Lauren Dodds
Final Project
For my project I plan on discussing the changes in family structure by showing how the changes the Oankali cause mirror these changes that have already taken place. In doing this Bulter is portraying the way society is going downhill and we don't even notice it.
Potential Thesis: Butler uses her book to show the changes in family structure that are causeing people to loose sight of important values
I can find research that talks about how women have started to puch back having a family until later on in their life and first focus on their careers. Babies are not what are not what important; they can wait. This can be compared to when the Oankali take away reproduction from the humans and all of a sudden having kids is the only thing that matters. Butler is showing how a family is what matters and careers should not come before them.
Another area I would discuss is how it has become more common for kids to be raised without a present father. Though people realize this is not the ideal situation, they do no doubt that a child can get by under these circumstances. However, when the Oankali tell the humans that most men will not stay with their families or be there for their child as he or she grows up, they are deeply disturbed. I have skimmed trough articles on the Pitt library thing that have addressed the effects of fathers who spend times with their kids.
I can also talk about same sex parents, the adittion of extra family members, and siblings.
Counter Argument: Nuclear family is not important and it is best not to have a set idea about what the right family structure is and the Oankali are acting off this by introducing ideas that Americans have already started to embrace without even realizing.
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4 comments:
This project is already reasonably fleshed out, and you certainly have a sense of where your materials will be, both in Butler's book and in your research.
For me, though, the most interesting question is what you are trying to accomplish with this article. Are you driven, ultimately, by disagreement with Butler? Agreement with Butler? Is Butler protesting or embracing the dissolution of the nuclear family? What about you?
You can certainly get started without really having decided, but ultimately these questions - or others like them - will determine how much interest the essay has for a reader.
Just to make sure I am correct, you are arguing that the idea of a Nuclear family and values of a family have changed, and the counter argument is that a child will turn out fine raised in a non nuclear family? If I am incorrect, please let me know.
If this is the case then it seems like you have a good idea of where to go with examples of the modern family structure and how it differs from what it used to be.
My only concern is that your counter-argument you may be rehashing some of the same ideas that you have in your own argument. You will just want to make sure that you are challenging your argument fully when writing the counter argument.
Your topic of family structure sounds interesting and it seems that you'll be able to provide a lot of examples from Lilith's Brood. You may want to make your thesis a little bit more specific so that it and your counter-argument are really the opposite of one another.
It sounds like you've already done some pre-research and you know the direction that you want to take your paper.
It seems like you have a concrete idea for your paper, so you have a good starting point. You have some vague ideas which need rooting in research: "Society is going downhill" could be related to something like child abuse, or you could compare college graduation rates between same sex couples, traditional marriages, and single parents.
Is society really changing, and is this a good or bad thing?
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