The Thesis:A More Engimatic Mystery than Theme

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how themes were incredibly confusing to identify. I have found a superior mystery.The thesis. As I said in a previous post, themes are difficult because there's just so many of them. However, there's only one (maybe two) that could really be called the main theme. Anyways, I'm getting myself distracted. The reason why thesis..es or theses, I don't know which one it is, is because they require actual writing. It's not like a theme, where you can read the story, think, and come up with at least one. Oh no, you generally have to read a story, think, and write something decent and preferably intelligent. That last bit is the most difficult. As we went over it in class, Mr. Mullins told us that theses didn't have magic formulas. Unfortunate. For a math and science nerd to be told that, it's kind of depressing. However, to make up for that, I've tried to look up online how to write a better thesis. There are 3 main types of essays that require a thesis expository, analytical, and argumentative. They're all nonfiction, so if you're ever writing a fictional story, good news, you don't need a thesis. Basically I think, if a thesis ends up being a simple sentence, it's probably wrong or as IU calls it "weak". 

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/1/

God of Small Things

God of Small Things is one of the oddest books I have ever read. To be honest, I really don't recommend it. It's actually based off of a real town from where the author is. However, the plot of the book is incredibly strange. I know this is a literary book, but compared to some of the other ones that I've read; this one is a bit weak. I think it just lacks the insight of something like American Gods. It's not that American Gods didn't have creepy/disturbing moments. It's just God of Small Things is much creepier, as well as confusing. Even if it does start in media res(look at the English vocab!), it's practically impossible to recognize when it flashes back.
This book also uses extremely confusing names for people."Baby Kochamma" is just one of the names in the novel. And even if it sounds like this woman is young, she's not. She's one of the oldest characters mentioned in the novel. While I admit that this book brings up ideas like unconditional love, trust, and home, it's far too weird for my taste.

Existentialism?

Existentialism. The start of my headache in English. From what I understood from the lesson is that people are only who they are through their actions. It doesn't matter what they say, actions are the only thing that describe a person. That's fundamentally what it is, right? While I may be perfectly fine with that, when this type of thinking is applied to everyone on the planet, it just doesn't make sense. Does existentialism mean that even actions from when I was a child still apply to me? Rambunctious, loud, mildly annoying. Ok. That may be true still, but that doesn't work for everyone. What if someone who committed a crime and wanted to turn over a new leaf? Are these people just known as criminals forever? How does existentialism even gain popularity with people? I can understand how scientific thinking could; it was practical. A person could go out, build something, test it, and be done. Something could be proved, disproved, or tested over and over. But all existentialism seems to be able to do is judge people. I'm this, you're that. Who cares? What's the purpose of labeling people? 

Biblical References

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? is possibly one of the more depressing stories that I have read. It didn't seem so depressing at first, I just thought the girl wasn't the brightest for following some 40-year old man into his car. I mean, come on. Girl + male stranger will never result in love. Try pain and suffering. However, after going over it in class, I realized that she had been raped in her own home. That's just sick. Home is commonly thought of as a safe haven from the rest of the world.
At first a simple story about an unlucky girl, with a few readings, it can be turned into a religious representation. The old man is clearly painted as the devil, while the girl is seen as humanity as a whole. This leads to some disturbing thoughts. Does that mean all humans pretend to be tough when they're outside? And if this was a biblical reference, why is humanity abandoned?

Bank Robberies

The other day in class when we discussed "Hills Like White Elephants", people had no idea what operation the story had been talking about. I thought I had figured it out, but I was completely wrong. It was a highly embarrassing experience, considering how right I thought I was. A lot of people in class agreed that the operation the couple had been talking about was abortion. Yeah...not what I thought. My bright idea was that the lady had robbed a bank. Both Beccas wasted no time in making fun of me. How could someone get bank robbery out of a talk about abortion? My argument with them would have had a lot more logic if the couple had been even more vague, but no, I was an idiot. I misread possibly the most important line in the entire short story. Instead of reading that the man was saying, "It's a simple operation, Jig", I saw "It's a simple operation," Jig said. Two totally different things. I ended up thinking that Jig was the man and the woman remained nameless. I just wanted to clear that up in case anyone in my class started to think I was a complete weirdo.

Theme: An Enigma

Theme has always been one of the more difficult things for me to identify. A teacher can ask me to find plot, characters, main idea, or any other part of the story. Bam bam bam. I'll find it. Straight up. Tell me to find theme. I'll be sailing out on an wave of confusion. That's not to say I can't find the theme; I just get something different. I'd be fine with getting something different than what was normally seen, but I usually end up in the complete wrong direction. If there's a theme about trusting in friends, my theme will probably be about keeping everyone at arm's distance. I have no idea why this happens. I remember studying about Romeo and Juliet and how their lives fell apart. Other kids mentioned fate, love, or something else profound. I talked about how I thought it was a warning for others. You know, not to fall too deeply in love or something. I mean, the two did end up killing members of each of their families.

Sad plot endings

I don't think there's a real reason to have a sad ending to a story, unless there is going to be a sequel. In that case, I think any kind of ending is fine because you know that the ending you just read isn't really the ending. There's going to be more of the story afterwards. A prime example of that is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius dies and that sucks. However, you know that it'll get better because there's a sequel where Harry cheers up.The Destroyers was just odd. The ending was terrible. The old man's house fell down and that's all. You don't even get to know if the old man discovers who broke down his house. I know that it's literary fiction, but what's the point in even writing literary fiction? Books are made for people to read them. If no one reads your book, what's the point of writing it?