An Analysis of Passing by Nella Larsen
Group A
1) In passing, society deems racism as intrinsic rather than external.
2) Yes, this thesis rises above the obvious or simplistic because it is stating an indirect claim that they believe Larsen is making. It is clear that in order to come up with their thesis, they had to delve deeper than the obvious which is that racism is bad. I thought it was an interesting claim that could possibly be developed upon and made in to a good paper.
3) They didn’t necessarily propose any counter claims that I could think of, it could have made the presentation a little more interesting had they presented a counter claim and defended their position.
4) As I said previously, it would be more interesting had they presented a counter claim and then used evidence to support it.
5) Overall, I think that they did a pretty good job. I would say that in order to make their presentation a little bit better they could have used more evidence from the text to support their claim.
Group B
1) The fact that Irene can walk the line between the races and Brian walks it full force creates tension in their marriage.
2) I thought this thesis rose above the obvious, but was still something that could have been easily picked out from the text. It is somewhat obvious that the tensions in their marriage are created by their different views on their own race and how they raise their children.
3) They don’t really address any counter claims in their presentation necessarily. I think it’s pretty apparent that their differing views do create tension in their marriage.
4) An alternative interpretation could possibly be that the tension in Irene and Brian’s marriage was not created by their race, but rather by another factor.
5) I honestly thought that they presented their argument well, however, the other group that presented on nearly the same topic did a good job of reading deeper into the argument than group B did.
Group C
1) Clare and Irene both show that race is skin deep.
2) They
1) In passing, society deems racism as intrinsic rather than external.
2) Yes, this thesis rises above the obvious or simplistic because it is stating an indirect claim that they believe Larsen is making. It is clear that in order to come up with their thesis, they had to delve deeper than the obvious which is that racism is bad. I thought it was an interesting claim that could possibly be developed upon and made in to a good paper.
3) They didn’t necessarily propose any counter claims that I could think of, it could have made the presentation a little more interesting had they presented a counter claim and defended their position.
4) As I said previously, it would be more interesting had they presented a counter claim and then used evidence to support it.
5) Overall, I think that they did a pretty good job. I would say that in order to make their presentation a little bit better they could have used more evidence from the text to support their claim.
Group B
1) The fact that Irene can walk the line between the races and Brian walks it full force creates tension in their marriage.
2) I thought this thesis rose above the obvious, but was still something that could have been easily picked out from the text. It is somewhat obvious that the tensions in their marriage are created by their different views on their own race and how they raise their children.
3) They don’t really address any counter claims in their presentation necessarily. I think it’s pretty apparent that their differing views do create tension in their marriage.
4) An alternative interpretation could possibly be that the tension in Irene and Brian’s marriage was not created by their race, but rather by another factor.
5) I honestly thought that they presented their argument well, however, the other group that presented on nearly the same topic did a good job of reading deeper into the argument than group B did.
Group C
1) Clare and Irene both show that race is skin deep.
2) They