Events That Collide
A significant event stages a value conflict
- Significant events often illustrate competing value systems that relate to a conflict present in the text.
- So an event is significant partly because it makes an abstract conflict concrete and visible.
- Ask which two value systems the event puts in the same room.
A significant event is significant partly because it...
Ask which two value systems the event puts in the same room.
Events collide and accumulate
- Events in a plot collide and accumulate to create a sense of anticipation and suspense.
- Two verbs, and they are different: collide is two events meeting; accumulate is many adding up.
- So the analysis can be about a single meeting, or about a weight built over chapters.
Select all the ways the CED says events create anticipation and suspense.
Two verbs, and they need different evidence.
A collision is where two lines meet
- In a long narrative, two separate developments often reach the same scene.
- The debt matures in the same week as the wedding; the letter arrives on the day of the funeral.
- That coincidence is a structure, and the scene where two lines meet is almost always worth the essay.
Collision, accumulation, or a value conflict staged?
Sort each observation by what it shows.
One quotation can demonstrate an accumulation.
Accumulation is the point, so it needs three spaced instances.
Collision and accumulation need different evidence. A collision is two developments meeting in one scene, and one scene proves it. An accumulation is weight built over chapters, and a single quotation cannot show it — cite three spaced instances or the claim is unproved.
A collision is two separate developments reaching the same ____.
That coincidence is a structure, and it is almost always worth the essay.
Accumulation needs several instances
- An accumulating pressure cannot be shown with one quotation, because accumulation is the point.
- Cite three instances spaced across the text and say what each adds to the weight.
- The reader should be able to feel the total from the spacing alone.
Match each claim to the evidence it needs.
Matching the evidence to the claim is most of what makes an argument work.
An events pass
- For the event you chose, name the two competing value systems it stages.
- Decide whether your argument is about a collision or an accumulation.
- For a collision, name both lines; for an accumulation, cite three spaced instances.
Collision: the loan falls due in the same week as the wedding, so the scene must choose between two value systems — obligation to a creditor and obligation to a family. Accumulation: three refusals of help, in chapters four, eleven and twenty-two, each smaller than the last and each harder to take back.
Significant events illustrate competing value systems related to a conflict — name the two. Events collide and accumulate to create anticipation and suspense, and these need different evidence: a collision is two lines meeting in one scene; an accumulation needs three spaced instances.