“Thirty-Four Seasons of Winter” and “Aruba”
(1)
Frame of Reference: Author Erin McGraw, during her
recent appearance at the University of West Georgia, indicated
when asked by students that she decided upon the title of her
book of short stories after viewing a television program by the
same name. Hosts of “The Good Life” as McGraw recounts it
conduct a series of interviews with Americans who have left
their normal, everyday jobs, cashed in their assets, and
renounced their lives to hasten after their dreams. The irony as
noted by McGraw is that these interviewees often appeared
onscreen as haggard and gray with fatigue—even somewhat
adrift at the sheer enormity of what they had traded and
received in its stead.
Grounds for Comparison: pursuit of the “good life”
Thesis Statement: Misguided attempts to situate
themselves in the “good life” causes several of the
characters within Kittredge’s “Thirty-Four Seasons of
Winter” and McGraw’s “Aruba” to fall prey to unrealistic
and ultimately unrealized personal expectations.
(2)
Frame of Reference: In his vastly popular and
autobiographical Owning it All, author William Kittredge asserts
that occasionally and without premeditation men can move
“deeper into the dream of power over nature” and “other
men” when they attempt to defend themselves against the
perceived injustices of the world by way of unbridled
acquisition and ownership. In so doing, the author contends,
they may run headlong into danger, especially if they seek to
inhabit others’ lives (OIA 61).
Grounds for Comparison: living in the shadow of someone
else’s dream or life
Thesis Statement: In William Kittredge’s “Thirty-Four
Seasons of Winter” and Erin McGraw’s “Aruba” several of
the characters inhabit others’ lives because, as indicated
by their somewhat unconventional actions, to reside
within their own “realms” would necessitate generating
courage enough to confront either their own fears and
inadequacies or those of others.
(3)
Frame of Reference: The famous Greek philosopher
Aristotle concludes in his treatises on friendship and ethical
philosophy in a “disarmingly commonsense way, that the
reason [people] make various choices and take one and then
another course of action is to achieve” eudaimonia, what he
deems as the good life (Robinson). The philosopher expresses
grave reservations, however, about those whose inclinations
are based solely upon achieving sensual and self-serving
pleasure.
Grounds for Comparison: personal cost of casting off the
past and/or restraints
Thesis Statement: William Kittredge’s “Thirty-Four
Seasons of Winter” and Erin McGraw’s “Aruba” portray
the conflicted consciousness of characters who are unable
to entirely cast off their past which ultimately results in
their inability to reconcile their lives with their innate
desires. OR
Thesis Statement: Whereas William Kittredge in “ThirtyFour Seasons of Winter” perceives masculine sincerity and
truthfulness as necessary for intimate fraternal
relationships, Erin McGraw perceives bold revolutionary
action as more fitting for eliminating oppressive and
domineering parental influence.