8/9/2019 Yuki's Essay Outline

1/2

Yuki Wang

Essay Outline

Thesis:

Douglas Couplands bookHey Nostradamus! demonstrates that fear of the unknown

overpowers personal morals, and in an attempt to maintain relationships with loved

ones, people lose their ability to rationalize. Much of the loneliness and regret in theworld is caused by this love and the blinding fear of losing it.

Argument 1:

When Kent died in the car accident, Barb was desperate to keep a piece of him with

her, even if it meant incest. She was afraid of the thought of life without her husband,

and it caused her to make irrational decisions.

y Barb said to Jason Kent was all I had, and unless I do this (have a baby withyou), theres no way Ill be connected to him.(pg. 138, line 28-30) and her

logic was you (Jason) and Kent are pretty much the same thing.(pg. 138,

line 20-21) Her love for Kent and the pain of losing him has made her

irrational and gave her the impression that sleeping with her husbands brother

is okay.

y Barb did not change her mind even after Jason told her that he would do it onone condition: that they would have to be married. Without realizing it, her

irrationality has caused her to throw away her marriage with Kent for Jason

instead, which was the opposite of what she was trying to accomplish.

y Murder was another thing that Barb was willing to do to feel connected to herdead husband. She was strangely calm about it too, she told Jason about it in

the most clear-headed way: So I went to his motel room with him and

cracked him on the back of his head with a forty-ouncer of discount vodka.

Done.(pg. 144, line 28-30) The way she provided small details like the exacttype of bottle she used to murder Rick Kozareks downsizes the hugeness of

what she has done.

y There is no way to know what effect these decisions Barb has made will haveon her in her future. She might grow to regret it. She might not be able to live

with the fact that she is married to both Kent and Jason, and her twins might

look more like Jason than Kent.

Argument 2:

Jason decided to not kill Yorgo when he was at Jasons mercy. One humans love for

another human being can be strong. Jason decided not to kill Yorgo because he could

not end another persons life after he ended Mitchells in the massacre, even when he

knew that Yorgo has killed before and will probably keep killing. Killing Yorgo

would have been a rational decision Jason would be preventing more lives from

being harmed by Yorgo.

I (Jason) lunged for a river rock andsuddenly I had the option ofmurdering again. (pg. 125, line 19,22-23) By again, Jason was reflecting

on when he killed Mitchell in the massacre. He was recognized as a hero for

8/9/2019 Yuki's Essay Outline

2/2