Eng 125 Week 3 Discussion 2

Example of a Week 3 Discussion 2 Reply

My Working Thesis:

The conflict identified in the story by T. Coraghessan Boyle titled Greasy Lake centers on individual versus self which can also be referred as internal conflict. This conflict shows how a person can be in a perpetual battle with themselves and continues to make unhealthy and self-destructive decisions, regardless of moral and/or ethical convictions.

BODY PARAGRAPH:

With an apparent and two-fold point of view, Greasy Lake is a story where a more mature narrator takes us back to his younger and foolish 19-year-old self, to a time “when it was good to be bad, “when you cultivated decadence like a taste.” (Boyle, 1985). This adventure story centers around one particular night when the narrator in company of “two dangerous characters” (Boyle, 1985), are looking for action. This teenage adventure story happens at Greasy Lake “a smelly and nebulous mud bank glistening with broken glass and scattered beer cans and the scorched remains of bonfires” (Boyle, 1985), where one bad decision to embarrass who they thought was a friend followed with more poor decisions make things go from bad to worst fast. The internal conflict of individual versus self is evident as the characters are in a perpetual battle with themselves and continue to make unhealthy and self-destructive decisions, regardless of moral and/or ethical convictions. Basically; the theme or moral of this story encapsulates an old Greek saying, “Through suffering comes wisdom.” (Dennis, 2004).

References

Boyle, C.T. (1985). Greasy Lake, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Group. Retrieved from:

Characters: The People in Fiction, 168-174.

Dennis, V. (2004). “Greasy Lake”, Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition, ISBN #

9781587651403, p. 1-3.

· I believe there is a connection between the topic sentence and the working thesis. I think they both explain very well what the conflict is and it is easy to understand what the characters are faced with or what the story is about.

· The primary reference is the story I chose to analyze, Greasy Lake. Reading this story is easy to identify the internal conflict of these teenagers as they continue to make poor decisions emphasizing over and over their individual versus self struggle. The secondary reference is by Mrs. Dennis, “Greasy Lake”, Masterplots II: Short Story Series. In this analysis she is extremely detailed and not only does she recognize the internal struggle of the characters, but she points out the symbolisms, the style and techniques, the themes and meanings involved, and the importance of the dual point of view. I am optimistic that whoever reads this topic sentence will make a clear connection without any additional explanation.

· I believe that the paragraph conveys what is needed without any excessive information and it works cohesively to support the topic sentence.