Outside Project

Outside project 2

Source Evaluation

Arat, Zehra F. Kabasakal. "Women's Rights As Human Rights." UN Chronicle (U.N. Dept. of Public Information) Vol. 45, No. 2/3. 2008: 9-13. SIRS Researcher. Web. 21 Jul 2010.
This article is about human rights, but more importantly, it focuses on woman’s rights. The article talks about how woman have been subjected to more human rights violations than men, not just in the U.S., but throughout the world. The author also goes into detail about what it would take to change this way of thinking culturally and socially.
This article would be good to use for my paper because I am trying to research why the woman of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”, are so repressed, and link it to societies views on woman’s rights around the world. This article will definitely provide me with good information regarding this subject. I will also be able to get very credible information to back up my thesis.

Johnson, Karen.“The Day the Music Died:Woman and Girls of Afghanistan”. Search results for , Sear. Print.
This article is about the Taliban rule of Afghanistan and its impact on the woman of that society. Johnson talks about how repressed the woman have been since the Taliban militia took control of Kabul in Afghanistan. I believe what happened in Afghanistan is much like Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”, an ultraconservative religious militia took control of a part of the country. This article enables me to make correlations between real life happenings around the world and “The Handmaid’s Tale”. This article also provides me with more information regarding the repression of woman in today’s societies.
Karen Johnson is the Executive Vice President of the National Organization for Woman. She is very well respect in the woman’s rights movement as well as a published author. This article was linked to website as a reliable source for this particular information. The information is dated, which is what I was looking for. The article is sponsored by a particular organization with an agenda. It does not make me suspicious because I was looking for a woman’s point of view about repressed woman in today’s society that may help me understand Margaret Atwood’s point of view. All in all I believe this to be a very reliable web resource.

Topic Proposal

For my topic on essay three, I would like to look into why these women of Gilead are so repressed. I feel like the real victims, in this fictional society, are the women. Although there are many things wrong with Gilead, I find this the most perplexing. Why would the men of this land want to repress their women so much? It seems to me that some of the best parts of life are creating relationships, and getting to know someone whom you might want to spend the rest of your life with as equals. Their religious beliefs seem to be the motive for this, but I think it is really the leaders of this new world trying to bring back a male dominated society. I believe Margaret Atwood was trying to remind us of the repressed women of our societies past, and some that still exists in the present.
I would like to learn more about why women have long been thought of as the lesser gender. It hasn’t been till the last century that society has accepted both genders as equals, and in some areas in the world women are as repressed as ever. For this essay I would like to research the history of women and their roles in societies of the past, and societies of the present. Maybe this research will give me some insight into why the men of Gilead feel the need to repress their women, and why women have been repressed in the past and present of our own societies. I also feel this will give me some insight to Margaret Atwood’s own beliefs and thoughts on this subject as well.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~davink/topicproposals.html

Thesis Blog

1. “A” is the weakest thesis statement because it is very general and doesn’t meet any criteria for a good thesis statement.
2. “A” is the weak thesis statement because unlike the thesis statement “B” it doesn’t have the complexity. B creates more than one point of view and is subject to a good argument.
3. “B” is the weak thesis statement because it basically just tells you what they think of the jean industry and creates no real claim.
4. “A” is the weak thesis statement because it is just a statement telling you what the play is about.
5. “A” is the weak thesis statement because it is to long and it is hard understand the meaning of their thesis statement.




My Thesis Statement
I believe that Margaret Atwood’s, “The Handmaids Tale”, is a depiction of how bad a society can become when it is based on religious government and not democracy, as well as an insight to how the bible can be manipulated to serve a governments will.

This is a good thesis statement because it can be backed up by some of the religious references in the book. It is assertive and clearly states my point of view. It is definitely arguable, I’m sure not everyone would agree with this thesis statement but because it can be backed up by references in the book, it should make for a good argument. This thesis statement also raises many questions and isn’t to vast of a statement or generalized.
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml

Mid-Session Check In

My English experience in college has been an enjoyable one so far. I never thought that I liked English this much, but after getting through English 100 and English 101 I am finding that I am enjoying it more and more. I wasn’t sure I wanted to take English 102 during the summer because I thought I wouldn’t learn as much due to the fast pace of summer courses. That has not been the case. I have been very surprised at how much I am learning in such a short amount of time. The biggest challenge I have had during this class has been the reading. I am not the best reader. If I am reading just for myself I can get through a book pretty quick, and grasp the story pretty well. When I am reading something for a paper I have to read it over and over, which can get pretty time consuming. The summary and analysis has been tough for me also. I have never written summary and analysis papers’ before, so it was hard to get the correct format. I’m still not sure if I do or not Ha Ha. Although I am not the best reader I have enjoyed the reading assignments for this class very much. It makes it easier to read and write about something when you enjoy the material. The reading thus far has had a positive affect on me. As I have mention before, I am in the National Guard and have been to Iraq. I have been able to relate to “ The Things They Carried ” and “ The Sand Storm”. I have also thought of writing about some of my own experiences, and they have inspired me to do so. I just need to become a better writer and maybe I could get something published. Earlier I wrote how the summary and analysis was hard for me. The only thing that I have done in English that was similar was summary and reviews in English 101. I find the summary part very easy and so was the review. The hard part is the analysis. I find you really have to look at each word very carefully to construct a good analysis of a paper. I feel my work early in the semester was not as good as it could be. I had to play catch up during the first few weeks due to my National Guard training and had to rush through some assignments. I am hoping to be able to take more time with my writing in the second half of the semester. So far I have received an “A” in all my English classes. I hope to continue that during the second half of this class. This class is much harder than the other two, but I think if I apply myself I could make it happen. I am also looking forward to reading “ The Handmaids Tail ”. At first I didn’t think I would enjoy it, but so far I like it a lot. All in all I am very pleased with the quality of this class and what I have learned. I looked forward to the challenges ahead the lessons I will learn.





Sincerely, Chris Mattson

How to Tell a True War Story

Tim O’Brien does a wonderful job with How to Tell a True War Story. I especially enjoyed how O’Brien tells the story of Curt Lemon’s death in three different forms. With each of the different versions you learn more about what happened. In between his descriptions of what happened to Curt Lemon, O’Brien brilliantly adds in Sanders story of the six men in the mountains and their spooky tale. Throughout the story O’Brien adds insight into what makes a good war story, but at the same time leaves the reader guessing as to what the true war story really is.
“ A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If the story seems moral, do not believe it.”(O’Brien 68). O’Brien begins the story of Curt Lemon by talking about Curt lemon’s best friend “Rat”, and how he writes a heartfelt letter to Lemon’s sister. During this part of the story the reader learns what type of person Curt Lemon was and how much he meant to “Rat”. The story ends with Lemon’s sister never writing back causing “Rat” to be disappointed and angry with her. As O’Brien reminisces about the day Lemon dies, he describes how they stopped for a rest and Lemon and “Rat” decided to play a game under the shade of a large tree. The story ends with O’Brien hearing a noise then looking over at Lemon. It is the next part that really captivated me as a reader. O’Brien says the sunlight came around him and lifted him into the tree. I feel that was the most beautiful description of a person’s death that I have ever read. This part of the story ends with that, leaving the reader wondering what truly happened.
“ In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. It’s a question of credibility. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness.”(O’Brien 71). O’Brien strays from the Curt Lemon story at this point to tell of Sander’s war story. Sanders tell a story of six men who are on a mission to sit in the mountain jungle and listen for enemy movement. The six soldiers hunker down not saying a peep for a week. During this week they start to hear strange noises, noises that should not be heard in the jungle. The noise starts off as music and then the sounds of a cocktail party. The men can’t take it anymore and end up calling in all sorts of artillery and air strikes in the area. When they dust settles in the morning they discover no bodies or signs that anything or anybody was on that mountain causing the noises. The men return back to the base when a Colonel demands answers to why they order the artillery and air strikes. The men just stare at him, salute, and walk away. Sanders Admits to embellishing a bit on the story but swears that it is true for the most part. O’Brien and Sanders then struggle to find the moral of the story, only to come to the conclusion that the moral is nothing just the silence created by the lack of a moral.
“ In a true war story, if there is a moral at all, it’s like the thread that makes the cloth. You can’t tease it out. You can’t extract the meaning without unraveling the deeper meaning. And in the end, really, there is nothing much to say about a true war story, except maybe “Oh”.” (O’Brien 77). O’Brien returns to the story of Curt Lemon and how he had stepped on a booby trap and exploded into the tree. O’Brien also tells of how “Rat” reacted to Lemon’s death. “Rat” caught a baby water buffalo and proceeded to torture it by shooting it over and over with non-lethal shots. I assume this part of the story was to show the evils that men do when subjected to the atrocities of war. “ Over here, man, every sin’s real fresh and Original.” ( O’Brien 80 ).
I feel that O’Brien’s reason for this chapter or story was to show the reader that a war story is just that a war story. It can be told in many ways. It can change each time by the storyteller’s recollection or different embellishments to make the story better. O’Brien says that it is not whether you believe the story or not, but if you ask “ Was the story true?”, then you have your answer. O’Brien is saying that the story, whether true or not, is only true if you want to believe it. O’Brien also goes on to talk about how war is as much beautiful as it is ugly. When a soldier is near death he is also closer to life, noticing all the beauties around him. That beauty is what also makes a war story true, all the little details, like the sun shining on Lemon’s face just before he explodes into a hundred pieces. I really had a difficult time trying to understand O’Brien’s description of a true war story, but what I think it boils down to is that there is no true way to tell a war story, and if there were, it wouldn’t be true at all.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/thingscarried/section6.rhtml