I say, they say , and rebuttal analysis of book
Book Report Instructions and Samples
Length: Both parts between 800-1200 words. No more no less
Objective: To compose thesis-driven, textually supported literary analyses
Part A: Everyone must do this part
Compose a thesis-driven, textually supported literary analysis of either a theme, character, or style and technique that was NOT part of your presentation. This analysis must contain the parts listed below:
I-Say
Gilgamesh demonstrates that effective leadership results only when power is checked and balanced.
Present supporting evidence:
They-say
However, my opponents argue that checks and balances hamstring inspired and spontaneous leadership, the true goal of exceptional leaders.
Present supporting evidence
Rebuttal of the opposing views and evidence:
This view of leadership is romantic and idealistic. Leaders are fallible. Unchecked, they quickly become authoritarian. Human history is littered with inspired dictators who have caused untold misery.
Present supporting evidence
Part B: Choose ONE analytic concept to approach below and show how it applies to your text.
Note: The I-say, they-say, and rebuttal organization is NOT required for this part
- Risk analysis
- Duality analysis
- Silences and gaps
- Application to or relevance today—widening the gaze
Samples:
THEME
I-say claim and support: Friendship functions as the most potent factor in the life of the three protagonists. Theresa, Lyla, and Mak all influence each other’s lives due to their strong bonds. Thanks to their supportive friendships, each woman makes significant decisions that change the course of their lives.
They-say counterargument: Others may argue that fertility, an overbearing mother, is a more impactful factor than friendship in these women’s lives. They may claim that Lyla’s decisions are affected more by her regret over her past abortion than her friendship. She remains with her cheating and philandering husband for many years as a way of making up for her original “sin.” Theresa’s life is shaped by her mother’s influence and her childhood trauma. Her mother’s complaints about her father have led her to set high standards for the men in her life. These standards have shaped, dating experiences and affect her marital relationship with Olu once they move to Nigeria. Maku’s life is arguably mostly framed by her insecurity over her station in life as a “bush girl.” She spends her marriage figuring how to remove the stain of her bush upbringing and live a bourgeoisie city life with the respectability of education and a church wedding
Rebuttal: However, while these claims have merit, I argue that friendship molds their paths. Maku would never have continued her education if it were not for the encouragement of her friends, and Theresa’s offer to help her find a cook. Maku had deferred getting her accounting degree because she insisted that she could not afford the time and money necessary for higher education. However, but her friends supported and made her fulfill her goal. The same can be said about Lyla’’s marriage. Theresa and Maku repeatedly tell her that she should leave Kwesi. Their nagging chips away at Lyla’s walls and devotion to her marriage until she finally accepts the truth and allows herself to leave Kwesi and marry Reuben.
Similarly, Maku reminds Theresa that she “has it good” with her Tyler. Lyla’s despair over her own marriage shows Theresa how trouble-free her marriage really is. Hearing about and seeing her friends’ bad marriages makes Tania realize that she should appreciate what she has. Both Theresa and Lyla support Maku’s wishes
Sample 2:
I-say claim and support: Mbue uses food to demonstrate the connectivity of the Jongas. For example, in chapter four, Jende comes home from his first day at work with Clark. Neni had made dinner for him and is eager “to know how rich people lived” (Mbue 27). Though he was tired, Jende “told her everything he could in between mouthfuls of his dinner” (Mbue 27), demonstrating how the Jongas connect over a meal. As Wyman writes, “Jende reports and bonds with Neni over dinner” (84), making food a positive connection for the Jongas. Mbue brings the Jongas together through food, using dinner scenes as a representation of solidarity. While there are positive associations for the Jongas through food, the opposite is true for the Edwards. Wyman writes, “To simplify, perhaps, food is often associated with the negative in the Edwards family, with emptiness, deprivation, disordered eating, and scenes of family disintegration rather than solidarity” (85). For example, the first time Neni hears the Edwards arguing, they are in their kitchen: “It was only after perhaps three minutes, after the beseeching and accusations appeared to have reached a crescendo, that she realized it was Mr. and Mrs. Edwards shouting in the kitchen after returning home from a wedding” (Mbue 132). Where food symbolizes positivity and solidarity for the Jongas, the Edwards have negative interactions in food-related situations.
They-say counterargument: Food is not associated with positivity for the Jongas. According to Wyman, “A refusal to eat accompanies the Jongas in their most difficult moments” (85). Jende comes home one night, and Neni “hurriedly dished out his food and sat at the dinette.” But Jende had no intention of eating due to his letter from the court: “He pushed his food away [as] if he thought it did not have enough salt or pepper, and ignored phone calls from his friends” (Mbue 235). Another example of food’s negative characterization is on the day of Jende’s court appearance: “Neither of them [Neni and Jende] ate dinner that night, their appetites having been vanquished by their fears” (Mbue 259). About food’s negativity, Wyman writes, “the relatively (dis) empowered characters share a human impulse to refuse the nourishment that might sustain them” (85).
Rebuttal: Food is indeed a positive symbol for the Jongas, and they can share its positivity with the Edwards. Vince and Mighty visit the Jongas in their Harlem apartment and “bond over Cameroonian food” (Wyman 85). Mbue writes,
‘I wanna sit on the floor and eat with my hands!’ Mighty said, and Liomi immediately added that he wanted to do the same thing… [After Jende told stories from his boyhood] Vince chuckled, and Mighty and Liomi laughed so hard they almost choked. (164)
The Jongas are sharing their love with the Edward boys, all-around a dinner meal. In contrast, Cindy tells Neni of her poverty background, stating, “’[I was] eating rice and SPAM for almost every dinner… I won’t ever forget the night I told my mother I wanted shrimp and vegetables for dinner. Such a luxury, how dare I ask for it? She slapped me and sent me to bed hungry’” (Mbue 123-24). Mbue illustrates the Cameroonian family finding solidarity through food, while the opposite is true for the American family.
Risk Analysis
The Edwards demonstrate the risks money poses to family harmony and cohesion. Though they do not struggle to support themselves, yet the family members are not in touch with their inner being, save for Vince, and even he recognizes that he must leave to find who he is apart from the privilege that engulfs him at home. Studies have shown that just the urban environment alone can have significant effects on one’s mental health, and it is becoming increasingly evident that the social and economic prowess sought after in this environment is a factor of that deterioration. As demonstrated in the novel, Cindy has no fear of losing her social standing or wealth (prior to the collapse), but still, she struggles with addiction and mental health issues. Her eldest son, Vince, is a textbook case. According to a Society for Research in Child Development study, “affluent youth reported significantly higher levels of anxiety across several domains and greater depression.” They also reported significantly higher substance use than inner-city students, consistently indicating more frequent use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and other Quotation long and citation incorrect. Because Vince is never given a chance to experience life outside of the plan that has been made for him, he never ventures into a journey of self-discovery and falls right into the category of children mentioned previously. More affluence in children’s lives has the opposite effect than what is desired. Rather than providing his family with the security that they will never go hungry or homeless, Clark’s financial prowess poses even more of a risk to his family’s mental health than the risk of suburban life, or even poverty does. In the same study mentioned above, researchers found that “suburban sixth-graders reported low levels of depression, anxiety, and substance use” (Luthar 1582).
Furthermore, Mighty and Vince are left at home or with a nanny for most of their lives, deteriorating the crucial relationships to their development from children to adults. The study also found that “junior high students from upper-income families are often alone at home for several hours a week, as parents believe that this promotes self-sufficiency. … At an emotional level … isolation may often derive from the erosion of family time together because of the demands of affluent parents’ career obligations and the children’s many after-school activities” (Luthar 1582). Because Vince and Might’s parents do not play significant roles in their lives, the boys remain incapable of regulating their emotions and cannot correctly socialize in intimate relationships. Though the American Dream consists of wealth and affluence, this does not carry over positively to the next generation. Suburban life has proven to be much more sustainable for generations to come, invalidating the Dream itself.
Style and Technique
The story is told in the third person by an omniscient narrator who alternates between closely observing Jende and Neni’s thoughts. This method gives the audience insight into each of these characters’ relationships with other characters, which helps explain the thought process behind each character’s actions. Mbue also uses a lot of imagery to immerse the reader in the setting both in place and time. In an article from Elizabeth Toohey, Toohey points out that “ Mbue’s portrayal of New York City—here, as a landscape of monuments that allude to 9/11 and the imbrication of racism through American history, but also conversely as a space of diverse communities and political resistance” (387, Toohey). As Jende drives for the Edwards family up and down the streets of New York City, Mbue is sure to mention the beauty found in things like the blur of the lights or the blossoming of leaves on the few trees in the spring. Toohey goes on to specify that, “The most striking visual image of the city in Behold the Dreamers, and the first to appear, is of the Lehman tower itself” (390, Toohey). These intricate moments of imagery are meant to convey the hope that New York City brings the Jonga family and the delight Jende feels about his white-collar job and steady income.
Duality Analysis
Jemubhai depicts a diasporic character unable to live in a state where he accepts or maintains contradictory thoughts. In contrast, Sai recognizes her present state but knows it is fleeting. In order to progress in life, she must move forward, realizing the present is temporary.
According to Jayaraman,
the condition of diaspora is born out of a twin process; it originates at the moment of displacement from familiar systems of knowledge, and develops into a lived phenomenon when other spaces emerge in a transnational sphere of communication. The diasporic is actually born when his (her) sense of displacement triggers the desire to settle in the new spaces of domicile. (55)
Diaspora attempts to reach duality of self, connectivity with the familiar, and acceptance of the new. Jemubhai’s diaspora comes to light through his identity, “The Judge.” Growing “stranger to himself than he was to those around him” (45), he adopts the English judicial title with the ICS. However, duality could not live within Jemubhai because “He envied the English [and]… loathed the Indians. He worked at being English… [but] he would be despised by absolutely everyone, English and Indians, both” (131). Jemubhai is trying “new strategies in order to assert himself” (Jayaraman 57) in Indian culture, but his inability to hold contrasting identities (duality) “leaves him in the liminal position between borders with an irreversible sense of loss” (Jayaraman 62). ironically, though, liminality should be a stage of duality, assuming Jayaraman is using liminal to mean “occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.”
In contrast, when faced with beauty as a form of identity, Sai found it “a changeable thing” (82). She notices her figure change, thinking herself pretty but realizing it can “slip from her grasp” (82). Sai recognizes her beauty but accepts it “would fade and expire, unsung, un-rescued, and unrescuable” (82). Thus, Sai is thinking within the realm of duality, recognizing her current state but accepting the possibility and inevitability. She cannot stay stagnant forever and “must propel herself into the future by whatever means possible, or she would be trapped forever in a place whose time had already passed” (82). Jemubhai is trapped in a time already passed, unable to recognize his exposure to western thought and accept his Indian heritage simultaneously. He is “entrapped in a state of emotional violence within a space of displacement or diaspora” (Jayaraman 62). Where Sai can live within the duality of her state, Jemubhai cannot because he cannot recognize and accept different states of being Indian and Westernized.
Silenced voices
Unlike their male counterparts, women were completely powerless in African society, and feminine traits like empathy and nurture were weak. Children are another group of excluded people from society. Children were not allowed to eat eggs because they were rare and preserved for the adults. Their husbands respected some wives, but Okonkwo abused his wives to assert his power on many occasions. For example, Okonkwo states, “If he could not rule his women and children, he was not a man” (41).
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Application
Okonkwo’s paternal issues and character arc can be related to those of Jotaro Kujo, a character from the anime and manga, “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.”
Both Okonkwo and Jotaro had to make something of themselves without the help of their fathers. Jotaro’s father, Sadao Kujo, was a saxophone player who was quite literally on tour with his band for the entirety of his son’s childhood, leaving his British-born wife, Holly, to manage on their property in Japan. Jotaro was shown to have changed drastically from a sweet, innocent boy and spitting image of his mother Holly as he went through grade school. As discrimination against “hafus,” or children with mixed Japanese heritage, was especially common in Japan around the 80s, Jotaro must have felt pressure to prove himself among his peers. He also must have grown up feeling pressure to reinforce the “traditional” values of the time, where a man is expected to shoulder a responsibility to protect others, especially women, of his family. Perhaps he’d felt it even more strongly that his native peers because of his father’s absence. This pressure, shifted from his Sadao to Jotaro from a young age, must have been internalized over time, multiplied, and translated into a near blind over-protectiveness, resulting in heightened senses, an avoidance of showing vulnerability, and an appearance of being constantly on edge. The delinquent appearance of 6-foot-5, well-built teenage Jotaro was accented by the fact that he looked “as if about to pounce on the nearest person, ..and he often did.”
Secondly, both Okonkwo and Jotaro grapple to bolster a tough, cold image. In Jotaro’s case, he laughs but once when not in battle through the whole series, and it was in the background, so no one could have even taken notice. He is most often communicating anger more than anything, though he tries to maintain a cool, quiet demeanor. Many critics of the story complain that most of Jotaro’s dialogue is him expressing how much he’s “pissed off” by someone or something, and that his range of expressed emotion isn’t “realistic.” They think that a person would have to show at least some sign of sadness when seeing their grandfather actively being killed by their worst enemy, hearing that their best friend had died without them being there, or receiving news that their mother was going to die. But the range of his reactions is largely centered around anger.
Thirdly, like Okonkwo, Jotaro fumbles with words, and prefers to use violence when he wants to communicate, if at all. His character bio states that he prefers not to speak, but rather expects people to determine his emotions for themselves. This suggests that he holds others to the same expectation held for himself. He keeps his affairs to himself and goes to great lengths, including developing a notorious habit of pulling the visor of his hat over his face to detract from a sudden, uncontrollable emotiveness, to avoid showing vulnerability.
Fourthly, Jotaro has shown himself to be very harsh with women, repeatedly calling his mother a “bitch” and “annoying” for excessively fawning over him in public. He doesn’t hesitate to raise his voice at admiring schoolgirls or flight attendants who prevent him from his objective of that moment, and even bites at a group of noisy schoolgirls surrounding his uncle that “it pisses (him) off when girls freak out” (this comment was altered to say that he “prefers (his) women quiet” in the live action remake). In some cases, he does allow his sharp demeanor to be slightly softened, though this is rare, strictly limited (or, one could say that it was rather repressed), and among people that he knows care greatly about him. For instance, his mother habitually gives him a kiss on the cheek before he goes to school every morning, which he makes a big show of fussing about; but when she doesn’t show up before he leaves for school one morning, he audibly wonders to himself if she was okay and goes to look for her.
As for the similarities in their character arcs, both Jotaro and Okonkwo experience a rise and fall over the courses of their respective stories. Part 3 begins with a fight to save the world as well as his mother’s life. Jotaro watches his closest friends die without being able to do anything to help them. As shown in later parts, this helps to intensify his fear of showing true emotions and plays into his motives in the future. His rise begins as Okonkwo’s does: he defeats a formidable enemy, Dio, which elevates him to a hero status among the few who knew of (or lived to survive) the fight. In Part 4, he works to get a doctorate in marine biology and establishes himself as an astute researcher among the Speedwagon Foundation. He gets married to a woman who is scarcely shown and never named outside of Mrs. Kujo, which speaks much of how he might have thought of her. An echo of traditional Nigerian relationships, the two operated in separate spheres of existence, with Mrs. Kujo most likely limited to the domestic scene neglected by the manga, while Jotaro was at the forefront of profession, action, and battle. But the marriage went south as Jotaro distanced himself from his wife and newborn daughter Jolyne, to the point that his wife gets a divorce and leaves with custody of Jolyne. He spends 10 years wholly absorbed in his work, and only meets his daughter because her mother was unavailable and couldn’t go to bail her out of jail. In Part 6, Jotaro is stripped of his status as hero. He becomes the “damsel in distress,” or emasculated in the sense that it was now his life that was being saved, and his daughter and her group of friends that were fighting to save him. He was in the same position that his mother had been in years ago. Quick to try and reclaim control of his situation as soon as he was able, he attempts a frontal attack on the new enemy with an uncertain range of powers when faced with the split-second decision to save the world or save his daughter. The same impulse in Okonkwo’s chopping off the head of the messenger could be seen in Jotaro’s attack. However, this decision is shown to be unwise, as he ends up getting both himself and his daughter killed. Because of the enemy’s power, his body rapidly disintegrates (as with Okonkwo, no one can touch his body) and the enemy wins the fight. The world they’d known was no more. (As with “Things Fall Apart,” colonialism won over the people of Igboland, and the “world” shown from the beginning of the book was changed.) It was ironic that Jotaro died essentially being too powerless to protect not only his family, but anyone for that matter, while he’d fought to attain that power to protect them his whole life. In the end, despite all that he’d strived for, the outcome of the story was significantly worse than he’d hoped it would be.
I say, they say , and rebuttal analysis of book
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