D.W. Harding

In D.W. Harding’s essay about Jane Austen he argues that Austen never intended for Pride and Prejudice to be a satire; instead he says she just meant to entertain “a posterity of urbane gentlemen”. Although he has the right to argue as he pleases he gives no evidence of the fact; therefore, all he says is just speculation about what he thinks Austen’s intentions were. Satire is defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices. If this were true then Austen’s novel would be considered a satire because of her use of exaggeration and ridicule. Austen felt restricted in her male dominant society and her writing was her escape from the world she was trapped in. She uses exaggeration of ideas and roles in society to ridicule the ideals and goals of people in the old society; therefore, classifying her novel as a satire.

Essay review

I was happy my thesis worked out well because I worked hard on that. However, I was disappointed with my supporting parts of the essay. My first body should have started with a clear topic from the start then use quotes to supply evidence to my point. I could have used one stronger quote to really get my point across. I should have taken more time with my title. It could have helped make my point even further. My body paragraphs had too much of my writing and making claims rather than using quotes to support then analyze my ideas. I should have organized my ideas better, meaning start one idea and completely cover it before moving on to the next one.  I think my essay was also a bit to general and I needed to focus on one specific point and use points to express my thinking behind my ideas.

The most important part of an essay is the Thesis

The Thesis sets the foundation for the essay. Unfortunately if you have a bad thesis then entire essay can be off. The thesis needs to introduce all topics that are going to be dicussed throughout the essay. If the thesis is too general and doesn't specify then everything in the essay will seem pulled out of mid air and won't have any meaning or any way to connection back to the original purpose. The thesis in A2 is a good thesis because it goes in depth enough to explain all the main points of the essay and introduces what she is about to explain and how is connects and makes the point.

Z for Zelda

Starting with the introduction, the author takes a large scope of the book and integrates many different styles but doesn't leave any holes. Her supporting arguments were complete and touched upon every idea she brought up. Her quotes and examples work well and fit in with what she is saying. Despite the lack of transitions her essay still flows systematically. The title plays a role as well, it makes the essay interesting and makes the reader want to know more. The numerous paragraphs helps the essay by covering each subject individually.

E for Eunice

E for Eunice was the best of the next three essays mainly for the strength of his argument. From the opening line he has a strong claim and is very clear and does not drift off topic. He made me agree with his argument mostly because of how clear the writing was. The essay before this one was a bit confusing, and I could not tell very well the main idea but here its easy to see and continues throughout the essay. The writing was easy to follow and really expressed the authors emotions well. When clear writing, a good and strong idea, and good organization come together, like in this essay, it has no choice but to be successful.

B for Beatrice

Out of the first three essays B for Beatrice was my favorite because it was the clearest and got to the point. In the other two essays there was too much unnecessary information we could just cross out because it adds no value, rather it just makes the essay more confusing. I could really tell where the essay was going; although there was some redundancy it was okay because it didn't get confusing and it just helped me see the authors point that much better. Overall this one won me over for its straight forwardness and clarity yet the author still completely conveys his point without leaving anything in question.