Abstract--Final Proposal

I'm writing this paper in order to address the different effects that result after a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer.  My purpose for writing this is to inform others on the many ways that breast cancer can affect not only the patient but also the relatives that are close to the patient.  I will be looking at different sources that talk about the various ways that breast cancer affects the patient and the close relatives.  Some of these sources were based off of studies that were done to prove that certain effects are present in breast cancer patients and their families.  In order to make this more of a narrative, I'm going to interview my grandma.  My grandma is a breast cancer survivor so I'm going to use the research that I found in order to show that breast cancer does truly affect all aspects of a person's life.  By comparing my grandma's life as a result of breast cancer to the various sources and research that I found, I'm going to find that my grandma is very similar to the different studies that were done to show the many effects that breast cancer has on the patient and their family.  While I find that she relates to many of the sources that I found, she might also differ from them in that she hasn't been affected by breast cancer in all of the ways that the studies have shown.  I'm going to end my paper by talking about how the effects of breast cancer cause other problems for the patient and their family, which causes a domino effect that will end up affecting almost every aspect of their lives.

Research Paper RD Proposal

I'm going to write my research paper on breast cancer and the different ways that it affects the patient as well as the patient's family.  Since my grandma had breast cancer, I was thinking of interviewing her in order to find out her take on the way that it affected her as a cancer patient.  I was also thinking of interviewing another person whose mom has breast cancer, but she is currently working through treatments at the moment so I think it might be too hard for her to talk about the subject.  I would approach this as both a narrative and a cause and effect paper.  I would talk about people's experiences with coping through the hardships that come with cancer in order to make this partly narrative.  In order to make it a cause and effect paper, I would talk about the different effects that occur as a result of a person getting breast cancer.   I would talk about the physical, emotional, and social effects that occur as a result of having cancer.  I would not only talk about the ways that breast cancer affects the patient, but I would also talk about the ways that it affects the family as well.  I would tie all of the different effects caused by breast cancer together in the end to show that a person being diagnosed with breast cancer causes a chain reaction in which it affects the patient and the family as well and it affects almost all of the aspect's in each person's life. 

Research Paper Idea

For my research paper, I was thinking about writing it on breast cancer.  I think I would do a cause and effect type of essay in order to state and explain different effects that are caused by developing breast cancer.  It would also be partly narrative because my grandma used to have breast cancer and I know a few others who have or have had it.  I don't really know what questions I would ask or how I would answer them.  I was thinking that I could maybe ask the question of "In what ways does breast cancer affect all aspect's of the patients life along with the lives of family members who are supporting them?".  I could then answer the question by explaining different effects that are caused by breast cancer, such as physical, emotional, and social effects.  This would then lead into the conclusion in which I would answer it more thoroughly by connecting all of the body paragraphs together.  To answer the question, I could go on to say how these effects cause other things.  I could talk about how it causes a chain reaction to the point in which it eventually effects almost everything in the patient and the family's lives.  This was just a thought that I had and if you have any other ideas about possible questions that I could use, just let me know!  

Heart of Darkness Essay Idea

For my Heart of Darkness essay, I was thinking of answering the question of how the text portrays the people in the story as ignorant based on the fact that they look up to Mr. Kurtz.  My thesis would be something such as what purpose is served by Conrad when he presents the people in Heart of Darkness as looking up to Mr. Kurtz?  One quote that I could use is "They had talked all night, or more probably Kurtz had talked" (Conrad, 134).  Another supporting detail that I would use would be "It was curious to see his mingled eagerness and reluctance to speak of Kurtz" (Conrad, 135).  I would also use the quote "You can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would of an ordinary man" (Conrad, 135).  I also might put another quote in my essay to show that Marlow is the only character in the story who doesn't speak as highly of Marlow as the rest of the characters and it states "I suppose it did not occur to him that Mr. Kurtz was no ideal of mine" (Conrad, 139).  I think that I would answer my question by saying that Conrad shows the people in the story as looking up to Kurtz in order to show their ignorance.  They think that Kurtz is a powerful man, almost like royalty, but in reality, he's dying because he is so sick.  This shows that he is actually weak and makes the people that look up to him seem ignorant and naive.

Heart of Darkness

In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Conrad portrays the blacks as being very weak and inferior to the rest of society through the use of imagery.  In one specific part of the book, Conrad is describing the scene that he saw at one time during his adventure:  "Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth..." (Conrad, 83).  Through this quote, Conrad is using imagery in order to describe the black's deteriorating health.  He describes them as "clinging to the earth" and this doesn't mean that they are actually holding onto the earth, rather they are clinging to survival.  This quote shows that the blacks are slowly dying and they are fighting to survive.  Since they are barely surviving, the blacks are shown to be very weak.  Their physical weakness can cause them to be weak socially also.  Conrad also describes the blacks as "black shapes".  By referring to them as black shapes rather than actual people, he is creating the idea that these people are pointless in society.  Classifying them as shapes makes it seem like they have no purpose in life and they are just objects, rather than human beings.  This quote causes them to be shown as both pyhsically and socially weak.  Being socially weak means that they are inferior to the rest of the society.  Conrad shows that the blacks are weak and inferior to the rest of society based on this quote which uses imagery to state this idea.  He shows them as being weak in order to illustrate the way that they were treated during the time that the book is taking place in.

Rufus at the Door Comparison Essay

In order to compare three different stories from Rufus at the Door, I think I am going to use the gender lens in order to answer the question of "How does the author portray the roles of power throughout his short stories?".  My thesis would be something such as, "Throughout Jon Hassler's short stories in Rufus at the Door, Hassler tends to portray typically feminine characters as being in power over masculine characters".  I would use the short stories of Agatha McGee and the St. Isidore Seven, Nancy Clancy's Nephew, and the Life and Death of Delano Klein to show that there was this idea of a feminine character holding power over one or more masculine characters being portrayed in these stories.  I would make a conclusion about how the feminine characters having power over the masculine characters creates the idea that they become masculine as a result of having power.

Anniversary

In Anniversary by Jon Hassler, Hassler shows readers that the man in the text is part of the middle class based on his power and authority over his students through the use of symbolism.  Hassler shows this idea through the symbol of the red ink in the quote “In my ten years of teaching I have learned to understand the power of red ink” (Hassler, 37).  In this quote, the symbol is the red ink.  The color red symbolizes power and strength.  Hassler uses the symbol of red ink in order to demonstrate the amount of power that the man in the text holds.  The man is a teacher and this symbol clearly shows that he has a lot of power and control over his students because he has the power to give them any grade that he feels is the best to suit the piece of writing that they constructed.  He gave one of his students named Becky a higher grade than she deserved because she had wrote about her father not doing well and it was a very sentimental and emotional piece of writing.  Being able to give a student any grade demonstrates the amount of power that he has over his students.  By having power and control over his students, it points out that the students are weak and inferior to the teacher.  This demonstrates that the man is part of the middle class because although he has power over his students, he wouldn't be considered extremely powerful in society based on his occupation of teacher.  Therefore, throughout the text, the man shows that he is part of the middle class through the use of the symbol of red ink that Hassler uses in order to show the man’s power and authority over his students.
In order to fix this composition, I first changed the wording on my thesis so instead of saying that Hassler showed the man as being part of the upper class, I said that he was part of the middle class.  I changed it to middle class because he does have power over his students, but he is not very powerful in the rest of society.  I also added an example into my composition about the fact that he gave a student a higher grade than she deserved because her writing was sentimental and emotional.  I used this example in order to help analyze my thesis and help prove the point that I was making.