“The Solace of Open Spaces” by Gretel Ehrlich Identify the central claim (or thesis). As you identify the central claim, make sure you consider whether the thesis is implicit or explicit. In addition, what is the purpose of each argument? What does it hope to achieve? Gretel Ehrlich uses anecdotes and stories to help the reader visually connect with her argument before claiming that open space can heal people and critiquing the American lifestyle’s tendency to fill space. After using a myriad of Wyoming stories to illustrate her thesis for the duration of the essay, Ehrlich unifies the essay when concluding that “space has a spiritual equivalent and can heal what is divided and burdensome in us… Space represents sanity, not a life purified,
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In the short story “Good Country People,” O’Conner’s symbolic use of adjectives and verbs describing the man with the alias of Manly Pointer as he leaves Hulga to die reveals the role of his character: “When she turned her churning face toward the opening, she saw his blue figure struggling successfully over the green speckled lake” (291). The first alarming adjective, “blue,” suggests that Manly is a positive force due to its positive connotations. With the following verb of “over” to describe how Manly crossed the lake, it seems as though Manly has supernatural powers to walk on water and go “over” the lake. This, of course, is not possible in the real world setting of the short story, so it indicates that Manly was in fact a positive force in the story and Jesuitical. In the context of O’Connor’s unwavering Catholicism, it’s possible Manly helped Hulga by lowering her from her conceited, intellectual, and condescending perch for the time she will spend after death. O’Conner creates short stories that are treasure hunts full of intricate symbols and words that can change the theme of a story in a sentence. Not only does she create layered meaning behind every word, but the character development and commentary adds a dimension of complexity that is only possible in fiction. O'Connor paints the character of Julian in “Everything That Rises Must Converge” as a negro loving, cocky intellectual, but his reaction to a black sitting next to him completely changes that picture: “Meanwhile the woman was bearing down upon the empty seat beside Julian. To his annoyance, she squeezed herself into it” (415). Julian’s attitude and “annoyance” at the black woman sitting next to him suggests that he is not the negro lover he considers himself to be. Upon reflection, it seems he prefers talking to the higher-class negroes such as
In the short story “Good Country People,” O’Conner’s symbolic use of adjectives and verbs describing the man with the alias of Manly Pointer as he leaves Hulga to die reveals the role of his character: “When she turned her churning face toward the opening, she saw his blue figure struggling successfully over the green speckled lake” (291). The first alarming adjective, “blue,” suggests that Manly is a positive force due to its positive connotations. With the following verb of “over” to describe how Manly crossed the lake, it seems as though Manly has supernatural powers to walk on water and go “over” the lake. This, of course, is not possible in the real world setting of the short story, so it indicates that Manly was in fact a positive force in the story and Jesuitical. In the context of O’Connor’s unwavering Catholicism, it’s possible Manly helped Hulga by lowering her from her conceited, intellectual, and condescending perch for the time she will spend after death. O’Conner creates short stories that are treasure hunts full of intricate symbols and words that can change the theme of a story in a sentence. Not only does she create layered meaning behind every word, but the character development and commentary adds a dimension of complexity that is only possible in fiction. O'Connor paints the character of Julian in “Everything That Rises Must Converge” as a negro loving, cocky intellectual, but his reaction to a black sitting next to him completely changes that picture: “Meanwhile the woman was bearing down upon the empty seat beside Julian. To his annoyance, she squeezed herself into it” (415). Julian’s attitude and “annoyance” at the black woman sitting next to him suggests that he is not the negro lover he considers himself to be. Upon reflection, it seems he prefers talking to the higher-class negroes such as