Comparing and contrasting Essay

One of the best methods to help us clarify our thoughts approximately a character, an event, a poem, a storynearly anythingis to compare and contrast. (To compare can mean to find similarities and differences. Coupled with contrast, however, to compare means to point come to the fore similarities, while to contrast means to point out differences.) Many of us, feeling weighted down by cares, have happened to see someone coping with a much greater burden or handicapand suddenly our problems receive insignificant in comparison. Seeing how our situation relates to anothers, we have gained perspective. The only management to have that perspective is by viewing things in relation to one anotherby comparing and contrasting. Considering two characters, for example, can help us mean more effectively about each. (Authors frequently invite such comparison by including a character foil in a storya character who serves to emphasize the attributes of another character because the two are so d ifferent.)Lets consider, specifically, Rainsford, the protagonist of Richard Connells story The Most Dangerous Game, and the nameless protagonist in Jack Londons To Build A Fire. How are the two men comparable? Each confronts a life-threatening situation. Rainsford is pursued by the fanatical Zaroff, and Londons protagonist combats the extreme c one-time(a) of theYukon. Each fights down panic and acts swiftly and decisively. Rainsford sets traps for his pursuers and finally tricks Zaroff the man in theYukon quick builds a fire after his feet are soaked. Each denies the suggestion of an acquaintance Rainsford governs Whitney that hunted creatures have no feelings, and Londons protagonist ignores the old-timers advice. And each man learns, as a result of his ordeal, that he has been wrong.On the other hand, the men are different in several ways. Londons protagonist does not have sufficient foresight to realize, in the first place, that he shouldnt be out alone in such cold, and se cond, that he shouldnt build his fire to a lower place a tree. He fails to overcome the crisis that he brings on himself, and as a result, he dies. Rainsford, however, fallsinto his ordeal instead by chance, by tumbling from the ship. He refuses to sacrifice his principles to extricate himself from the crisis he tells Zaroff that hunting men is murder pure and simple. Once he realizes the game he must play, he plays it with great cunning, and he triumphs.As illustrated in the two preceding divides, thither are two ways to pen a carve up of comparison or contrast. As in the first of the carve ups, we can shuttle back and forth A is similar to or different from B in one respect A is to B in a second respect A is to B in a third respect and so on. On the other hand, as in the second of the paragraphs, we can write in a block about one of the items under consideration (A) and then(prenominal) about the other (B). Neither way is better, though the shuttle method is a bit more dema nding since it requires that we have matching statements about the pair under consideration. Even if we use the block method, we should try to list corresponding details in the same order in both parts of the paragraph we likewise need to be sure to provide a link between our discussion of A and B. In any case, a well-organized comparison, whether focusing on literature or something else, is a powerful way to illuminate both the items that we are considering.An Addendum to Jim Stovers Discussion about Comparisons (Bob Fulton)Sometimes it is helpful to indicate to your reviewer what you feel is more significant, the similarities you have discovered between the two things you are comparing or their differences. Consider now two other fictional characters, Goodman embrown from Hawthornes story Young Goodman Brown and the narrator from Poes story The Tell-Tale Heart. After you have listed as many similarities and differences as you can in preparing to write a comparison paragraph bet ween these two characters, you may decide that the differences you have found are far less significant or kindle than the similarities. Because you are developing a comparison, you are obliged to acknowledge that there are, indeed, differences between Goodman Brown and Poes narrator. (If you were to focus exclusively on the similarities these characters share, your reader might suppose that you had entirely overlooked their differences and that, as a consequence, your essay or paragraph mustbe flawed and therefore without merit.) But you also loss to make clear to the reader your sense that the similarities outweigh the differences. Whats the solution? Here is a suggestion.Start your paragraph with a exit sentenceAlthough there are striking differences between Goodman Brown, the central character of Nathaniel Hawthornes story Young Goodman Brown, and the narrator of Edgar Allen Poes story The Tell-Tale Heart, the similarities between these two figures suggest a central point abo ut protagonists in nineteenth-century American fiction they tend to isolate themselves from others through their obsessive styles.Then go on to introduce differencesAt first inspection, Goodman Brown and Poes narrator appear to be quite unlike each other. The narrative I of The Tell-Tale Heart is a crazed manslayer with no apparent friends or acquaintances other than the old man he kills and butchers. Goodman Brown, by contrast, is a member of the community, married, with children, and, at his worst, a silent grouch. Murder never crosses his mind. The narrative I of Poes story seems eager to share the fact of his murderous crime with the police who come to his apartment, whereas Goodman Brown has no desire to tell anyone in his village what he thought he saw and did on the night he ventured into the woods.Now get to the central issue, how these two characters share truly important similaritiesNevertheless, these two characters are twin brothers at heart. Each is desperately conce rned with sin and evil. Poes narrative I cannot resist the pull which draws him to the old mans bedroom. He cannot resist the urge to illuminate the vulture eye. Likewise, Goodman Brown will not put off his journey into the woods, even though his wife of three months begs him to remain at home. He must press on to face wickedness itself. The behavior of each is absolutely determined by this concern to uncover themystery of evil and deal with it. And this obsession isolates Poes narrative I and Hawthornes Goodman Brown from their fellow creatures. In their obsessive behavior these characters are linked with other figures in nineteenth-century American fictionCaptain Ahab, for instance, in Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick, Bartelby in Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener, Natty Bumppo in James Fenimore coopers Leatherstocking novels, and Arthur Dimmesdale in Hawthornes novel The Scarlet Letter.If you were to write an essay comparing these two stories, the topic sentence I have written for the paragraph above would serve as your thesis statement for the comparison essay. Put your thesis statement at the top of your introductory paragraphthats right, the thesis statement is your first sentencethen go on to write a topic sentence for each of the paragraphs in the physical structure of your essay. These topic sentences become the second, third, fourth, etc., sentences of your introductory paragraph In the last sentence of the introduction, sow a seed for the final paragraph of your essay, a so-what? paragraph. This paragraph IS NOT A CONCLUSION. Instead, it answers the headland So what? Imagine someone asking you to explain why you wrote the comparison you did. Your response is to put your analysis in a context. Using the above example, I might say In their obsessive behavior these characters are linked with other figures in nineteenth-century American fictionCaptain Ahab, for instance, in Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick, Bartelby in Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener, Natty Bum ppo in James Fenimore Coopers Leatherstocking novels, and Arthur Dimmesdale in Hawthornes novel The Scarlet Letter.To avoid repetition, when you write the body paragraphs, paraphrase the topic sentences which you have already placed in your introduction to avoid repeating them verbatim in the body of your essay. Each of these paraphrased topic sentences should govern what goes into their paragraphs in the body of the paper. Likewise, when you come to the so-what? paragraph, paraphrase the seed sentence you wrote at the end of your introductory paragraph. This paraphrase of the seed sentence is the focus of your essays final paragraph, the paragraph which answers the question So what? You should not be surprised if this final paragraph is longer and moredetailed than any of the body paragraphs. After all, it is meant to open up for your reader a wider perspective than the body of your essay can provide.