In each of Jon Hassler's short stories the role of power changes through out each story, and in some cases is never regained.
Agatha McGee was not in power but throughout the story she gains it through subtle and not so subtle manipulation of the all male public school board. She is able to establish right and wrong and used her version of right and her own standing in the town to get what she thought was right.
In the short story Anniversary the power struggle involves a man and time, (character v. nature) he cant seem to understand that life is passing him by, and continues to live as though he has time, and in the end the reader is left to make up their own conclusion as to whether he will correct his ways, if he does not then nature has the power and he will continue on the same path, but if he decides to finally come out of his little room and start living, he will have power.
Winning Sarah Spooner shows how Emmet and Sarah both have power, this is accomplished through Characterization, we are able to pick out each of their traits, and see how their mind works. Sarah is lonely and wants companionship and to keep busy, she uses this and her nurturing nature to get what she wants. Emmet is masculine and somewhat aloof, giving him some control, he isn't totally manipulated by Sarah, but he also lacks companionship and becomes close to Sarah to regain it.
You should reword your thesis, it is a little hard to understand. If you are going to use the word regained, you should talk about power being lost and not just change, or make the distinction between the two. I think Agatha had power from the very beginning of the story, and she wasn't subtle at all, She seemed very straight forward and direct. I don't think she can establish the concept of right and wrong, but I can see where you are going with it, but good point about her own standing in the town! What do you mean by subtle and not so subtle? You should go more in depth on evidence of manipulation on how Agatha gets her way. I like how you used character vs. nature with Anniversary, the points you are true. The sentence is a little long, try restructuring it more. How is life passing him by? give an example. In Sarah Spooner I liked the way you talked about how both characters express power, but you also could focus on just one character and how they hold more power than the other. Overall good start, you have some good thoughts (:
ReplyDeleteWhen you use this thought of how power changes in your thesis you should try and show how it changes in Agatha by her staying in her own ways and not changing and even though she is taking authority she is using her femininity to her advantage. The author uses a lot of power in different characters so this should be a good way to view the stories and analyze them. In Anniversary you could instead point out by him letting life pass him by he has lost all power that he once had from the saying his professor told him. He could have used that to keep power throughout his life but instead he does the opposite. In Sarah Spooner you can talk about how both of their desires for each other create power within each of them. Can't wait to read your essay I like where its going so far just a few suggestions. Keep up the hard work!!
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