Compare/Contrast

Compare/Contrast How to Analyze Character Through Comparison

Purpose The Purpose of this Compare/Contrast Essay is to explain the similarities and differences between two characters we’ve been studying.The purpose should come directly from the writing prompt. Your essay also needs to take a stance, make a judgment about the characters you are comparing.

Audience You are writing this for an English teacher who knows the characters and the stories you are comparing. • Your examples need to be specific; detailed • You need to use academic language • Your writing needs to organized and to the point • Everything must be supported by textual examples

Content Deciding what to write about is a three step process: • Brainstorm similarities and differences using a graphic organizer; consider character appearance, thoughts and feelings, speech, actions, and how others react to them.. • Choose a focus by developing a thesis statement that clearly identifies the most important similarities or differences. • Collect evidence, quotes, details, ideas to support your thesis.

Structure – The Intro Your introduction paragraph is a map for the reader; capturing their attention, identifying the literary work being analyzed, and telling the points you will make. • Hook: set your reader up • T.A.G.S.: identify the title, author, genre, brief summary of similarities and differences • Thesis: tell the reader your judgment and your evidence

Structure – The Intro • A quick Google search of speeches about hope finds that President Obama has discussed the idea of hope in five hundred ninety six speeches to date. Why would a prominent leader echo the same sentiment repeatedly? Is hope so affective that it can influence change in people? This seems to be the case in Gary Soto’s story, “La Guera,” and Luis Rodriguez’s story, “Payasa.” The title characters in each of these stories is faced with abandonment, violence, and addiction; a life absent of hope.Both characters live recklessly and expect to die young, but only Payasa seems to have hope. Hope is the character trait that makes Payasa different.

Structure – The Body, Subject Method Your comparison paragraphs must focus on one subject (character) and all his/her traits at a time. Body Paragraph #1 • Topic Sentence about the first character • Explanation of Trait 1 • Explanation of Trait 2 • Analysis explaining what this reveals about the character Body Paragraph #2 • Topic Sentence about the second character • Explanation of Trait 1 • Explanation of Trait 2 • Analysis explaining what this reveals about the character

Structure – The Body, Subject Method Payasa’s life parallels La Guera’s but is a little more hapless. Payasa never lived in a world where kids held hands. Instead Payasa was taught to use her hands to fight. “Whenever she lost, her older brothers would slice her tongue with a razor. She wasn’t ever supposed to lose.” This reaction from her brothers caused Payasa to behave recklessly. Like La Guera, Payasa began acting unpredictably. She started ditching school, huffing paint, taking pills, and flirting promiscuously. Also like La Guera, Payasa became addicted, “Sniffing took the best out of her.” Her addiction caused Payasa to give up. She began huffing alone. Her body was scuffed up and cut. She had become, “ the walking dead.” She mindlessly responded, “Oh you’ll get over it…eventually,” to everything because she didn’t care enough to consider anything. She didn’t care enough to cry. She didn’t care enough to yell. She didn’t care enough to live. If she hadn’t been placed in a rehabilitation hospital for teenage addicts, she may not have.

Structure – The Body, Point Method Your comparison paragraphs must focus on one point (trait) in each story at a time. Body Paragraph #1 • Topic Sentence about the first Trait • Explain trait in Character 1 • Explain trait in Character 2 • Analysis explaining what this comparison shows about the characters Body Paragraph #2 • Topic Sentence about the second Trait • Explain trait in Character 1 • Explain trait in Character 2 • Analysis explaining what this comparison shows about the characters

Structure – The Body Both La Guera and Payasa live without regard for their own wellbeing. La Guera steals repeatedly putting herself in danger. She started stealing candy at first, looking for anything to make her life sweet again, but her actions quickly became reckless. Her friends, reckless themselves avoided her because, “She was on a binge that said she had problems…” Payasa’s binge was even more destructive because it involved drugs. She started ditching school in order to huff paint and take pills. Because of this recklessness Payasa had become, “ the walking dead.” Her body was scuffed up and cut. Like La Guera, Payasa was addicted and didn’t seem to care about anything, especially herself.

Structure – The Body, Contrast Your 3rd body paragraph must focus on contrasting the characters, highlighting the main difference between the characters. Body Paragraph #3 • Topic Sentence: identify the main difference between characters • Evidence: quote or paraphrase a example of the main difference for character 1 • Evidence: quote or paraphrase a example of the main difference for character 2 • Analyze: explain how this difference reveals something about both characters

Structure – The Body, Contrast This is where the similarities between La Guera and Payasa stop. Payasa was able to get help. She was able to get away from her destructive environment, and stay away. The hospital gave Payasa hope in a way that never even occurred to La Guera. Payasa refused visitors while in the hospital, hoping that they would forget about her and allow her to start anew. La Guera never even expressed a desire to start over; instead she brought the selfish and pessimistic attitude with her everywhere. When sent to Wisconsin to find herself, La Guera turned her strawberry cheeked cousins into country gangster, Las Farm Girls.La Guera had given up on hope in exchange for her homegirl’s boyfriend. Payasa hoped for something better.

Structure – The Conclusion Your conclusion paragraph needs to explain why the element(s) being analyzed is crucial to the story, restate your ideas, and make the reader think. • Appeal: ask and answer a related question • The Big Idea: why is this element crucial • Restate: tie all your ideas together

Structure – The Conclusion Why would leaders and activists like Nelson Mandela, Harvey Milk, and Martin Luther King Jr. choose the simple word hope to inspire the world? Perhaps the answer is as simple as the word; hope is a common denominator. Hope allows anyone, and everyone to overcome obstacles if paired with action and will. Hope breads motivation. Hope instigates change. Hope is the only real difference between La Guera and Payasa but it is also the one thing that makes all the difference. Because she has hope, Payasa has the chance to survive. Without hope, La Guera seems destined for destruction.

Style Think of style as tuning up your essay to make it more efficient, and more effective. Most of this I done through editing and revision. • Use formal, academic language…no slang, no overused expressions, no “I, me, we” pronouns • Choose active verbs instead of overused adjectives and adverbs…use “shouted” instead of “spoke loudly” • Add effective transitions

Compare/Contrast