For my final project, I am drawing from the ideas found within Jimmy Corrigan concerning the repetitive and cyclic nature of a family. This will also draw upon ideas from Hawthore’s “House of the Seven Gables.” The underlying thesis of the paper has yet to be decided, but I will either go with a more optimistic ending or the more depressing one. If I am to stay true to the themes of Ware’s graphic novel, I will choose the depressing ending. However, I feel that my choice in ending could very well be based upon my ideas and opinions concerning the cycle of life. Can the cycle be broken? This will be the underlying argument of my short story (hopefully).
I feel that writing a paper like this could be risky for me, considering how quickly my ideas for fictional pieces change. I had to change my entire plot for National Novel Writing Month just because I totally lost my motivation and muse. Therefore, I feel that having a back up plan would be prudent. This back up plan consists of comparing the ideas found in two of Hawthorne’s works (“The House of the Seven Gables” and “The Scarlet Letter”) with two of William Faulkner’s novels (“As I Lay Dying” and possibly “Light in August”). You may remember that I mentioned “As I Lay Dying” in one of my previous essays, but felt that exploring the relation between it and “House of the Seven Gables” would have led to a totally different paper within the paper.
If I had not let my sister borrow “Watchmen” I would have used that for my final project. I felt she needed her education in Alan Moore literature.
Now for the project itself, I feel like giving away the plot would not be any fun. I will reveal that it was inspired by a song called “Spring Street” by Vanessa Carlton. I plan on searching for books on family psychology to better understand the relationship between a mother and her daughter, which will be necessary for my short story.
If anyone wants to listen to the song search for it on Youtube. Here are the lyrics.
I was heading down to Spring Street with a suitcase in my hand
Filled with love and life and grand illusion,
I knew you'd understand
I left you by the stairwell
And your eyes were wet with tears
Mother you knew you had to let me go,
Even after all these years
And we sing
She said
Walk on
You're alright
And I found myself a new life
I've been living with some friends
We hold on to dreams and live like kings,
Like the days will never end
I left him by the statue and his eyes were filled with tears
Lover you knew you had to let me go
Even after all these years
And we sing
He said
Walk on
You're alright
Everything changes friends become strangers
What we hold so dear slips away
The past keeps on fading,
But I'll never forget you
It's hard to see that you're a part of me
Even when we have to say
Walk on
We sing
Well alright
And I moved out of the city
To start a family of my own
When I look into my daughter's eyes,
I don't feel so alone
And as I walk her down to Spring Street
She holds on to my hand
Mother you knew my eyes would be wet with tears and now I understand
And I said
Walk on
Thank you
Walk on,
You're alright
Can't hold on
3 comments:
The story, including its implicit argument, sounds quite interesting, albeit (deliberately) vague. I don't have much to say about that, although I'm very interested in what you can do to extend/vary/reject the various notions of time & cycles that we've encountered so far.
The essay is clearly just a starting point. Faulkner was certainly heavily influenced by Hawthorne: in fact, his first book was named after one of Hawthorne's (*The Marble Faun*, in both cases), so it's a reasonable premise, but a comparison is, at best, a way to generate a thesis - it's not in any way a thesis itself, or even a direct road to one. Two books by each author is overkill for 7 pages; you might be able to do it in 10. Presumably you'd be interested in the nature of time/history in all of those books? You might (ahem) want to look at what I have to say (ahem) in my book - I discuss the nature of time in both *Light in August* and *As I Lay Dying*, more the former than the latter. My sources would be helpful, too.
Also, you can borrow my copy of *Watchmen* should you need it. The library may well have a copy as well.
Dana-I like the idea of your short story. I listened to Spring Street and I think it would make a really good story. The best thing I can advise with your ideas so far is to make an outline of your story. I think that the song will make a good starting point for that, so it should be something pretty straight forward. As for your ending, I think that your own ideas would definitely be the best route to take. The meaning that I took from the song was that yes we are in a cycle and yes history will repeat itself but that isn't such a bad thing and that it will end up okay. I don't know if that is the optimistic side of things that you were thinking of leaning, but I think that Carlton is a perfect starting point. Good luck!
Very interesting... I think you idea for this project is very original and that, of course, will make it a challenge. If you nail it and create a solid story you will certainly be well rewarded. I don't know if you want to do a short story along with a short essay to explain, but I will leave that up to you. The song is great and you should maybe even try to fit it into your story. It going to be hard as far as research is concerned, especially when writing a story, but you could put some in the explaination essay if you cannot fit it into a story. Its up to you. Great, original, idea with a lot of options. Good luck.
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