Help with expository ideas

[robertcalder]

I've been given a topic on which to write about for my practice SAC in creating and presenting. I've decided to write an expository because it seems to be the best alternative for the topic sentence that I have been given, but I'm still having trouble coming up with ideas. Can anyone help out?

Topic Sentence: The distinction between perpetrators and victims of conflict is often blurred.

The text that we are reading for relevance to this is 'The Quiet American.'
Hope to hear from people soon

Thanks

[McFleurry]

Hi robertcalder!

Is that a topic sentence or a prompt? (It seems more like a prompt to me.... but I dunno)
My memory of TQA is a bit fuzzy, but here are some things to think about:

1. In relation to TQA, thing about the internal moral conflict that Fowler goes through, and how it has developed into a really messy conflict. It isn't just Pyle who is the source of all his woes, but himself, Phuong, what about Heng even?
2. I would defs agree with the prompt for the paragraph(if you are writing one.)
3. However, I would, for complexity and interest's sake, include that victims of conflict aren't always those who play a role in the creation of dilemmas and disagreements. Think about the two poor Vietnamese soldiers in the watchtower, the ordinary people who are killed/hurt by the bomb in the Place Garnier: the twitching torso of the trishaw driver... the headless baby... all these victims clearly did not create any conflict.
4. Also , think about why the line between perpetrator and victim is blurred. Is it because the perpetrator, in initiating the conflict, sacrifices something else which later on ends up being a terrible consequence?
5. Play around with Pyle (a man so deep-seated in his ways that he ends up dying because of them), and what about Phuong? Undoubtedly, she is a 'victim' of the interpersonal conflict b/w Pyle and Fowler, but doesn't her beauty(and whatever else) bring about the conflict?

Think about your outside sources, too, if it is an essay.

Hope that helps

[robertcalder]

yeah it was prompt that's my bad ahah. And I've been looking at all those things I was looking more for external sources where it is shown. I was thinking of using an event from India when it was partitioned. The fights and violence between Hindus and Muslims was largely a result of the actions of the Muslims on Direct Action Day but then their reason was because they were being religiously discriminated by the Hindus. The prompt is easily seen there as both sides are shown as victims and perpetrators, how do you define the two? In conflicts there are always victims and perpetrators. Someone in the army might perpetrate something from orders of a CO, but does that make them the perpetrator or the CO? It's got a lot of questions to build from I'm getting stuck

[McFleurry]

yeah it was prompt that's my bad ahah. And I've been looking at all those things I was looking more for external sources where it is shown. I was thinking of using an event from India when it was partitioned. The fights and violence between Hindus and Muslims was largely a result of the actions of the Muslims on Direct Action Day but then their reason was because they were being religiously discriminated by the Hindus. The prompt is easily seen there as both sides are shown as victims and perpetrators, how do you define the two? In conflicts there are always victims and perpetrators. Someone in the army might perpetrate something from orders of a CO, but does that make them the perpetrator or the CO? It's got a lot of questions to build from I'm getting stuck

Why don't you just present it as how you've just written it?

Give a little more detail: when did this start, how, why? Hit me with some names, dates, times, and BOOM, there's an amazingly complex and interesting paragraph!

You don't need to present a resolution to these conflicts, you just need to do what you've just did with a little more information.

[robertcalder]

Why don't you just present it as how you've just written it?

Give a little more detail: when did this start, how, why? Hit me with some names, dates, times, and BOOM, there's an amazingly complex and interesting paragraph!

You don't need to present a resolution to these conflicts, you just need to do what you've just did with a little more information.

The bold bit is where I've always had difficulty. I have problems with expression and making my ideas come out on paper during the SAC ahah