TC BOYLE “ESSAY” ...just a reminder as you have already been sent this...

DUE DATE: Must be uploaded to Turnitin by midnight, October 23   I put "essay" in quotes because this is not an essay, per se. It is more, a synthesis exercise. After you read the assignment below you may say, didn’t we just do that on the blog? And I would respond, absolutely! That was why you did it; to begin to consider the meaning of the book, one sentence at a time.   As you read TC Boyle, number on a page from 1-10. Write out the ten sentences from the book that catch your eye or make you think. After each sentence, give a brief description of what the sentences means to you or why you included it. At the end of those ten sentences comes the more difficult but rewarding part. You are going to write a synthesis. A synthesis is a type of writing where you take various unrelated writings and find some insight drawn from them. It is writing that creates connections between thoughts. You are not comparing the thoughts, but you are using these ten sentences to say one thing. When you examine the ten sentences together, what new insight do you gain that may have been undeveloped just by looking at one or two sentences. That will be labeled “Synthesis” and will be at the bottom of the numbered ten sentences. As I said, this is a little weird, but it usually produces good writing. You are simply numbering and writing about ten sentences and then writing about how they are connected. Since it is a bit odd, I wanted to give you one good example of the synthesis part. The length is right now. I would have maybe included one more sentence as example. But as you can see, the author has located clearly what the one area is that ties his ten sentences together.   EXAMPLE Synthesis: The similar connection between most of the chosen passages would be the racist or hate aspect. The focus on race or between being Mexican or not is a huge factor throughout the book. It seems as though all the characters want to be or think that they are better than the person next to them. “Fucking Beaners. Rip it up man. Destroy it.” (page 64). This is an example of a quote from the book that shows the anger or animosity towards different races. Most of the quotes are also driven with anger or hate. I found that harsh words were spoken when characters were most upset or seemed to be in some type of turmoil. The unique choice of words Boyle uses for these passages is also a connection between the quotes. It seems as though Boyle chooses words that build some type of emotion or fire within the reader, as if he was aiming to provoke emotion within the reader. At the very least these quotes cause the reader to pause and think or feel the anger or pain the characters are feeling at the time. Another link between these quotes would be their context they are almost all referring to someone other than themselves, or trying to pass the blame a different way. Overall this book and these quotes are thought provoking as well as emotion filled passages that allow a person to feel what the characters are feeling.