Topic Sentences

1. Topic Sentences Learning Objective Get better at writing them to guide your analysis

2. Purpose • Topic sentences need to be about the idea your paragraph will discuss • Not introduce the plot, scene or example

3. Explanation • A topic sentence should guide your writing • If you start with a statement about plot, you inevitably start discussing the plot. (So you’re recapping or summarising). • If you start with a sentence about the concept/idea, you will need to explain the idea before you use an example to show it.

4. Example • Changez’s nostalgia doesn’t really come through until the end of the book. • While Changez is back home in Lahore his nostalgia grows for America and also Erica. • In the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to Changez, a man who begins as the narrator whilst meeting an American man in a café in Pakistan. • In the beginning, Changez moved to America on a positive note.

5. Changez first began to alter his identity when he got his scholarship into college.

6. Better examples • America’s stereotyping and values play a major part in Changez’s attempt to adapt his identity to the lifestyle. • Then you need to explain what their values are, why Changez’s values are incompatible and why he tries anyway. You need examples for each too.

7. Write a paragraph using this as the topic sentence • “I was never an American. I was immediately a New Yorker.” How is Changez’s sense of identity altered over the course of the novel? • T: Hamid depicts Changez’s identity as being fluid and constantly changing. • E: As the novel is a dramatic monologue, Changez provides the American with a detailed account of his shifting identity. Hamid uses this to show identity is as much a conscious decision as it is unpredictable. At first, Changez is friendly and plays up this element of his personality for both his American guest (*) and his companions in Greece. (*) Indeed, it is this facet that attracts both Erica and gives the reader some reason to empathize with him. He is clearly out of his element and confused by the environment he is in (*) though he has a keen observational sense as well (*). His fluid identity is shown to leave him susceptible to the influence of others, such as Jim and Erica (*). Changez is effectively different people to them, something he acknowledges (*).