Use Topoi to Generate Topics and Organize Your Essay
from Writing Essays About Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet. Sixth Edition by Kelley
Griffith (Thomson Heinle, 2002)
Generations of communicators have recognized that certain ways of thinking—patterns
of thought—are helpful tools for examining subjects and developing ideas about them. In
his Rhetoric, perhaps the greatest book about writing, Aristotle called these patterns
topoi, which means “places.” Aristotle seems to have meant that these patterns are
“places” to look when you need to find ideas. Several of the traditional patterns are
especially useful—at times inevitable—for coming up with ideas and explaining it. The
following are descriptions of well-known topoi.
Definition—Definition is unavoidable in arguments because premises often contain
terms that must be defined. Quite often, these terms are not controversial or ambiguous
and therefore need no formal definitions. However, when you have controversial terms,
you must define them, and you must use all key terms in such a way that your readers
know what you mean by them.
Apart from the necessity of defining terms in your thesis, definition can be useful
in two other ways. First, your claims about the facts may rest upon the definition of a
particular word within the work. Second, you may want to focus your whole essay on a
definition. You might, for example, show that “imagination” is Isabel Archer’s most
admirable train in Henry James’s novel The Portrait of a Lady. Your essay would
attempt to explain what James means by the term. Or you might argue that Jane Austen
in Pride and Prejudice distinguishes between “good pride” and “bad pride.” Finally you
might claim that Emily Bronte uses “gothic” elements in Wuthering Heights. You would
need a reliable definition of gothic to make your case convincing, and to apply all parts of
the definition to the work, show which ones fit and which ones do not. A handbook of
literary terms, such as M.H. Abrams’s A Glossary of Literary Terms (1999) and the
articles in encyclopedias such as The Encyclopedia Britannica, are helpful starting points
for finding definitions of literary and philosophical concepts.
Structure---Focus on structure helps indentify an object’s parts and how they contribute
to the coherence and meaning of the whole. A structure is something that has a definite
pattern of organization. Works of literature always have a structure, sometimes more
than one structure. Some works conform to established structures like the sonnet form;
other works establish their own structures. Your purpose in writing about a work’s
structure is to identify the structure and explain its relationship to the elements such as
theme and characterization. You might, for example, claim that the passage of the
seasons provides the structure of William Wordsworth’s poem “The Ruined Cottage”; or
that the rhyme scheme of his “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” emphasizes the narrator’s
shift from feeling isolated to feeling connected to nature. The less obvious the structure
or its effect on the work, the more revealing your essay would be. You might even argue
that the work has several structures—an obvious structure and a less-obvious structure.
Process—Tracking process indentifies the stages in which things change—characters,
states of mind, societies, setting, situations, conditions. Because literature often
represents events occurring in time, it lends itself to process analysis: Characters change
from weak to strong, societies from coherent to incoherent, settings from beautiful to
ugly.
When describing a process, avoid simple retelling the plot. Instead, explain and
illustrate clear steps in the overall process. Present them in the order in which they occur
in time. Each step would be a unit—probably a paragraph—of your paper. The claim of
each unit would be your proposition about what characterizes the step.
Cause and effect—Examining cause and effect helps you investigate the causes and
effects of things. When you investigate causes, you are always dealing with things in the
past. Why does Goodman Brown go into the forest? Why does Hedda Gabbler act the
way she does? What causes Pip to change? Two kinds of causes usually figure in the
works or literature, the immediate or surface cause and the remote or deep cause. In
Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, the immediate cause of Roberta Alden’s death
is that she is pregnant. Clyde Griffiths kills her because he wants her out of the way so
he can marry Sondra Finchley. The remote cause, however, is all those forces—
childhood experiences, parental models, heredity, financial situations, cultural values,
religious background, and accident—that have molded Clyde and that make the reasons
he kills Roberta complex. When you investigate effects, you may deal with things in
either the past or the future. In William Faulkner’s fiction, you might examine the effect
of slavery on Southern society and on his characters. These effects are part of the
historical past in his work. You might also predict what the South will be like in the
future, given the way he depicts it.
Because literature often deals with the actions of complex characters and
societies, analyzing cause and effect is a fruitful source of essay topics. We constantly
wonder why characters do what they do and what effects their actions have had or will
have. Just as in real life, cause and effect in literature can be subtle. Your task is to
discover and communicate those subtleties.
Comparison—Comparison means indicating both similarities and differences between
two or more subjects. One us of comparison is to establish the value of something. You
might argue that one of Shakespeare’s comedies is not as good as the others because it
lacks some of the qualities the others have. Another use of comparison is to explain your
insights about aspects of a work. A comparison of the two sets of lovers in Tolstoy’s
Anna Karenina, for example, helps us understand his distinction between sacred love and
profane love. Comparing the theme of one work to another is also revealing. Sir Walter
Raleigh’s poem “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” is a response to Christopher
Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.” Raleigh not only disagrees in
general with the premise of Marlowe’s poem, he also makes nearly every line of the
poem respond to the parallel line in Marlowe’s poem. A line-by-line comparison of the
two poems helps make Raleigh’s themes clear.
Comparison is revealing also when the author of a work contains allusions. An
allusion is a reference to another work, historical event, a myth, or an author. An allusion
is always an invitation to compare the work at hand to the thing alluded to. Wordsworth,
for example, in his long autobiographical poem The Prelude often alludes to Milton’s
Paradise Lost. One could compare The Prelude and Paradise Lost to clarify
Wordsworth’s methods and themes.
When you make extended comparisons, organize them so they are easy to follow.
Cover the same aspects of all things compared. If you compare two works and talk about
metaphor, symbolism, and imagery in one work, you need to talk about these things in
the same order in the other work. Also, discuss the aspects in the same order for each
thing compared. If you talk about metaphor, symbolism, and imagery in one work, keep
the same order when you discuss the other work: metaphor first, symbolism second,
imagery last. The outline for such a comparison would look like this:
Work #1
Metaphor
Symbolism
Imagery
Work #2
Metaphor
Symbolism
Imagery
For comparisons of more than two things or for long, complex comparisons, another
method of organization may be easier for readers to follow:
Metaphor
Work #1
Work #2
Work #3
Symbolism
Work #1
Work #2
Work #3
Imagery
Work #1
Work #2
Work #3
Notice how the student essay of the Odyssey uses the second plan of comparison:
Claim: Eden and Ogygia are similar.
Reason #1: Their physical features are similar.
A. Eden has certain physical features (described).
B. Ogygia’s physical features (described) are almost exactly the same.
Reason #2: Their inhabitants live comfortable and painfree lives.
A. Eden
B. Ogygia
Reason #3 Their inhabitants have companionship.
A. Eden
B. Ogygia
Reasons #4: Both places are free from death.
A. Eden
B. Ogygia
There are other ways to organize comparisons. You could, for example, discuss
all the similarities in one place and all the differences in another. But the general rule is
to make the comparison thorough and orderly, so the reader can see all the lines of
similarity and difference.