The So What

Did I learn things in college?

Yes.

Are they applicable to real life?

Debatable.

One of the things drilled into my head during my Honors classes was this: "So what?" Every paper has to have a thesis, but it also has to have a So What: Why does your thesis statement matter? Why should anyone care? Why should they waste their time reading your writing?

So Whats are hard to write because, like most writing, they can be pretty subjective. What you care about isn't what everyone else cares about, or, more pointedly, what your professor cares about. In other words, good luck, sucka.

A few nights ago, I had a dream about one of my favorite books, Danny the Champion of the World.

I use the term "dream" loosely, because for the past four months or so I've mostly had waking dreams, aka dreams where my alarm goes off several times. I hit the snooze button, roll over, and go back to sleep to continue dreaming. The dreams then become fragmented, peppered with articulated thoughts from my waking state.

During this particular waking dream, I was composing a thesis statement about how Danny the Champion of the World is vastly different from Roald Dahl's other children's books. The book has no magical candy or marvelous medicine. There are no giants or witches. There no talking giraffes, foxes, or hippopotamuses. The book has a slight feel of magical realism, but it's mostly wacky hijinks. Every event in the book could feasibly happen in real life. It probably wouldn't, but it could.

The problem was that I couldn't figure out my So What. I couldn't figure out why this mattered. So, after hitting the snooze button four or five times, as I laid my head back down on my pillow I realized I needed a different thesis.

This time, I started thinking how, although many of Roald Dahl's books prominently feature female characters and at least two I could think of have female protagonists, Danny the Champion of the World has almost no "onscreen" female characters. I could think of only one woman who was actually involved in a scene.

This seemed like a much more interesting topic. However, what was the So What? Why should people care? Why did it matter?

My alarm blared one last time. This time, I sat up for good. And as I did, it all came rushing to me: It didn't! It didn't matter! Danny's mother died when he was a baby. He's raised entirely by his father on the outskirts of a small village, and he goes to an all-male school with all-male teachers as was common in the book's time period (and which matches Roald Dahl's own educational experience). The doctor, the constable, and the wealthy villain obsessed with hunting are all male, as also was fitting for the time period. None of these characters could have feasibly been female due to the setting and circumstances of the story!

This was the grand epiphany I had as I woke with a start. I was pretty happy with my conclusion. However, the more I think about it, the more I am certain that this particular So What wouldn't have flown with my professors. In fact, although I think Waking Dream Awkward Mormon Girl had a good point, my So What of "It doesn't matter" was probably impressive to only me.

It's probably good that I'm no longer in college.