Introductions and Conclusions

INTRODUCTIONS

Introduction: Moment in Text

• Introductions should start with a broad concept/ question/encounter that draws the reader in and then move to a specific thesis/ so what
• They should be focused on that so what: why should the reader care about this paper? how does it change his/her thinking

Introduction: General Idea to Narrow Claim

When Hadria Fullerton, the heroine of Mona Caird’s 1894 novel Daughters of Danaus, first meets her future husband, Hubert Temperley, he immediately positions himself according to evolutionary discourse. Entering into a debate that Hadria and her mentors are having about the role of natural selection in human history, Temperley declares that “a vast deal of nonsense is talked in the name of philosophy…People seem to think that they have only to quote Spencer or Huxley, or take an interest in heredity, to justify themselves in throwing off all the trammels, as they would regard them, of duty and common sense” (77). Caird foregrounds evolutionary ideas by highlighting them at the very moment when Hadria meets her future mate, a crucial moment of the typical marriage plot. Yet the dismissal of such ideas indicates that evolutionary discourse, or “philosophy,” enters texts freighted with predetermined meaning. While Temperley is a less than sympathetic character, the reader is asked to take seriously his indictment of “Spencer or Huxley,” and other evolutionary thinkers: throughout the novel, Caird argues that references to evolutionary thinkers have replaced reasoned arguments and careful observations of social issues. At the same time, though, because the unsympathetic Temperley dismisses evolutionary ideas with such “gay self-confidence” (77), the more astute reader wonders if such ideas have more merit than he admits.

Most cultures celebrate liminal moments, such as the transition from adolescence to adulthood, or one year to the next. Such celebrations are often bittersweet, rejoicing in the new guard, but mourning the loss of the old. In horror stories, liminal moments are more bitter than sweet. These texts explore the borders between life and death and the gray space in between. Why focus on this transitional space? Liminality plays a crucial function in any horror story, but the way a text handles it depends on the author’s ultimate intentions. In “A Ghost,” the liminality is ultimately conservatively reinforcing the idea that certain things should be closed off and kept from society as a whole. In “The Monkey’s Paw,” liminality still serves to terrify the reader, but Jacobs seems to suggest that the space between knowledge and ignorance is more terrifying than any actual horror.

Introduction: Historical Period

At about the same time Freud was formulating his famous question—“What do women want?”—Gilman was using Herland to tackle a far more basic question: “What do women do?” While the question may have been basic, her life work demonstrated that the answer was far from clear. In this section, building upon the concept of sisterhood as the operating metaphor for the individual within the community, I delineate the new narratives sisterhood engendered. If my previous sections focused on the theoretical—how the concepts of motherhood and sisterhood and the stability of language could be modified by Darwinian ideas—this section turns to the practical. By altering discourses about female community, Herland performed substantial political and ideological work by modeling women interacting with both other women and the physical environment around them. Specifically, the text suggested that women must learn to control their environment. Drawing upon Darwinian ideas of interconnection, Gilman argues that women necessarily affected the world around them: in Herland, the women differ because they consciously interact with their environment. In short, women become economic actors rather than unconscious reproducers.

Introductions and Conclusions

Conclusion: Basics

an introduction (and a conclusion)

• The conclusion should sum up the major points of the paper: remind the reader of the so what
• It should also open back up to the broader world
• It might end with other collations that it connects to
• Or, it might suggest further encounters or ideas that the paper does not have room for, but are still interesting

Other Collations

Laura’s faith in both her father’s and Jack’s ability to save her demonstrate that there is still a masculine “God” figure in Little House on the Prairie. However, as the “Santa Claus” episode demonstrates, Laura is aware of the work behind such beliefs: both the tremendous effort by Mr. Edwards and her own choice to not understand Ma’s actions to be “Santa Claus.” This issue of recreating religion is a very important one: as the family, and Americans in general, left behind their old lives, how much would their old religious beliefs suffer?

Further Encounters

Laura’s faith in both her father’s and Jack’s ability to save her demonstrate that there is still a masculine “God” figure in Little House on the Prairie. However, as the “Santa Claus” episode demonstrates, Laura is aware of the work behind such beliefs: both the tremendous effort by Mr. Edwards and her own choice to not understand Ma’s actions to be “Santa Claus.” In fact, this issue might be worth further investigation: why does a female character ignore her mother’s role in religious security? What does this suggest about the role of women in religion?