Comparing Neat People Vs. Sloppy People, By Suzanne Britt

The Importance of Comparing and Contrasting

In The Norton Mix, Suzanne Britt’s “Neat People vs. Sloppy People,” Bruce Catton’s “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts,” and Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Cultural Baggage,” all compare and contrast people or things in the stories. It is important for the author to clearly distinguish what he or she is saying, because it allows the reader to understand the story better. Comparing and contrasting different things is also a way to organize the author’s thoughts. It is important for the reader to be able to see the difference between things or people so one can have a more suitable understanding, better insight, and a firm viewpoint of the subject.

In “Neat People vs. Sloppy People,” Suzanne Britt uses humor to compare and contrast neat and sloppy people. Britt notes, “Sloppy people, you see, are not really sloppy. Their sloppiness is merely the unfortunate consequence of their extreme moral rectitude” (par. 2). By using humor, the author explains how sloppy people are the way they

Grant and Robert E. Lee. Catton states, “Lee was tidewater Virginia, and in his background were family, culture, and tradition…the age of chivalry transplanted to a New World which was making its own legends and its own myths” (par.5). Here, Catton uses historical facts to describe the type of person Lee was, explaining that he was a traditional kind of man. Then Catton states, “Grant, the son of a tanner on the Western frontier, was everything Lee was not. He had come up the hard way, and embodied nothing in particular except the eternal toughness and sinewy fiber of the men who grew up beyond the mountains” (par. 7). The author describes the type of man Grant was; a tough man who had to earn everything himself. Bruce Catton uses historical facts about Lee and Grant so the reader can have a better insight about the variations between the two