A useful comparison of Grant and Lee

Bruce Catton does a great job of using compare and contrast wisely to get his point across in his essay, "Grant and Lee: A study in Contrasts". He clearly describes who each character was and what he stood for. Then, at the end he goes on to analyze the importance comparing these two important figures.

In order to understand how he uses compare and contrast to get his point across, we first have understand what his point is. He compares Grant and Lee to show how two very different men were able to come together - in a room- and decide the future of America. They each had their strong opinions of what they each stood for, and what they each wanted was at two opposite ends of the spectrum. Yet with all these differences, they were able to unite America back again. His message is that having to different opinions doesn't have to be a bad thing. When trying to decide the future of our country these two men surely had some conflicts but because they were different, they were able to analyze the two different options and chose the best one.

Even thought he leaves the analysis at the end, at the beginning he does mention his purpose for comparing and contrasting. This helps with getting his point across because, as we read his comparative essay, we have his argument on the back of our minds.

He also gets his point across by painting an image of each character. He describes where each of them grew up and what affected their way of thinking. Catton does this in an organized fashion. He first describes to us Lee's background and opinion and then he moves on to Grant.

Overall, he has clear image of what he is trying to get across and he is able to transmit this clearness on to us.

"Marriage..."

My paragraph is located in chapter 10 which is about Fahmy taking Kamal up to the roof every day to make him practice his vocabulary. It turns out that this is not the only reason why he takes him up to the roof, Fahmy actually goes up there because he likes to see the girl next door whom he is in love with. Fahmy starts stating the words so that Kamal can tell him the definition but he gets so distracted by the girl that he starts saying the words heart, love, and marriage.

My paragraph, on page 61, comes right after Fahmy has just stated the word marriage. The placement of this paragraph is very important because in it we see that the girl finally shows a reaction to what Fahmy is saying. It is important to notice that this reaction is made to the word marriage, and not heart or love. This fact shows that the are both in love with each other and that they might be willing to get married and do things the proper way because their romance is wrong to the eyes of their strict society. That the girl is letting herself be seen by Fahmy is itself an offence to their culture but even in a strict culture like theirs, there is still room for love.

Another factor that shows the love Fahmy feels for this girl is seen in Mahfouz's style of writing. He is so descriptive when it comes to showing the character's emotions. In this paragraph he writes, "he had at least been able to transmit to her a charge of the electricity blazing in his heart" (61). Here he is describing Fahmy's love for this girl and I don't think he could have chosen a better choice of words to make us feel what Fahmy feels.