My First Goose Thesis

When given the assignment, I initially had no idea what text to use. I loved all the texts; however, I did not think I would be able to find enough ideas from just one of the texts to write two different papers. In order to figure out which text to use, I simply reread the texts. Babel’s “My First Goose” stood out to me the most because it has different layers. One can read the text and not get anything out of it. However, if one truly thinks about the transformation of the narrator, hundreds of papers could be written. I decided on “My First Goose” because of Babel’s rich metaphors and questioning of masculinity.

Choosing which school of criticism to use was easy for me. I knew before I even chose the text that I wanted to do a gender critique. While researching this school of criticism, the true passion for gender and sexual equality ignited within me. I have written many papers from picking out traditional and nontraditional gender roles; however, I never knew the wide range of opportunities to write about gender. After rereading “My First Goose,” it was apparent this text fit perfectly with my passion for

gender critique.
The New Criticism analysis of “My First Goose” exudes of the ideologies of new critics. I found it difficult to transfer the knowledge I learned from the textbook definitions of New Criticism to actually writing a New Criticism analysis. Therefore, the best information to help me came from notes from our in-class discussions and information from Purdue Online Writing Lab. Purdue OWL explains New Criticism, “attempts to treat each work as its own distinct piece, free from its environment, era, and even author.” During my analysis, the ideas stemmed from a close reading of the text; not the author or background of the text. I questioned different literary devices, imagery and metaphors, and how they exemplified the narrator’s transformation. My New Criticism analysis shows understanding of the concepts of New Criticism and ways to apply the concepts.
My Gender Criticism analysis asks a pivotal question: What elements of the text can be perceived as being masculine (active, powerful) and feminine (passive, marginalized) and how do the characters support these traditional roles (Brizee)? The idea of questioning traditional gender roles helped me develop ideas and find passages within the text to support my ideas. I question the idea of masculinity and how the narrator uses traditional masculine characteristics to gain power and respect. During my Gender Criticism analysis, the typical concepts of Gender Criticism are applied.
Between my Gender Criticism and New Criticism analyses, one can find various similarities and differences.

The main similarity between the two analyses is the close reading of the text. For both papers, I used details and information from the text to form my opinions. This similarity happened because of my natural writing tendencies. I employ close reading for the majority of literature analyses. All of the school’s of criticisms use close reading to form ideas; however, the other forms of criticism also refer to other components other than the text itself. This major difference between New Criticism and Gender Criticism causes my papers to be different. My gender critique infers from society and states the traditional gender roles of society. Although both papers show evidence of close reading, my gender critique uses ideas from society and

culture.
I believe both schools of criticism have value. With both criticisms, I was able to deeply read the text and understand the ideas of the story. However, I believe Gender Criticism personally affected me. When finding different examples of Babel questioning gender roles, I learned more about the character. Therefore, I understood the story on a deeper level than before. After writing the Gender Criticism analysis, I felt truly confident in my work as both a reader and writer. Although both schools of criticism benefited my education, Gender Criticism allowed me to not only deeply read the text, but also consider society and culture.