tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888438300076664400.post1141575632137183633..comments2014-12-09T17:25:07.561-08:00Comments on Words and Images: Vertigo - Life during the Great DepressionAdamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888438300076664400.post-10342147670995507402014-09-13T10:53:24.133-07:002014-09-13T10:53:24.133-07:00Your summary of what the three sections means is o...Your summary of what the three sections means is ok - it's not a bad approach, but it seems dangerously big & general to me. Usually I like to see people begin with details and work, if possible, up to the big ideas.<br /><br />You fall in to those dangers in the subsequent three paragraphs. You aren't following the prompt at all - instead, you are giving a kind of impressionistic account of what the three sections mean to you, without delving into any relevant details. It's not that you're wrong - the problem is that when it's this easy to be right, and when you deviate that much from the prompt, you need to ask whether this is an argument worth making.<br /><br />Sure, the boy struggle to find employment. Anyone who skims the book knows that. Sure, the elderly gentleman is struggling to stay alive - again, that's obvious. You summarize it all nicely, but this is a summary, not an argument.Adamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888438300076664400.post-2539562802555942552014-09-10T11:21:54.808-07:002014-09-10T11:21:54.808-07:00 While your essay gives a good synopsis of the plo... While your essay gives a good synopsis of the plot, it fails to focus on the prompt given. The prompt asks for a relationship between the pocket history of the US in the beginning of the novel and the rest of the events in the characters’ lives. The essay does not include any information about the history of the United States, nor does it include a connection. You provide the background of all of the characters as well as examples of the recurring motif of struggle, but the essay would be better by expanding that motif into a more unified theme. It is important to show what Ward is trying to display about the characters’ struggle during the Great Depression. <br /><br />It is also difficult to find a clear thesis in the essay. I think it would help if you had a specific thesis related to the prompt to work off of. The essay gives a broad sense of the novel, but I think it would be helpful to focus on some of the details involved in the plot. It seems like you stayed on the surface by describing the plot, rather than building on Ward’s complex use of images. I would encourage you to further develop your ideas in a structured manner, rather than describing the plot of the story and trying to fit that into your ideas. If you focused more on the details, it would be easier to develop more complex ideas that fit the prompt. Overall, you did a good job describing the plot of the novel, but to improve I think you should focus in more on specific ideas and use those to connect the pocket history of the United States to the work as a whole.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02616102196562966352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888438300076664400.post-89283443133925783482014-09-09T09:41:19.976-07:002014-09-09T09:41:19.976-07:00This essay provides a good summary of the sections...This essay provides a good summary of the sections and characters of Vertigo. You analyze a few themes that are carried throughout the novel, with referrals to specific images and plot points that exemplify these themes. The prompt said to focus on the pocket history of America in one of the earlier sections of the book, and you need to make a clear connection to this part of the book using the themes you described in your essay. The struggles of the characters that you outline can be looked at in the light of how America came to reach this point in history, or how the depression fits in with the positive aspects of American history that were shown in the pocket history.<br /> While you definitely connected themes to the plot of each character’s story, there were images and ideas you can expand on. You spend most of each body section describing the plot in pretty thorough detail, and usually only offer a few sentences that tie the plot in with your thesis in the introduction. The boy struggles to find a job and the girl struggles financially, but these ideas can be analyzed to show how they affect the character’s dreams and aspirations, and how these characters are representative of the wider idea of America during the depression, especially in the context of the pocket history in the early pages of the novel. Rather than looking at the overall plot of each section, maybe go into further detail about a few wood cuts that really summarize an important aspect of that character or theme.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14079529923545261782noreply@blogger.com