I ever made?” (118) Each generation also has unsuccessful relationships with women whether it is being a womanizer or being completely unable to talk to them as in the case of Jimmy. Another similarity they have involving women is the lack of significant others. William Corrigan’s wife died in childbirth, James Corrigan’s wife died in a car crash and James William Corrigan’s second wife died from a smoking related illness. The biggest similarity in the Corrigan family is their resemblance to one another much like that of the Pyncheon family in “The House of the Seven Gables”. The similar looking characters in both stories tended to act the same way as the ancestors they were a replica of. James Corrigan and Jimmy both fantasize about many things in their life. From little James dreaming about shooting his father with an imaginary gun (233) to Jimmy dreaming about killing his father by cutting him up with a bottle (42). Much of the family’s bleak history is repeated and many of the bad traits are passed onto the descendants.
While the development of the Corrigan’s seems to be repeating much of itself it also is moving in a somewhat linear pattern as each generation progressively gets worse. The level of success is one of the things that diminishes with each generation. William Corrigan was involved in building important things such as buildings at the Exposition in Chicago, James Corrigan was in the military but ended up as a lonely old man, James William Corrigan was also in the military but ended up serving drinks at an airport, and Jimmy simply works in an office were he receives little respect and has thoughts of suicide. Another part of the Corrigan life that seems to falter with each generation is their skills with women. William Corrigan was able to use women and stay at their houses, James Corrigan had a wife, James William Corrigan was divorced once and then remarried and Jimmy can not even hold a conversation with a woman without getting nervous. This linear de-evolution is represented in the comic with a picture of the Corrigan family tree (91). As the tree goes out from the limb it gets thinner but also fails to branch out in more than one direction. The tree grows to become more pathetic eventually bearing the fruit that is Jimmy instead of prospering and becoming lush. This just shows how the family has become worse with each generation and how every Corrigan has had more failures in life.
While there are some similarities in the direction of mankind in “Jimmy Corrigan” and those of “Enough”, “Challenging Nature” and “The House of the Seven Gables”, Chris Ware’s comic does not have the same type of growth as the other works. In “Enough” Bill McKibben discusses mankind moving in a cyclic motion with humanity repeating the same things that drove us in our earlier days, such as competition and the will to succeed. Ware depicts many of the same things in his comic such as mediocrity but the Corrigan’s also seem to change some with each generation. Lee Silver’s work also has similarities too that of Ware. Silver talks of the linear progression of mankind where people keep improving upon things and change. In “Jimmy Corrigan” there is some movement in a linear direction where changes our made with each new generation but, this is decay and not growth. Each generation has new problems instead of solutions to old ones. “The House of Seven Gables” also is similar to the work of Ware. Early into the story Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts life as moving both in a cyclic motion and as a linear progression. In the end a combination of the two is formed to create an ascending spiral where people use the past to progress as the characters did when the Pyncheons and the Maules moved on with their lives and two of them even got married. This is similar to the movement of progression in “Jimmy Corrigan”, where both a cyclic and linear form of growth our combined to create a spiral in which the family is trapped. However, the Corrigan spiral is descending as opposed to ascending, where each generation shares the failures of the past generation and also gets worse.
The Corrigan’s are trapped within this vicious spiral. Most of their lives are filled with the same failures and mistakes, especially with women, even the majority of change that occurs in the book seems to be in a negative direction. This book presents another view on growth different from those of Hawthorne, Silver and McKibben. In “Jimmy Corrigan” Chris Ware presents the future of human nature being de-evolution
Kate - Great, detailed response. Don't apologize for your views, though - Andre obviously needs to make his own decisions, but don't devalue your own work.
Andre - Great thesis and excellent introduction - this is clear, interesting, linked in to the rest of the class, and yet highly specific. Actually, the whole paper is great - you have a specific, interesting and ambitious thesis, and you pursue it from beginning to end with detailed evidence. I would have liked to see a *little* more in the middle - for instance, detailing your (correct) claim that Jimmy's life is *less* than the lives of his father, grandfather, etc.
Excellent work.
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