Prose and Stuff

As I read and correct final papers, I come across some beautifully written prose that I think are worth nothing especially given the skill of writing from the students at Grinnell College. This selection is from a paper analyzing the TV hit show Lost that I found to have a clear argument, a strong voice, and it's concise, direct, and full of theoretical and analytical excitement:

With its incredible popularity, one questions what kind of ideological influence Lost may have beneath its enticing narrative. After following Lost for five seasons and deciding to study its intrinsic sociological implications, I initially turned to a neocolonial discourse. After all, the show is about a group of outside people who come to a tropical island and engage in conflict with the "native" peoples there, who come to be known as the "Others"; it seemed plausible that Lost was re-enacting a colonial discourse. However, upon closer study, I was surprised to find a much more subversive reading of Lost than I initially thought plausible. Instead of reproducing the tropes of colonialism, in this paper I argue that Lost actually critiques neolonialism by inverting the process of "othering" and the characteristics of colonized people, which is revealed through the character's experience.