Brainstorming ideas for Paper 2
I pretty much already know what I’m going to write about for our second paper but I guess i’m having some difficulty addressing the how its important part and why it matters. The one connection that i made between the book and which i mentioned in class was appearance of Love and its driving force on the characters in both The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and also in Disgrace. In The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao we see both Oscar, Beli and even Lola, driven by this obsession or willingness to do anything because of love. Love is what drives their actions within the book and cause them to do things that are viewed as insane or crazy. In Disgrace, in David’s mind Love is what drove him to have sexual relations with Melanie and to partially rape her. He did not see anything wrong with what happen and even uses the line the he was a “servant to eros.” In his head, his actions were purely driven by love and that because of that, it was perfectly fine. I am able to clearly make that connection between the two books and theme of love and where they appear within the book. I was at first thinking about talking about Oscar, Beli and David but as i further thought about how i would develop the paper, i think i may want to only talk about David and Oscar. For Davids character i plan on using the passage where he talks about how he was a servant of Eros. I’m still trying to decide on which passages to use for David however. If anyone has any ideas please let me know! Also if you have any ideas about how i can incorporate or develop the why it matters part, please let me know. I had a couple ideas but I’m not sure about them.
Ideas for why it’s important:
The first idea was that as love drives both Oscar and David actions in both their texts, their actions cause readers to create specific views on them. If you think about Oscars character, his actions although were way overboard and sometimes absolutely insane, it was at the same time almost honorable. He was willing to give up everything for love and was willing to protect the one he loved. A view that a reader could create of him would be the “Honorable romantic.” As for David, we get a completely different view of him. His actions of sleeping with Melanie and in the one section basically forcing himself on her, cause readers to create the perspective that he is a creepy old disturbed man. Just throwing some ideas out there.
The second idea i had was to talk about how Love was used as the characters justification for their actions. So that although what they did was wrong. They could not be blamed because it was an act of love. That as long as something was done with the intent or feeling of love, it could not be perceived as unlawful or wrong.
Please let me know what you think or if you have any ideas!
I like your second idea about how what the characters did was not wrong because they did it in the name of love. They thought that what they were doing was ok because they cared about the other person and didn’t think that what they were doing was wrong. David didnt think that having sex with melanie was rape because he loved her. Beli didnt think that having sex in a closet was a bad thing because she was in love. I’m also doing love for my paper and there are so many examples and things to talk about.
Hey, Thanks alot for the advice. I think that’s what I’m going to end up writing about. Thanks again. Good luck on your paper and let me know if you need any help.
Jen D’Alessandro
I do like your ideas just remember that love and lust are different, david lusted women, that was his obsession. Other than that you ideas are great, im sure it will make a good paper. Love is an important factor in this book as well as Oscar’s book. Good luck!