Analysis Of Lydia Cassatt Reading The Morning Paper

Thesis Statement: Readers achieve a sense of personal growth when thinking critically about stories.

Point 1: Writing down why-questions to answer helps someone think about a story as a whole. In order to figure out what is puzzling in the story, one must reread sections in order to find parts that do not make sense. When reading the three stories from Madagascar, readers could come up with a why-based question to help interpret the stories. In the second story, the readers wonder, “Why did God call the zebus, rather than some other animal?” God called the zebus because they are special, and no one on earth is allowed to kill them. The opening line of the story illustrates this idea: “In olden times no one was allowed to kill a zebu or cut

However, one might ask why Lydia claims this particular picture as her own. If Lydia claims the picture as her own, there must be proof to back up that point, and finding proof within the novel can be difficult. The reason why she claims the portrait as her own is because she feels a deep connection with her sister. It takes Lydia a long time to finally acknowledge the connection that May has with Degas, and once she comes to terms with the truth of their relationship, she cannot erase the image from her mind. “I feel that I’ve become caught in a picture, or else this picture has been thrust into my face, and I must hold my eyes open to see” (98). Lydia does not realize what the interactions between May and Degas are actually saying at first, but once she does the perception of her sister changes, making it so that she views her sister’s actions in a new way. The image of May and Degas becomes thrust into her face. Seeing that May and Degas have feelings for one another occurs rapidly to Lydia because she stopped thinking about love after Thomas died and believed that she would never find true love again. Perhaps not thinking about her own love life had made her oblivious to the love of those who were around her. Because she did not end up with her love, she ignored the fact that young love still exists, which is why the image of Degas and

Being able to come up with why-based questions forces the readers to actually think about the story that they are reading. When someone rereads a story and comes up with why-based questions, he or she moves beyond the obvious. Someone could use this skill by looking deeper into oneself to ask why-based questions about the meaning of life. Since the reader strives to further find oneself by asking meaningful questions, he or she attains personal growth. Diving deeper into the story to find answers to their questions allows readers to develop communication skills. Coming up with answers to questions by doing research on a particular subject allows someone to engage in conversation with others and provides the opportunity for a thoughtful discussion. Answering why-based questions allows someone to avoid argument yet also grow to the next level in communication skills so that a meaningful conversation can occur. However, even though personal growth is important to the reader, there are difficulties along the way. The reader may not be able to find a quote from the story to help illustrate the point that he or she is trying to make; therefore, the reader must be patient and not give up. In order to achieve personal growth and attain further wisdom, someone must be willing to think critically and dive below the surface of the words in a story. The reader must also be persistent and have a desire to