1. Friendship
Mrs. Haden

2. Thesis
Friendship motivates human behavior because we go above and beyond to protect our friends and we allow ourselves to be influenced by their desires.

3. Literature

4. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Eric is willing to do anything to protect and support Sarah Byrnes.
Sarah Byrnes motivated by Eric’s desires
Finally tells him the truth
Trusts Mrs. Lemery
Eric motivated to protect Sarah Byrnes
Hides her from her father
Suffers a stab wound
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes also demonstrates how friendship motivates human behavior. When Sarah Byrnes, Eric’s best friend, stops talking, he is determined to do whatever it takes to protect her and help her heal.
Sarah Byrnes becomes influenced by Eric’s desire to help and ultimately admits to him that her father has been abusing her since she was a child. She is also influenced by Eric to trust and temporary hide out in Mrs. Lemry’s, Eric’s teacher, house to avoid her father. It is Eric trusts in Mrs. Lemry and his desire to protect Sarah Byrnes that pushes her into trusting Mrs. Lemry herself.
Eric is also motivated by friendship. The love that he has to Sarah Byrnes motivated him to do whatever it takes to protect Sarah Byrnes from her father, including having a face to face confrontation with Virgil Byrnes that ends with a knife in Eric’s back, literarily!

5. Media Sources

6. The First Wives Club
Three women, Elise, Annie, and Brenda, all betrayed and wronged by their ex husbands.
Work together to get revenge on their ex husbands.
Create a woman’s support facility

7. Connection to Literary Work
Groups of friends working together to recover.
Over coming insecurities
Burned face
Being replaced by younger women
Over coming threats
Virgil Byrnes
Financial devastation

8. Connection to thesis The women support and encourage each other.
Annie has low self-esteem
Motivated by protection
Brenda’s ex husband won’t help pay for bar mitzvah
Motivated by desire of each other
Find blackmail on Bill (Elise’s ex)

9. Laurie Halse Anderson Speak
Melinda is raped at a party
Calls 911 – outcast
Melinda unable to speak up
Ivy supports her
Melinda finally tells Rachel in order to protect her
Andy finds out
Melinda stands up to Andy

10. Connection to Literary Work
Young high school girls being silenced by mistreatment
Motivated by friends to take a stance
Melinda
Ivy’s support
Desire to protect Rachel
Sarah Byrnes
Eric’s support
Eric’s desire to protect Sarah Byrnes

11. Connection to thesis Melinda gets support from Ivy – bathroom graffiti
Melinda motivated by desires others
Write on the bathroom wall
Melinda motivated to protect Rachel
Afraid Andy might rape Rachel too
Speak demonstrates how friendship motivates human behavior. Melinda, who remains silent after being raped before her freshman year, does not really start to entertain the idea of telling anyone what happened until she sees Andy, her rapist, with her ex-best friend, Rachel.
When Melinda realizes that Andy may do to Rachel what he did to her, she is overcome with emotions from the memories her and Rachel once shared.
Melinda’s desire to protect Rachel because of how much Rachel’s friendship meant to her is what pushes her to reveal the truth about what happened to her at the party.

12. Counterargument Some may feel that money is a bigger motivator
Money does not buy happiness
Money has limitations
Risking life
Major sacrifices
No limitations on protection
Act without hesitation
Ex: Eric – never wanting to face Virgil but willing to take a knife in the back
Although some people may feel that money is the biggest human motivator, this is not true. Money does not buy happiness, and there are limitations to what people are willing to do for money. No amount of money could convince someone to lay down their lives or undergo extreme torture, but many people would do these things without hesitation to protect someone that they loved or cared deeply for, such as a friend. Eric, in Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, mentions that Sarah’s dad, Virgil, is so terrifying that nothing in the world would make him want to face Virgil’s wrath, yet he is willing to do so in a heartbeat in when it is to protect his best friend. This demonstrates how friendship is a stronger human motivator than money.