Lauren Soth is working throughout her article to express and demonstrate Van Gogh's intentions and therefore Van Gogh's agony as the meaning behind his masterpiece , Starry night. Soth's thesis holds that the painting was intended to console, but also another failed attempt to paint “The Agony in the Garden” which was intended to be imaginative, but based on conceptual history. At first his thesis seemed too bold, even if questionable. By hiding his opinions and focusing on hard evidence such as solid visual analysis, powerful biographical details, and letters written by Van Gogh himself, Soth's seemingly exaggerated opinion turns into an insightful and well-supported thesis. An isolated look at Soth's organizational style shows he is hiding his views. Instead of classifying and separating a few paragraphs, it limits the number of theories and turns them into a logical conclusion based on verifiable evidence. One of the first examples in his article is the section called conceptual history. The topic sentence expresses his belief that Van Gogh was troubled by the idea of ​​painting the night sky. He states the facts about the letters written by Van Gogh and later provides the reader with the actual letter as evidence. This style works by making the reader view his belief as fact rather than an interpretation because of the logic with which he follows his interpretation. This technique is highly persuasive and highlights the form of the argument in each paragraph as one of its key strengths in supporting its thesis. Another way the organization strengthens its argument is by having clear topic sentences that all support Soth's thesis. These topic sentences are usually interpretations, but, as explained in the previous paragraph, very well supported. This… middle of the paper… that extra push to at least mention this potential bias and demonstrate that he was aware of these connotations. For the reader, the article is both incredibly rewarding and frustrating, especially with the last line of the article: “At its deepest level, the Starry Night is Van Gogh's Agony.” The boldness of this statement seems pompous at first glance. The idea that a masterpiece could be reduced to something so simple was disturbing. However, through the organizational style, overwhelming facts, examples with the artist's words and connecting it to the Agony in the Garden; the idea of ​​unfounded snobbery is rejected. So much so that the irritation is replaced by a sort of admiration for an extremely well thought out and passionately provocative conclusion. Works Cited Soth, Lauren. "The Agony of Van Gogh." The Art Bulletin vol. 68, no, 2 (1986): 301-313.