43 replies to this topic

[Sandwich]

Tough!

Okay, maybe not that harsh, but basically: you have to find a topic yourself as this is something you are assessed on.

We will happily critique the topics you've found, say whether they're great, rubbish or average and give you plenty of guidance if you ask for it, but we will not give you a topic to write about. It's part of your grade, not ours!

Good places to start for searching your OWN topics are sites or books with notes on major themes and characters (e.g. Sparknotes!) which may inspire you. Main themes, characters and symbols are always excellent ways to start thinking about what you want to write about As a hint! You can also find tips on the tips thread.

PLEASE START YOUR OWN THREAD ABOUT YOUR WL TITLE - asking for advice on this thread can mean it's often overlooked!!

Good luck!
(...and having read this, please don't ask us to think up a topic for you!)

[Danny_M]

Hello
In my essay I will be focusing on the power of women in House of the Spirits and Like Water for Chocolate. I want to focus on Tita (LWFC) and Clara (HOTS). I'm having trouble narrowing down, or is it fine as it is? Thank you for your time.

[Drake Glau]

You need to refine it, what do those character portray about the power of women? Your essay needs a point, some sort of statement you want to prove

[Danny_M]

Okay. So for example I want to focus on Tita being the head of the household, taking on all the chores, cooking, cleaning etc. Clara again the same thing. She's in charge of the household, taking care of things, teaching the workers at Tres Marias, and even trying to teach women about gender inequality. So basically that women are portrayed as very powerful in this book and without them many of the things would have happened? Am I on track?

I can also focus on the changing roles. For example LWFC is during the Mexican revolution, leading to change of views (political) and leaders. And in HOTS the same thing happens.

Edited by Danny_M, Dec 16, 2010 - 01:18.

[Drake Glau]

Sort of, you're pointing out things about what the characters are doing, which is good, because it's through the characters that themes are created. You need to analyze their actions though. What does cooking (specifically) show? Or what does <insert action here> specifically say about them and in term a theme that they represent.
Characters are characterized through details, details of action/appearance/thought usually. So you can start maybe characterizing them and then referring to how they are characterized and how that converys a theme that you wish to prove. Make sense?

[Danny_M]

Yea gotcha
So would you advice focusing only on one character from each book? Also focus only on one action or more?

[Drake Glau]

WL1 requires you to compare two books And from what you are saying you are going to compare two characters, one from each book, to support a common theme between the novels.
Don't focus on exactly one action for an entire paragraph (my mistake there), make your point about how such and such characterizes him/her and then use specific action as your evidence from the novel and analyze it.

[Danny_M]

Okay, I think I have a good idea of what to do now. I'm not going to compare characters, but instead I'm going to compare how in both books women did things that weren't common during their times (disobeying parents, taking leadership positions, and even participating in politics). So basing my thesis on that, can I focus on actions done by more than one character? PS sorry for asking so many questions

Edited by Danny_M, Dec 16, 2010 - 02:06.

[Drake Glau]

Personally I don't think comparing the actions of all the women, or some of them even, will be specific enough because it's not really a specific device. It's like the difference between saying diction and saying diction related to religious piety. Details of action vs details of action of Clara or whatever character you choose. In this way you can compare their actions specifically and in turn characterize them and then analyze their characters to get to your common theme.

[Danny_M]

So once I pick two characters (I changed them to Alba (HOTS) and Gertrudis (LWFC) because they are more comparable), is it wise to focus on more than one action from each character, or just one? What I want to do is write 2 paragraphs for Gertrudis, and another 2 paragraphs for Alba. So would it be better to analyze actions of Alba and Gertrudis in each of the two paragraphs, or analyze actions in one paragraph, and then analyze their characters to get to my theme?

[MagicSophie]

I want to explore the possibility that Cyrano de Bergerac and Firdaus from Woman at Point Zero are martyrs, because the both die rather than betray what they believe in.
When I signed up for this topic (like a MONTH ago) I felt like I had a bunch of really strong ideas and arguments I could make, but when I went to make my essay proposal I realized that I didn't remember any of them...
Would anyone be willing to have a discussion with me about these books, or else throw out an idea or an expample to sort of get me going?
Any advice you can give me is really appreciated!

[Julie]

MagicSophie, on Jan 24, 2011 - 02:24, said:

I want to explore the possibility that Cyrano de Bergerac and Firdaus from Woman at Point Zero are martyrs, because the both die rather than betray what they believe in.
When I signed up for this topic (like a MONTH ago) I felt like I had a bunch of really strong ideas and arguments I could make, but when I went to make my essay proposal I realized that I didn't remember any of them...
Would anyone be willing to have a discussion with me about these books, or else throw out an idea or an example to sort of get me going?
Any advice you can give me is really appreciated!

Sit down, grab a piece of paper, and WRITE! You're looking at how they are martyrs and betrayed; therefore, go through the book and find supporting quotes. After you get the supporting quotes, try to categorize them into main ideas (not each quote has to be a main idea; 3 quotes could support 1 idea, for instance). Now, once you have your main ideas and the supporting quotes, it is time to analyze! Look at the quotes, what narrative techniques, literary techniques (plots, motifs, what person is the book written in). Once you analyze all of those, do they contribute to the overall point you want to make about the book- the characters being martyrs? If they do, highlight them! or mark them in some way so that you remember them. If they do not, discard the idea, no need for irrelevant info, it just takes up space from your word count and won't contribute to the critical analysis you want to display to the IB reader.
For in-depth information, I would suggest going to these threads:
http://www.ibsurviva...-writing-ideas/
http://www.ibsurviva...-2-and-wl1/#WL1 (for this link, read the "WL1" link, "World Literature 1 Marking Criteria" link, and the "Literary analysis and writing technical points". Check out the Marking Criteria because it can serve as a checklist for you while writing. Make sure you incorporate EVERYTHING from the criteria WL1; missing one will get you cut down many points for no reason.The tips will all help you!
It isn't hard when you have a lot of tips, so read over the stuff and get writing!

[MagicSophie]

Um. Well, okay. I mean, I know how to write a literary essay.
I guess I was hoping for some feedback on my idea?

[Julie]

MagicSophie, on Jan 25, 2011 - 02:48, said:

Um. Well, okay. I mean, I know how to write a literary essay.
I guess I was hoping for some feedback on my idea?

Lol, sorry... I misunderstood you. Well, as far as your idea goes- I've never read the book, but I guess I can kind of go back to what I said in the last post: if you have main ideas you have pulled out, quotes to support it, and can analyze those quotes and the book as a whole, then it's a great topic Organize your ideas on paper, and you will see for yourself whether it is good or now. It all comes down to a stupid question: Can I write 1500 words on this topic and display utter critical thinking and writing and knowledge of the book?

[Mar Le Devine]

Hi, i have posted this on a separate topic (Before i've discovered this ) so here i'm pasting the most important stuff

I have to hand in the first draft of my WL1 very soon and i'm planning to do a comparative essay on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Antigone by Sophocles

Topic examples:

"To what extent is the character of Jane Eyre similar to the character of Antigone?"
"How important are the gender roles in Jane Eyre and Antigone?"
"How does Jane Eyre and Antigone struggle with their social positions?"

I could probably add more, for example "What drives them" "To what extent are they affected by entities and/or authorities (religion etc.) " but these are the topics i just thought of, but they seem to be way too "General" or probably countless people thought of them as well in the history.

Themes:

http://www.gradesave...e/major-themes/
http://www.gradesave...e/major-themes/

[Airellerouge]

I also need help with my topic. I read somewhere that it is not good to pick topics that had something to do with the society. This is a bit of a problem because the topic I thought of was something like:
How is the upper class portrayed in Great Expectations and Eugen Onegin (using the characters of Eugen and Estella) or
How do Estella and Eugen represent the characteristics of the upper class in Great Expectations and Eugen Onegin?
What do you think? Would it be a good topic or is it too broad/not appropriate?

Edited by Airellerouge, Jan 31, 2011 - 18:55.

[MagicSophie]

Airellerouge, on Jan 31, 2011 - 18:46, said:

I also need help with my topic. I read somewhere that it is not good to pick topics that had something to do with the society. This is a bit of a problem because the topic I thought of was something like:
How is the upper class portrayed in Great Expectations and Eugen Onegin (using the characters of Eugen and Estella) or
How do Estella and Eugen represent the characteristics of the upper class in Great Expectations and Eugen Onegin?
What do you think? Would it be a good topic or is it too broad/not appropriate?

I haven't read either of these, but I think that your topic sounds really strong.
I'm curious about the society thing, because I haven't heard that, but I don't know, maybe you'll want to look into that a bit.
Anyway, I think your topic will be a good one because you can use quotes to draw direct parallels, so it should be easy to come up with a general outline and then just flesh it out as you go.
I think I would go with the second option, though, as it's more specific.

[M_Chow]

Hi everyone, I also need some help here in choosing the topic. I have done Hedda Gabler, The Cherry Orchard and Miss Julie.
I have thought of a topic but I am not sure whether it is a good one or not. It will be great if someone can give me some comments and guidance on it
"How does symbolism in Hedda Gabler and The Cherry Orchard help present the role of women?"

Thanks a lot!

[Talles]

Hey, for my paper i was planning on comparing The House of the Spirits and Like Water for Chocolate. So far the topics/themes i came up with are:

Politics and its effect on bringing people together/separating them.
The problem I have with this idea is that I think it is too vague to build on extensively. On behalf of HOS it would work perfectly as seemingly every character is involved in some way with the dictatorship yet in LWfC I don't see that as much, only with the exception of Gertrudis who runs away with a soldier.

Women and their role as destructive/constructive characters
In HoS it seems like the women of the novel seem to be the counterpart of masculinity in many senses; the women serve to settle issues, like the fact that Esteban is tamed only by his own wife Clara and his granddaughter Alba. The men of the story seem to create the problems whereas the women seem to be the solution. In LWfC it seems to be the opposite way, the women serve primarily to hinder Tita's love and well-being.


The main problem I am having is specificity with which to create a topic. There is just so much I feel there is to analyze that I cannot seem to cut it down into one narrow argument.

---

I was also considering retribution as a theme. In HoS Alba ultimately decides not to seek revenge and similarly neither does Tita; however her mother does everything in her power even after death to torture Tita for her rebelliousness.
Also thinking about how the authors foreshadow events in the books. Allende does so through Clara's clairvoyance and such, while the recipes in LWfC similarly do the same thing.

AH! So much to choose from that it makes everything seem so disorganized! But I suppose it's a start.

Edited by Summer Glau, Sep 10, 2011 - 21:50.

[bumblebeee~]

Description given by teacher...
Analysis of two key passages: two significant passages from the same work could be selected in order to explore, for example, contrasting prose styles, descriptive method, character presentation and a range of other aspects. The candidate needs to justify briefly the pivotal nature of the passages chosen and to demonstrate their particular similarties and differences which the candidate considers interesting




So, how should I structure this? Like one of a comparative essay? I'm thinking about writing it on the idea of how the change in character presentation of Esteban Trueba through the description of three marias and the big house on the corner changes the image of him... something like that. Feedback?