destroyedparadise

Hopefully you'll learn to always keep a backup! One guy in my class had almost finished his maths IA when his computer broke down, so he couldn't hand it in. Always keep several backups!

As for your topic, I can't say much, since I haven't read (or ever heard of) these books. But you topics sounds fine to me, it sounds narrow enough. Remember then to focus on how the traumas change them and don't waste works discussing the actual tragedies. There are plenty of advices for WLs here on this page, check those for more help.

tinachirayil, on Aug 26, 2010 - 03:38, said:

The ideas are okay, I guess. I'm not sure if it's exactly correct to say that in The Assault Anton experiences a period of recovery and then embarks upon a journey of discovery and growth (if it's true in SLAL you could compare the absence/presence of this) but if you want to keep it as it is, I would rephrase it so:

[removed to avoid potential problems with academic dishonesty]

Good list of advice, Alice, just thought I'd add one thing.

Present the characters. Don't write "X eats a potato together with Y". Instead write "The 16-year-old protagonist X eats a potato together with his best friend and neighbour, the blonde Englishman Y". This is how you show knowledge of works, criterion B.

tinachirayil, on Aug 25, 2010 - 04:58, said:

Well to my knowledge, the concept of a thesis statement exists only in N. American high schools, and it's not really = a question (perhaps a better word for question in this instance would be 'title'). Thesis statements seem to me to be basically a person saying "In my view X is X" -- like for instance "In book A and book B, both main characters are controlled by a powerful mother figure". The aim of the WL isn't to state something and then explain how, it's got to be a comparison and the title has got to imply that. So rather than that 'thesis statement', a good title would be: "A comparison of the impact of the mother figure on character 1 and character 2 in book A and book B".

It's quite a subtle difference, but you'll end up writing a much more focused, deeper and more comparative essay if you can word the title more as question which you then go on to answer rather than just a statement. Among other things, it adds extra levels to your argument because you can then do a proper comparison with contrast as well as just similarities, as well as giving your essay the right tone: you are using examples to 'argue' effectively. You argue how they are similar and how they are dissimilar in terms of how they are used and how they appear etc. and then your conclusion should be a balanced reflection of the arguments of your essay.

Blank assertions like that of a thesis statement can't lead to any of those things.

I think I can help you out a little here.. although I have not read So Long a Letter, I was planning to do The Assault for my EE so I have read it at least four times. I'll just jot down some random notes about Anton's coping with the deaths of his family here, maybe some of it will come in useful...

The intriguing thing for me about the Assault was Anton's reaction. In some ways I felt like Mulisch was purposefully avoiding the stereotypical tormented-by-nightmares thing, where the person has to 'overcome' his 'inner demons' and become who he was 'meant to be'. One of the important lines comes in Section 2, if I remember correctly, where the narrator writes that for Anton, the five months between the assault and the end of the war felt longer than the next five years (this is probably very wrongly remembered, but the comparison between the length of time is very important). Essentially Anton's coping strategy is a subconscious burial of everything he can remember because of the negative and traumatic memories associated with it. The die becomes important because it remains in his pocket throughout the time he travels from Haarlem to Amsterdam (I think) and it comes to symbolize, in some sense, the events of the night. This is why, near the end of the book, the dice patterns provoke an anxiety attack (or something similar) in him. And it's also suggestive that after this occurs, (there is a quote for this somewhere), the hills and the cypresses near his house in Italy somehow lose some of their perfection. To me, these associations between things that coincide but are essentially unrelated are one of the recurring motifs in the book. And though I have never taken psychology as a formal class, if I remember correctly, there is some research into a similar phenomenon in real life.
Anyways, away from the digressing - how does the assault affect Anton's growth? There are some nice details about his almost aimless pursuit of studies that you could bring up; how he goes to Medical school, which seems sort of like postponing the decision to choose a job. And finally when he does (trading a better pay for being able to close the doors behind him after surgery) it seems like a causal decision; choosing the easiest path. You could link the comments he makes about his ideas about anesthesia (how people that are under are not unable to feel the pain, only forget it afterwards, and that it still changes them) to his own experiences. Anton, it seems, does his best to bury the past, but it comes back to haunt him through a series of (mostly accidental) meetings with the people involved, and certainly it changes him a great deal. Also what is his method for making friends, for meeting people, for finding a wife? It's not particularly driven. Ambition and excitement seem inappropriate given the context of his past... there are also some quotes along these lines in the book.

There's lots of other things I could write but I'm not sure if they are relevant (e.g. the time frame - certain incidents highlighted as decades pass... very important for the book, but is it interesting for the contrast between the two?). For your thesis, it might be a good idea to modify it a little bit: maybe shift it towards coping methods, assuming the other book is solidly differentiated from The Assault. Growth is a little hard because the book is quite distanced from Anton's life, which is a natural consequence of it spanning several decades.

Also for your WL it might be a good idea to develop a finalized thesis, write a good outline and structure, then re-read the books and keep a record of pertinent quotes in a table. This makes referencing a good deal easier...

Anyways, feel free to reject or ignore any of my ideas. I've never studied it in a formal context (i.e. in class) so many of my ideas might be hopelessly wrong... but I hope it helps a little bit. If you have any questions or need suggestions, just send me a message.

Good luck,

Daedalus.