Susan Allen Toth express her discontentment of the way men take relationship's by classifying different men which accompany her to the movies. Men who go with her to the movies are not worried to much about what she needs instead they all seem to looking out for themselves. The authors finalizes her essay "On Going to the Movies" by alluding that she is looking for a person who is also worried about what she feels and that values her opinion when she describes her experience "on going to the movies." One essential aspect that Toth classifies is the type of movies.
Toth goes to the movies by herself to see musicals. These musicals make her dream of what she could of been and also of what could be. The movies she watches have to end "happily". Toth ends this essay by saying "In the movies I go to by myself, the men and women always like each other. "(608) This is a very powerful statement to make because she implies that she is looking for a man that likes her and that she has been wasting her time with all the men she has had any relations with. She goes to the movies with various men who choose what they want to see instead of asking her opinion. This seems really odd because these men are basically just going by themselves. The seek her physical company but other than that she is just a stranger who happens to be sitting next them. There is no emotional connection. These men would obviously not want to watch a romantic movie with the author because that would imply something different to her.
This essay appears in The Norton Reader: Shorter Tenth Version
This essay appears in The Norton Reader: Shorter Tenth Version
Tamar I agree when you say that it almost seems as though the men are going on these dates on their own. I am a bit confused though on what your focus is? So what is the author really trying to do categorize the dates, the men, or herself? I felt she was trying to find herself and categorizing herself, because in the end like you mentioned she mentions how she will just go on her own and have her on solo date. I had a bit of trouble when it came to not comparing when I was writing my category essay. I guess it would help if I had just a bit of category business going on in my compare and contrast essay, and vise versa. What do you think? I think it would help both of us if we used just a bit of each technique in our essays. It's almost as if these two are meant to support one another.
ReplyDeleteAs I stated above, she is showing her discontentment with the men she goes out with and actually realizes as she classifies these men and herself that she wants something more. I agree with the point you made that it is a little bit hard not compare while writing a classification essay. Toth essay on "Going to the movies has an implied comparison. I believe that comparing is OK as long as you classify your point clearly. This will ultimately allow you to analyze your point in your classification essay better.
ReplyDeleteThe guys Susan Allen Toth describes are definitely guys that aren't really attentive of her. It seems to me like she wants something more, but this is what she is getting. She realizes this and we realize this at the end thanks to her classification. All the details she gives us in her categories pinpoint what is in her heart: the desire to have this perfect man to go with her to the movies. She is not searching for him, but she wants him to be out there.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion about guys not wanting to be with her and not having emotional ties with the author, but don't you think she might just be classifying guys by their unique personalities? And that perhaps she is better off alone, instead of having a guy that actually wants her? I mean of course she ends her essay by saying that every movie she likes to watch has a happy ending, but since it didn't come out to be that way with her, she probably is just expressing her desire to what she might want. I believe she just gave up on trying to find that perfect guy and went with staying single.
ReplyDeleteTamar, I agree with the fact that she is classifying herself. I realized the comparison and classification situation in my own writing. It really helps when you don't have that mentality of only doing one or the other.
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