Comparing and contrasting Essay

One of the best methods to booster us clarify our thoughts virtually a character, an event, a poem, a storynearly anythingis to comp atomic number 18 and contrast. (To compare pot mean to find similarities and differences. Coupled with contrast, however, to compare representation to point out similarities, while to contrast federal agency to point out differences.) Many of us, feeling weight down by cares, perk up happened to see person coping with a much peachyer excite or handicapand suddenly our problems become unimportant in comparison. Seeing how our situation relates to some some separate(prenominal)s, we micturate gained military position. The only way to progress to that perspective is by viewing things in relation to one an differentwiseby analyse and contrasting. Considering dickens characters, for example, send packing help us think more effectively virtually each. (Authors frequently invite such comparison by including a character foil in a storya character who serves to emphasize the attributes of a nonher character because the devil are so different.) permits consider, specifically, Rainsford, the adept of Richard Connells story The or so Dangerous Game, and the unnamed protagonist in tinkers damn capital of the United Kingdoms To Build A Fire. How are the two men comparable? distributively confronts a life-threatening situation. Rainsford is chased by the fanatical Zaroff, and Londons protagonist combats the extreme cold of theYukon. Each fights down panic and acts swiftly and decisively. Rainsford sets traps for his pursuers and finally tricks Zaroff the human beings in theYukon quickly builds a usher out afterwards his feet are soaked. Each denies the suggestion of an acquaintance Rainsford tells Whitney that capture creatures rescue no feelings, and Londons protagonist ignores the old-timers advice. And each man learns, as a result of his ordeal, that he has been wrong.On the other hand, the men are different in several(prenominal) ways. Londons protagonist does not have sufficient foresight to realize, in the first place, that he shouldnt be out alone in such cold, and second, that he shouldnt build his fire downstairs a tree. He fails to overcome the crisis that he brings on himself, and as a result, he dies. Rainsford, however, travelinto his ordeal quite by chance, by acrobatics from the ship. He refuses to sacrifice his principles to extricate himself from the crisis he tells Zaroff that inquisition men is murder pure and simple. Once he realizes the game he must play, he plays it with great cunning, and he triumphs.As illustrated in the two forward splits, there are two ways to deliver a split up of comparison or contrast. As in the first of the paragraphs, we can shuttle venture and forth A is similar to or different from B in one prise A is to B in a second respect A is to B in a ternary respect and so on. On the other hand, as in the second of the paragraphs, we can w rite in a obstruction about one of the items under consideration (A) and then about the other (B). incomplete way is better, though the shuttle method is a bit more demanding since it requires that we have matching statements about the pair under consideration. Even if we use the block method, we should try to list corresponding details in the same order in both split of the paragraph we also need to be trustworthy to provide a link surrounded by our treatment of A and B. In any case, a well-organized comparison, whether instruction on literature or something else, is a coercive way to illuminate both the items that we are considering.An auxiliary to Jim Stovers Discussion about Comparisons (Bob Fulton)Sometimes it is steadying to indicate to your proofreader what you feel is more evidential, the similarities you have discovered among the two things you are examine or their differences. Consider now two other fictional characters, Goodman embrown from Hawthornes story newborn Goodman Brown and the narrator from Poes story The Tell-Tale Heart. later on you have listed as many similarities and differences as you can in preparing to write a comparison paragraph between these two characters, you may decide that the differences you have found are far less significant or interesting than the similarities. Because you are developing a comparison, you are obliged to acknowledge that there are, indeed, differences between Goodman Brown and Poes narrator. (If you were to focus exclusively on the similarities these characters share, your reader might suppose that you had entirely overlook their differences and that, as a consequence, your essay or paragraph mustbe flawed and therefore without merit.) besides you also want to make clear to the reader your sense that the similarities outweigh the differences. Whats the solution? present is a suggestion.Start your paragraph with a proposition timeAlthough there are striking differences between Goodman Brown, the central character of Nathaniel Hawthornes story young person Goodman Brown, and the narrator of Edgar Allen Poes story The Tell-Tale Heart, the similarities between these two figures suggest a central point about protagonists in nineteenth-century American fiction they tend to sequestrate themselves from others through their obsessive behaviors.Then go on to introduce differencesAt first inspection, Goodman Brown and Poes narrator appear to be quite inappropriate each other. The tarradiddle I of The Tell-Tale Heart is a crazed murderer with no apparent friends or acquaintances other than the old man he kills and butchers. Goodman Brown, by contrast, is a member of the community, married, with children, and, at his worst, a unplumbed grouch. Murder never crosses his mind. The narrative I of Poes story seems eager to share the fact of his bloody crime with the police who come to his apartment, whereas Goodman Brown has no desire to tell anyone in his village what he th ought he saw and did on the darkness he ventured into the woods.Now get to the central issue, how these two characters share very important similaritiesNevertheless, these two characters are twin brothers at heart. Each is desperately refer with sin and evil. Poes narrative I cannot ride the pull which draws him to the old mans bedroom. He cannot resist the urge to illuminate the vulture eye. Likewise, Goodman Brown will not put off his move into the woods, even though his wife of three months begs him to expect at home. He must press on to face wickedness itself. The behavior of each is utterly determined by this concern to uncover the conundrum of evil and deal with it. And this obsession isolates Poes narrative I and Hawthornes Goodman Brown from their fellow creatures. In their obsessive behavior these characters are linked with other figures in nineteenth-century American fictionCaptain Ahab, for instance, in Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick, Bartelby in Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener, Natty Bumppo in James Fenimore Coopers Leatherstocking novels, and Arthur Dimmesdale in Hawthornes novel The Scarlet Letter.If you were to write an essay comparing these two stories, the topic sentence I have written for the paragraph above would serve as your thesis statement for the comparison essay. Put your thesis statement at the top of your introductory paragraphthats right, the thesis statement is your first sentencethen go on to write a topic sentence for each of the paragraphs in the dust of your essay. These topic sentences become the second, third, fourth, etc., sentences of your introductory paragraph In the last sentence of the introduction, sow a author down for the final paragraph of your essay, a so-what? paragraph. This paragraph IS non A CONCLUSION. Instead, it answers the question So what? Imagine mortal asking you to explain why you wrote the comparison you did. Your resolution is to put your analysis in a context. exploitation the above exampl e, I might say In their obsessive behavior these characters are linked with other figures in nineteenth-century American fictionCaptain Ahab, for instance, in Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick, Bartelby in Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener, Natty Bumppo in James Fenimore Coopers Leatherstocking novels, and Arthur Dimmesdale in Hawthornes novel The Scarlet Letter.To avoid repetition, when you write the carcass paragraphs, recite the topic sentences which you have already primed(p) in your introduction to avoid repeating them exact in the body of your essay. Each of these paraphrased topic sentences should prevail what goes into their paragraphs in the body of the paper. Likewise, when you come to the so-what? paragraph, paraphrase the seed sentence you wrote at the end of your introductory paragraph. This paraphrase of the seed sentence is the focus of your essays final paragraph, the paragraph which answers the question So what? You should not be surprised if this final paragraph is l ong-range and moredetailed than any of the body paragraphs. afterward all, it is meant to open up for your reader a wider perspective than the body of your essay can provide.