What would I do without you?

(From Wikipedia)

When I heard that I was going to have to branch out of my comfort zone in order to develop a thesis statement for my critical analysis of Ernest Hemingway's 'The Sun Also Rises,' I was very apprehensive. Sending out my ideas is always hard for me. I never know what I'm going to get in return.

I started out by asking a few of my friends on Facebook what they knew about feminism, Ernest Hemingway, and 'The Sun Also Rises.' Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with what I got in return. Let's be honest, I didn't get anything from Facebook. So, I decided to 1) ask the one person who I knew would hook me up with something, and then 2) I would rely on feedback from my classmates. This strategy seemed to work well because I got some constructive criticism that has helped me develop my thesis and my paper as a whole.


I was hesitant asking my sister Lauren for help because she is busy with graduation and grad school things, but she is a genius and interested in gender roles. I wasn't exactly sure where I wanted to go with my tweethis statement and I knew that Lauren could help me organize my ideas. So, I sent her a text.

We sat down for dinner to talk it over and I had her read my tweethis statement on our blog. She left a comment and gave me a great idea for a source that might help me with my paper. She also pointed out that Annalee left me a great comment. I was able to read her post and see where she was coming from. It actually helped me get a better idea of what I wanted to do with my own ideas. We both talked about how the circumstances (setting) in which the characters find themselves result in the their personal realizations of identity. I wish to go a little further and mention how that realization leads to a loss of innocence in both 'Alice' and 'The Sun.'

I was also able to comment on others' posts because I thought they were helpful and insightful. I found a lot of similarities in Morgan's post about new environments resulting in new foundations (new identity, for instance). I also commented on Krista's post because she is writing about Islamic feminism. My sister specializes in Middle Eastern gender studies and I suggested that if she needed someone to talk to outside of class that my sister would be willing to help.

Overall, I found that I was pleasantly surprised with the feedback that I received. I was able to clear my thoughts by talking with my friends, and the feedback that I got has inspired further understanding of my vision for this assignment. I now know that I want to focus on how the circumstances of certain characters in Carroll's 'Alice' and Hemingway's 'The Sun Also Rises' led to a crisis of identity and eventually a loss of innocence.