Research Paper

Finally

I submitted my RP more than a week ago from today. I was very surprised with Miss Dzeelfa for ‘okaying’ both of the template and the organization of my RP right on the first email. Could it be so easy? So I was on the right track though I doubted about myself? I wondered.

Some of the journals and articles I read along the process to produce my RP commented on how Jane Austen’s background, especially of her being unmarried and her failure in a few relationships, affected the way she portrayed relationships in her novels.

I understand perfectly that these comments are from a bunch of great people with great minds and most probably they are right for majority of the readers but I just cannot agree with them. I always believe that every individual has their own situation and sometimes fate sort of play with some people’s life. And I do not think that with Austen being not married has anything to do with the way she wrote because that’s her ways of viewing things and her perspective. 

There’s nothing new about the purposes of marriage in Austen’s novels and in real life. It could be for money, status, love and so on. It depends on individuals’ intentions and how other people interpret a relationship.

Green Light

This special green light indicates that I am on the right track and can proceed with my research paper. Hurray…(softly because it does not mean that I will get good marks for it, yet).

The phrase ‘research paper’ sounds so huge (a stranger to me, a bit scary and difficult) because I have never befriended with it before. Well, that is why I have to get to know about it.

Miss Dzeelfa’s notes in her blogspot have done a great help for me to produce a template of my research paper in order to get a green light from her. It is actually about choosing three texts by the same author or three texts with common concerns written by three different authors, focus on the similarities of those texts, choose one topic which sounds interesting (to myself and my reader, maybe) and has the potential to be researched on.

I have touched quite a number of novels and short stories in previous semesters and know about more than a handful of authors. Since I have obtained the green light, I have done some readings on the field that I am going to do research on, which is marriage, and found some useful materials from journals and articles which I think can be used for my research paper.

Dear Research Paper, I’m getting to know about you bit by bit.

Position Paper

Roald Dahl’s Lamb To The Slaughter

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lamb.html 

 I have chosen Roald Dahl’s “Lamb To The Slaughter” to do my position paper. I have read the story before and I read it for more than a few times (certain parts) to try to discover the thesis statement I can draw from it. So I misunderstood and thought that to write a position paper is as if I’m Mary’s attorney. Not attorney then. It is just me defending my belief about the story and my belief is that Mary Maloney is not as weak as she seems.

My heart fell out for Mary Maloney each time I read to the part where her husband told her that he’s having an affair and wanted a divorce. For, me too, is a mother, and just imagine how it feels when your husband declares a divorce while you are six months pregnant with his child! Mary Maloney is doing herself a favor by killing her husband, not only for herself but for her soon-coming child good too. She is losing her husband by hook or by crook, so better lose him with dignity. (sounds cruel?) I’m not encouraging people to kill their unfaithful spouses, but if I look from Mary’s perspective, since she has killed him and he’s dead, so better look at the bright side and look forward. She gets to inherit her husband’s property and she managed to get away from the law which will bring her a peaceful life with her baby in the future. I doubt if a part of her will always feel guilty for killing her husband. She’s such a strong woman, both mentally and emotionally.