Categories Leading to the Point

In "Going to the Movies" (p 606 in The Norton Reader)by Susan Allen Toth, Toth places her experiences in categories when describing her dates. By placing her dates and her experiences in categories, she proves to her audience that sometimes it's better to be alone than with bad company. Toth had more fun because she could eat and watch whatever she wanted to, rather than being forced compromise because the other person might not enjoy that type of movie.

Toth uses a set structure when describing her dates. She focuses on one and explains every detail about him, then moves on to the next, and so on. She explains how her dates make her feel by the things they do and don't do. Her structure is easy to see which makes her point hard to find because it's an easy essay to read. Since it's easy to read, we get the sense that something is being left out. It makes you want to look back and re-read the essay to find her point. The point is so obvious thats it makes it hard to find.

Toth focuses on things like habits her dates have while watching a movie, what they eat(if anything), where they park, and what kind of film they see. These are the categories that branch off from her main point. When she places her dates habits in each category, it leads us to the point she is trying to prove. She leaves her experience when going to the movies by herself, in the end, because she already established the "bad"dates so now she will end with the 'ideal" going to the movies experience. The point ,or thesis, is usually found in the beginning of an essay, but Toth decides to place it in the end. She has to place it in the end because after all that classifying, she has to come to a conclusion of what she is trying to prove.