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Smarthinking Tutor Response Form

Your tutor has written overview comments about your essay in the form below. Your tutor has also embedded comments [in bold and in brackets] within your essay. Thank you for choosing Smarthinking to help you improve your writing!

Hello, Susana! My name is Faith C. I look forward to working with you on this Essay Center Review to improve your writing today. Let's get started!

*Writing Strength:  Your hook is interesting. It succinctly/neatly  puts together the elements that caused the conflict in the story. Good job!

Main Idea/Thesis  At this juncture, your main idea statement for the literary analysis is incomplete. This is because there’s no statement that represents the resolution in your main idea. Your current main idea simply focuses on the conflict. Let’s look at it together: In The Elephant in the Village of the Blind, internal conflict exists as the villagers discuss their diverse perspectives and experiences about the elephant. 

Since the main idea provides guidance about the whole essay, it is only fitting that it gives readers a comprehensive guide about the essay.

Let’s add another sentence to the introduction:

· The conflict over the elephant was resolved when ----------------------------. In the blank, can you explain how the conflict came to an end?

This sentence ensures that readers are ready to read the final body paragraph.

*Susana 12571602, you requested help with Organization:  

Your analysis of conflict in some cases is incomplete at the moment. This is because you did not interpret resources. Your essay should point out the author’s viewpoint and attempt to explain why the observation is significant. It is important to develop a position of your own. You’ll just need to use the original text to defend and explain your viewpoint to the reader.

Let’s look at this resource: The villagers argued between themselves on the description of the elephant to the extent that “two elders were about to come to blows about a fan that could not possibly be a pillar” (18).

Let’s interpret this quote: 

· What had the villager touched when he determined that the elephant was fan? What had the other villager internalized when he concluded that it was a pillar? How did these internal aspects worsen the conflict?

These sentences blend the resource to your body paragraph about the internal conflict. Can you add explanations in other cases as well? Here’s a link from our writing handbook with more information  on Writing Literary Analyses and Explications .

*Susana 12571602, you requested help with Introduction/Conclusion:  

Your conclusion to the literary analysis leaves some loose ends of the essay. The role of the conclusion is to tie all the loose ends so that the readers remain with a sense of completion.  One of the aspects mentioned in the essay is the moral of the story The Elephant in the Village of the Blind.

Given that the villagers almost came into blows about their differences, there’s a lesson that readers learn about attitudes towards other’s opinions as people interact. In your current conclusion, you only  commented  on the idea of absolute truth. Given the fact that each person had a different truth, it’s important to attend to the resolution of conflict over the various truths:

· How should people react to truths that are different from their own? How can the reaction build rather than destroy relationships?

These additional sentences can make your conclusion to be more comprehensive.  

Summary of Next Steps: 

· Expand the main idea.  

· Interpret your resources.  

· Revisit the conclusion.  

Thank you, Susana, for submitting your essay for a review. I enjoyed helping you with this step in the revision process. Have a good day!~Faith C.

You can find more information about writing, grammar, and usage in the Smarthinking Writer's Handbook .

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Please look for comments [in bold and in brackets] in your essay below. Thank you for submitting your work to Smarthinking! We hope to see you again soon.

 

Susana B. Perez 1

 

Susana B. Perez

LIT2000

Dr. Kennedy-Everett

September 24, 2021

Conflict in the Elephant in the Village of the Blind

In an attempt to explore the world and interact with others, human beings often conflict due to opposing views.  People perceive problems differently, and a lack of common understanding leads to conflict. Literature uses conflict as a literary device that creates tension in any narrative and reveals the story's more profound meaning or moral. The narrative about The Elephant in the Village of the Blind explores the reality of life created by the opposing views between partial and ultimate truth. Each of the blind men touched the elephant and held different perspectives about its correct description. Although the traveler knew the reality about the elephant, internal conflict exists between him and the villagers because the villagers have different views about the actual definition of the elephant. In The Elephant in the Village of the Blind, internal conflict exists as the villagers discuss their diverse perspectives and experiences about the elephant. 

The conflict in the story is internal as the villagers compete to give an accurate description of the elephant. All the blind villagers interacted with the elephant for the first time, and since they could not see it, they described the animal based on what they felt after touching the different parts of an elephant. Each villager told the elephant based on the part they touched, creating six different perspectives about the accurate definition of the elephant.  The villagers argued between themselves on the description of the elephant to the extent that “two elders were about to come to blows about a fan that could not possibly be a pillar” (18).  The heightened tension compelled the villagers to want to fight each other. Conflicting beliefs about the elephant led to uncertainty in the story, prompting the villager to intervene to find the ultimate definition of an elephant.

In The Elephant in the Village of the Blind, conflict occurred in a village high in the mountains inhabited by the blind. The conflict arose when one of the villagers questioned the creature used by the traveler to carry loads of things and travel such a long distance.  The confusion about the elephant created curiosity among the villagers as they wanted to know its actual description.  The villagers described the elephant based on their experiences after touching the elephant, creating different views.  Different definitions about the elephant increased the tension between the villagers as each attempted to give a personalized description of the elephant. [There’s an information gap. You have yet to explain how these findings related to partial or ultimate truth:  How did the conclusions of each blind villager fit into any of these truths?] The villagers could not believe in each other’s definition of the elephant, leading to heightened conflict.

The conflict was resolved when the villagers and the traveler agreed that an elephant had all the parts mentioned by each elder, implying that each person’s view was accurate and could be the actual definition of an elephant.   Four young mothers concluded that an elephant was an “enormous, gentle ox with a stretched nose” (18). [Just now, your MLA citations did not follow the proper procedure. The author of   The Norton Introduction to Literature, Thirteenth Edition, (Kelly J. Mays) is missing. This affects the capacity of readers to identify the literature. Let’s add it:   Four young mothers concluded that an elephant was an “enormous, gentle ox with a stretched nose” ( Mays  18).]   An elephant was a big animal with an extended trunk used by travelers to carry loads.  At the need of the story, the traveler agreed that an elephant was a huge animal and added that it could transport trade goods and travel for long distances every year. [Let’s comment on the truth:  What kind of truth did the traveller reveal about the elephant to resolve the conflict? Why did this revelation act as resolution of the conflict? ] The resolution was satisfying because it integrated all the elders’ definitions of an elephant, reducing their tension.

In conclusion, conflict in The Elephant in the Village of the Blind supports the idea that absolute truth about something is based on a person’s perspective about that thing. The villagers’ definition of an elephant is primarily based on their experiences after touching the elephant. Different perspectives enhanced the villagers’ understanding of the elephant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

The Norton Introduction to Literature, Thirteenth Edition.