An Analysis of Max Shulman’s Love is a Fallacy
Running Head: FALLACIOUS WOMAN
Fallacious Woman:
An Analysis of Max Shulman’s Love is a Fallacy
Robert de la Rosa
South Texas College
Ms. Laura Steinert
English 1302.W06
October 21, 2008
Fallacious Woman:
An Analysis of Max Shulman’s Love is a Fallacy Reading is a favorite past time of many people in the world. It has the power to transport the reader to other places and times that he might never be able to see. Reading can even take the reader to places that do not exist, or places that once did but will never again. For readers who are short on time but would love to explore these new worlds, there is a genre of literature dedicated to fast and fun reading called short stories. Short stories are usually works full of fun and entertaining characters and littered aplenty with literary devices and interesting twists. A favorite of such short stories is Max Shulman’s Love is a Fallacy. Love is a Fallacy is a fun short story where the author teaches basic principles of fallacies in an entertaining way. Shulman’s Love is a Fallacy is about a young man attending the University of Minnesota in the early 1950’s. The main character, who is narrating the story, is a self described “keen, calculating, perspicacious, acute, and astute” individual whose goal during this story is to obtain, from his friend Petey Burch, a girl by the name of Polly Epsy. Petey is an illogical young man who desperately wants a raccoon coat, and he makes a deal with the narrator to give him Polly for a coat – because anybody who is anybody at the time has a raccoon coat. Polly is a beautiful girl whom the main character is infatuated with, as he sees her as a girl that would be fitting for the man he was to become. He believes that when he is a lawyer, he needs to have a beautiful woman as his wife just as he sees all good lawyers do. The only drawback to his plan was that Polly Epsy did not seem to be the brightest girl on campus – much to the
Fallacious Woman:
An Analysis of Max Shulman’s Love is a Fallacy
Robert de la Rosa
South Texas College
Ms. Laura Steinert
English 1302.W06
October 21, 2008
Fallacious Woman:
An Analysis of Max Shulman’s Love is a Fallacy Reading is a favorite past time of many people in the world. It has the power to transport the reader to other places and times that he might never be able to see. Reading can even take the reader to places that do not exist, or places that once did but will never again. For readers who are short on time but would love to explore these new worlds, there is a genre of literature dedicated to fast and fun reading called short stories. Short stories are usually works full of fun and entertaining characters and littered aplenty with literary devices and interesting twists. A favorite of such short stories is Max Shulman’s Love is a Fallacy. Love is a Fallacy is a fun short story where the author teaches basic principles of fallacies in an entertaining way. Shulman’s Love is a Fallacy is about a young man attending the University of Minnesota in the early 1950’s. The main character, who is narrating the story, is a self described “keen, calculating, perspicacious, acute, and astute” individual whose goal during this story is to obtain, from his friend Petey Burch, a girl by the name of Polly Epsy. Petey is an illogical young man who desperately wants a raccoon coat, and he makes a deal with the narrator to give him Polly for a coat – because anybody who is anybody at the time has a raccoon coat. Polly is a beautiful girl whom the main character is infatuated with, as he sees her as a girl that would be fitting for the man he was to become. He believes that when he is a lawyer, he needs to have a beautiful woman as his wife just as he sees all good lawyers do. The only drawback to his plan was that Polly Epsy did not seem to be the brightest girl on campus – much to the
References: Conwi1wd. Racoon_coat_1.jpg. Retrieved October 20, 2008, from http://media.photobucket.com/image/raccoon%20coat/conwi1wd/Other/raccoon_coat_1.jpg?o=2 Shulman, M. (1951). Love is a fallacy. In F. White & S. Billings (Eds.), The well-crafted argument (184-192). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Takekun (August 1, 2006). Love in another perspective. Retrieved October 15, 2008, from http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Love-Another-Perspective/93007.