What have you learned about a country from watching its movies?

Given:

Films can tell us a lot about the country where they were made. What have you learned about a country from watching its movies? Use specific examples and details to support your response.

(You have only 30 minutes to draft and proofread your work!)

The Sample Essay Draft Step by Step

1. Quickly generate a strong opinion.

As a country girl in the US, I would most likely be a country girl in Vietnam.

2. Generate supportive body topics.

Scent of Green Papaya showed me how Vietnamese city people can be disconnected from nature. Scent of Green Papaya showed me how Vietnamese country people can be connected to nature.

3. Develop body details.

Scent of Green Papaya showed me how Vietnamese city people can be disconnected from nature. The male children of the household were bored during their free time and resorted to pranks like spilling mop buckets and engulfing ants in candle wax for entertainment. The adult males hid in mosquito netted beds to practice music rather than enjoying their courtyard. The young pianist who saved the servant girl lost himself in his moody compositions regardless of the weather outside. While teaching the servant girl to read, he became preoccupied with the angle of her head. He could experience her beauty only through his drawings of her.

Scent of Green Papaya showed me how Vietnamese country people can be connected to nature. Bui, the servant girl, could absorb herself in the natural world at any moment, the song of the tree frog, the swish of a carp's tail, the pearly seeds of a green papaya. While being taught to read by the young pianist, she gasped in open delight at a reference to nature. In the filrm, while city people around her made art, Bui simply lived art.

4. Organize paragraph order and embed transitions.

The order and topics look logical as they are. However, I will mention here that as I drafted my first paragraph, I caught myself in an error. While I chose topic sentences that limited me to discussing only one type of character in each paragraph, in my first paragraph I began discussing another character. I had momentarily forgotten that I chose a structure to compare by type rather than point by point. It is mentally easier for me to discuss something point by point, but in this kind of short essay, point by point discussion would result in many short body paragraphs that would be difficult to reflect back to the thesis sentence. Short comparison contrast essays work better organized by type rather than point by point.

5. Formulate thesis sentence.

The Vietnamese film, Scent of Green Papaya, showed me how Vietnamese city people can be disconnected from nature while the country people can be connected to it.

6. Draft introduction.

Films can tell me a lot about the country where they were made. What have I learned about a country from watching its movies? I will use specific examples and details from a Vietnamese film to support my response. The Vietnamese film, Scent of Green Papaya, showed me how Vietnamese city people can be disconnected from nature while the country people can be connected to it.

7. Draft conclusion.

Scent of Green Papaya featured city characters who avoided direct contact with nature and its beauty, whereas it featured a country character who was constantly immersed in nature and part of its beauty. The city people stayed indoors occupied with music and art about the natural world outside while the country girl listened to the tree frog and meditated on the seeds of the papaya. I don't know how accurately this film depicts its country's city and country people. However, as a country girl in the US, I would most likely be a country girl in Vietnam.

8. Proofread.

Films can tell me a lot about the country where they were made. What have I learned about a country from watching its movies? I will use specific examples and details from a Vietnamese film to support my response. [I remember this film so well partly because the country girl in it reminded me of myself as a country girl.] The Vietnamese film, Scent of Green Papaya, showed me how Vietnamese city people can be disconnected from nature while the country people can be connected to it.

Scent of Green Papaya showed me how Vietnamese city people can be disconnected from nature. The male children of the household were bored during their free time and resorted to pranks like spilling mop buckets and engulfing ants in candle wax for entertainment. The adult males hid in mosquito netted beds to practice music rather than enjoying their courtyard. The young pianist who saved the servant girl lost himself in his moody compositions regardless of the weather outside. While teaching the servant girl to read, he became preoccupied with the angle of her head. He could experience her beauty only through his drawings of her. [These city people frustrated me, and I wanted to shout at them to go outside and work and play for a change.]

Scent of Green Papaya showed me how Vietnamese country people can be connected to nature. Bui, the servant girl, could absorb herself in the natural world at any moment, the song of the tree frog, the swish of a carp's tail, the pearly seeds of a green papaya. While being taught to read by the young pianist, she gasped in open delight at a reference to nature. In the [film], while city people around her made art, Bui simply lived art. [Bui is my kind of friend to spend time with.]

Scent of Green Papaya featured city characters who avoided direct contact with nature and its beauty, whereas it featured a country character who was constantly immersed in nature and part of its beauty. The city people stayed indoors occupied with music and art about the natural world outside while the country girl listened to the tree frog and meditated on the seeds of the papaya. I don't know how accurately this film depicts its country's city and country people. However, as a country girl in the US, I would most likely be a country girl in Vietnam.