Sandy Hook Shooting

http://24.media.tumblr.com/54bd1320940122b1cdd6a309447a7dec/tumblr_mf4mpr0yJF1qdevr8o1_500.jpg

This picture is of Santa Clause making his way through Connecticut and crying when he saw that there would be children at Sandy Hook Elementary who wouldn’t be getting gifts this year.  This cartoon was created after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in the Sandy Hook village of Newport, Connecticut.  The author of this cartoon is known for creating caricatures, mostly of children.  The event hit him especially hard because he loves children and capturing their happiness through art.  The purpose was to redirect attention from gun control and from Adam Lanza towards the losses of the families in Sandy Hook.  The audience was anyone who has heard of the shooting and is thinking about the families who have lost children, nieces, nephews, siblings, and grandchildren.  I think it’s also for the people who are trying to take this tragedy and manipulate it to be about gun control laws or about who saw warning signs in Adam Lanza.  Instead of trying to push an agenda people might, for once, consider the emotional loss people are going through and the sadness they will deal with taking gifts back to the store for their dead children.  A tool the author used to be successful in achieving his message was the allusion to Santa Claus.  Santa is supposed to represent happiness and the kind of hope and belief only children can have so by showing him crying with the gifts scattered by the sleigh they show how innocence died with the twenty children in that Elementary school. 

Scratch and Dent Dreams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfTa4B7wQ_8

This poem, “Scratch and Dent Dreams,” was written and performed by Eric Darby and won the 2005 Slam Poetry semi-finals.  It is about dreams that we all give up on and what you can do with them when you pick them back up again.  It takes place in a store that sells dreams, hope, and second chances.  Eric Darby is a nationally recognized poet who has competed in and won several poetry competitions.  His works have been included in four spoken word anthologies, and he’s had two albums released by Poetry Jam and Rounder Records.  Currently, he attends Syracuse where is a creative writing fellow.  He wrote this poem to inspire hope in people that give up on their dreams and to lead them to give that same hope to others.  The intended audience was dreamers and those who think of themselves as failures.  Also, the poem was directed towards people who love slam poetry and other works belonging to Eric Darby.  This poem overflows with examples of pathos, comparisons, and hidden meanings.  For example, the title of the poem is scratch and dent dreams.  Something that is “scratch and dent” in a store means that when you take it up to the register you get money off for its imperfections; a small tear or maybe a scratch on the side.  This comparison of imperfect dreams to other “ruined” merchandise was very effective in getting Darby’s message across because it reminded those who have given up or are struggling that just because their dream isn’t as perfect as they’d like, that doesn’t mean it has to be over.  An example of pathos is when Eric said, “You won't have any directions or factory number tabs but don’t panic, there’s a hundred ways to do it right and none to do it wrong.”  The emotions used here are hope and perseverance.  I found this line very effective because often, people give up once things get difficult and he doesn’t want them to do that.  He is basically saying that you can’t mess up your dreams as long as you keep going.

A Question

“A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth.”
- Robert Frost (A Question)

The poem “A Question” by Robert Frost follows a theme common in many of his poems: the simple pleasures and meaning of life.  In it, a voice addresses mankind and asks about life and suffering.  Robert Frost is a famous writer, possibly the greatest American poet of all time.  His style was and is marked by an incredibly mastery of realism and description of rural life.  Unlike some artistic geniuses such as Van Gogh, Frost was greatly appreciated and revered during his time.  And, unlike many artists today, Frost held his more ardent fans in contempt because he felt he should be respected for his work, not worshiped   The purpose of “A Question” was to raise the point whether or not life is worth the suffering we endure.  It was written in 1942, two years after his son Carol Frost committed suicide.  This was most likely a time when Frost underwent a lot of suffering and questioned why bad things like that happened to good people.  The intended audiences were people who question whether or not life is worth it (like Carol Frost) or has any meaning and the people who regularly followed Frost and awaited his new works.  One rhetorical device used by Frost in this poem was punctuation or, more specifically, the lack of it.  Though the simple verse is clearly a question, there is no question mark at the end.  The effect I received from this choice of non-punctuation was that question was rhetorical.  The asker already knew his answer: no “all the soul-and-body scars were not too much to pay for birth.”  I felt this helped him achieve his purpose because, since the idea was to find out whether life was worthwhile, he found and gave an answer.  Another device Frost utilized was ethos via implied metaphor.  He wrote “A voice said, Look me in the stars.”  The implied metaphor here was that the stars were the eyes of this being.  This aided Frost’s purpose because the look me in the stars line coupled with the phrase “And tell me truly, men of earth” made it clear that whoever or whatever was speaking was greater than man, greater than earth, and was capable of deciding objectively that all the suffering mankind dealt with every day was worth it.

I will Fight you for the Library

Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qXgPfMGG8E

The poem “I will Fight you for the Library” by Taylor Mali is a series of four letters one of his former teachers sent when his library time was taken by the dean of instruction, Professor Blackstone, for a meeting on appropriate use of school facilities.  The four letters Mali read as part of this slam poem were the responses to letters sent by the administration in answer to the first message.  Mali is known for his style and flair in slam poetry, a text most often used in competition known as poetry slams.  It expresses a person’s story and/or struggles, usually in an intensely emotional style.  The poem was written for (and technically by) his fifth and sixth grade English teacher, Dr. Joseph D’Angelo.  The purpose of Mali’s poem was to stress that nothing and no one comes before the student, even the teachers and especially the administration.    Mali often varied his tone by raising his volume on phrases like “That Dr. Blackstone, the dean of instruction, would even consider cancelling one class’s library period in order to hold a meeting called facilities utilization IS SO OBTUSE I AM INCAPABLE OF APPRECIATING THE IRONY IN IT.”  It is in this example and others like it that Mali takes full advantage of reading this poem aloud.  While writing to an authority figure a person does not typically use capslock or make any alterations to the text that would imply disrespect.  However, out loud, he could and did show all the emotions felt by the teacher in the poem.  Another rhetorical device Mali utilized was slang.  In his second letter he addressed it “Dear Dick.”  The excuse of course would be that Dick is a nickname for Richard.  However, in reality Mali was using a slang word for jerk which is dick.  This was effective because it showed that Mali was willing to put his job on the line for his students because their education was more important than his job.  This was shown again through the use of the words “If any one of my classes are denied use of the library next week then please alert Dr. Joyce Santiago, the district superintendent, to be ready to accept my resignation.”  In this letter the teacher used logos because he knew that something his superiors could understand--since the importance of research time was apparently beyond their comprehension--was the trouble of hiring a new teacher.  He appealed to their logic and pathos (e.g fear) via an ultimatum to get what he wanted, which was library time when his students needed it.

I Hate e-readers

Link:  http://thecompleteworksofwilliamshakespeare.wordpress.com/tag/i-hate-e-readers/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog

The blog post “I Hate e-readers” is a satirical comparison of e-readers to “real” books. The piece uses heavy sarcasm, profanity, and some other offensive language.  The author does not include their name in their “About” but I will refer to him from this point on as Will because of the name of his blog (The Completely Works of William Shakespeare).  He appears to be very cynical and, based on the other posts he’s made, is not shy about approaching controversial topics such as terrorism in the Middle East and racist jokes.  I assume he is male because of the comment he has posted at the top of the post (I won’t repeat it).  I consider him qualified to write on this topic because it is merely about personal preference and you would be hard-pressed to find someone not qualified to have an opinion. The purpose is to discuss why the e-reader—specifically the Kindle—is inferior to the written word.  Will wrote this piece in the context of a society being revolutionized by e-readers.  As people continue to buy newer and newer Kindles and Nooks he feels that is important to remind people that books are infinitely superior.  His intended audience was people who both like and hate the e-readers.  I think it appealed more to those who don’t like the e-reader because it denounces them.  It could also, however, be interpreted as a text meant for people who do like the e-reader in an attempt to sway them towards having a new opinion.  The two tools used the most in this text are humor and ethos.  As a sub-category, diction helps to establish humor and pathos (this case he appealed to humor).  Several times throughout this post he utilizes humor with language like “the day my world shatters because I can’t consult my National Geographic Illustrated Atlas Of Space on the cross-town bus, I’ve officially got bigger problems” and “The Kindle boasts a screen that ‘reads like real paper without glare, even in bright sunlight’. Y’know what else reads like real paper? Paper.”   Humor did help him achieve his purpose because it takes the edge off of what sometimes errs to very aggressive language.  An example of where he used ethos was by listing the value of books and the Kindle and defending both sides.  This aided Will because, instead of making up petty reasons for while the Kindle is bad, he effectively took the arguments the opposing side would have and refuted them.  Another example of ethos is the title of his blog “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.”  Unless Will was being pretentious, this establishes him as someone who not only likes to read but someone who reads text of considerable value. 

Why it's Time for Jews to get Over the Holocaust

Source:  http://thebeaconmag.com/2012/02/opinions/why-its-time-for-jews-to-get-over-the-holocaust/

The article was surprisingly well-written for such an ignorant title.  In it, author Binyamin Weinreich explains why Jews need to “get over” the Holocaust.  He believes that the Holocaust needs to become a part of cultural memory and history that we can learn from instead of an ugly wound that we continue to poke.  He also discusses how the Holocaust has taken over Jewish culture and how he hopes in the future it can be viewed as a part of Judaism, not its defining point.  The main point of the article was not to anger people but to say that by trying to preserve the Holocaust as if it just happened we are lessening the importance of what occurred and will, therefore, never learn from it.  Binyamin Weinreich is an author for the Beacon Magazine.  He attends Yeshiva University, a private Jewish college located in both New York and Israel.  I believe his intended audience is people in general but more specifically the Jewish community.  They are the ones he wants to “get over” the Holocaust.  However, he also addresses all of mankind in his request to not glorify the Holocaust but merely remember it.  This article was written in 2012, seventy years after the horrible events of the Holocaust, by a man who lives in a situation completely removed from that of Holocaust victims and survivors.  I think that for most people Weinreich did not achieve his purpose because he was very sloppy with his diction.  This can be seen in his choice of title, “Why it’s Time for Jews to get Over the Holocaust.”  He was trying to be clever and instead came off as insensitive and slightly anti-Semitic.  Pathos worked against him here because I, personally, was set on edge for the rest of the article, waiting for him to start praising Hitler or denying the Holocaust altogether.  Another example of where diction did not work out in Weinreich’s favor was when he wrote “get over.”  He meant get over as in accepting the past for what it is and trying to move forward.  Because of his poor word choice it instead sounded like he meant Jewish people needed to get over themselves because the Holocaust wasn’t a big deal.  I understood the points that he was trying to make, not to dwell in the past forever, but he made some unwise choices in relation to wording and offended a lot of people because of it.

The Olympics has Destroyed Womanhood

The source for this article was thethinkinghousewife, a random house wife’s (Laura Wood) blog.  If this wasn't a topic about women and opinions I don’t believe that she would be especially qualified to speak about any current events as much as a journalist would be.  The name of Wood’s blog grabbed my attention immediately because it seemed to me like she would be the kind of woman who ran her home but was still in your face about feminism. I thought that because the title of her blog was the thinking housewife as if housewives were normally not thinking.  Instead, I found that she adhered to the idea of women as homemakers with curves and a cookbook at hand.  The purpose of this article was to address the piece written by Yuksel Aytug, the Turkish journalist who said that the Olympics were destroying womanhood.  Wood felt that it was necessary to show some support for Aytug in the midst of a storm of angry responses to his article.  In the fallout of what most perceived to be an incredibly misogynistic statement Wood praised Aytug for finally saying what everyone was thinking back at home.  The intended audience was for people who agreed with Aytug that female Olympic athletes were ruining feminism or who she felt needed to be swayed into believing that Aytug was not, in fact, a misogynist.  I’m not exactly sure how well Wood achieved her purpose because she seemed to be winning and losing with each word she typed.  On one hand she established ethos really well, backing herself up with the opinions of other people who agreed and had pictures ready to show of androgynous women from the Olympics.  On the other hand, some of her language was far too strong and I found it off-putting. For example, when she said, “The Olympic Games are anti-woman. They require female athletes to ape men in grotesque ways. They compromise female fertility and modesty. They promote the idea that aggression and competitiveness in women are normal and healthy. They debase not just women athletes but womanhood throughout the world.”  To me it seemed like she made a huge claim that she doesn’t have any solid evidence to back it up and a sweeping generalization.  The claim she made was that the Olympics are anti-women.  That’s a pretty ridiculous thing to say, in my opinion, considering that if they were that anti-women then women wouldn’t be allowed to compete in them.  Women, unlike in a lot of other fields, are not treated much differently than the men in this competition and are given just as much praise for their achievements. The generalization she used was that that the Olympics “debase not just women athletes but womanhood throughout the world.”  Just to be sure I was getting the meaning correct I looked up the word debase which was defined as lowering the quality of something.  The Olympics literally put women on a pedestal and give them gold for being the very best at something around the world.  In what way does that debase them?  By using diction with negative connotations like grotesque and debase Wood, in my opinion, achieved the opposite of what she was hoping by making me offended instead of agree with her. 

 

How to Write About Africa

The essay How to Write About Africa is from the book One day I will Write About this Place by Binyavanga Wainaina.  Wainaina is a Kenyan author, as regular as Meg Cabot or John Green, who has been awarded in the past for his works.  It is a satirical piece on what to do and what not to do when writing about Africa.  Binyavanga wrote this piece with the goal of directing people away from the typical stories of Africa where every man is a Warlord and ever child is emaciated and waiting for someone to save them.  Another purpose for his writing might be to tell people how to speak or act in Africa with decorum.  How to Write about Africa was written for a memoir in 2005 after Wainaina had enough of reading about an Africa so different from the world he knew.  The intended audience for this essay was people who need to learn to properly write about any country other than their own without an ethnocentric lens.  It could also have been written for people curious about Africa or looking for a guide to writing about it.  Starting with the title, How to Write About Africa, Wainaina is sending a distinct message: this is not your typical story about Africa.  The very name of his essay implies that not only will he be writing about how other people incorrectly depict Africa but that he will use humor to do so.  By starting off the essay with humor he lightens the mood of what could easily be turned into a condescending rant.  Instead of jumping down the throats of people who stereotype Africa he establishes an almost friendly ease that allows you to read with more comfort.  Wainaina uses biting sarcasm throughout the essay to tease people who write incorrectly about Africa.  For example he says, “Always use the word ‘Africa’ or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title. Subtitles may include the words ‘Zanzibar’, ‘Masai’, ‘Zulu’, ‘Zambezi’, ‘Congo’, ‘Nile’, ‘Big’, ‘Sky’, ‘Shadow’, ‘Drum’, ‘Sun’ or ‘Bygone’. Also useful are words such as ‘Guerrillas’, ‘Timeless’, ‘Primordial’ and ‘Tribal’.”  This quote is also an example of how how Wainaina parodies African writing.  In this case the subject of the joke would be people who think of Africa as one country with one kind of people and one history.

I will Plant you a Lilac Tree

I will Plant you a Lilac Garden is honestly one of my favorite books ever.  Laura Hillman’s story is one of hope during a dark time, courage under fire, and love despite brutality.  It follows her from the time when she was still called Hannelore and lived at a boarding school for Jewish girls in Berlin.  When she receives a letter from her mother telling her that her father is dead and that she and her brothers Selly and Wolfgang are being deported east she gets permission to go with them.  The story follows her through her times in a ghetto, eight labor and concentration camps, and her love affair with a polish Nazi guard.  She is also put on Schindler’s list but I won’t tell anything about the ending involving her soldier or whether or not she made it to Schindler’s factory.  The memoir was written by Laura Hillman, Holocaust Survivor.  What makes Hillman unique, even from other people in the Holocaust, is that she was one of the chosen few on Oskar Schindler’s list and that she fell in love with one of the guards at a concentration camp.  She is obviously an expert on not only life in the ghettos and concentration camps but also of her own life.  The purpose of I will Plant you a Lilac Tree, like most Holocaust memoirs, is to share a story.    It also shows people the circumstances of Nazi Germany in a way that a textbook never will.  The memoir takes place during ages 16 to 18 of Hillman’s life from 1942 until 1945.  During this period of time Laura Hillman, like many other Jews, was a victim to hate crimes during the Holocaust.  I think there was no particular audience.  With memoirs I never really believe the author is writing for anyone but themselves so they can get the memories onto paper.  Regardless, her audience ended up being anyone curious about the Holocaust and probably even other survivors who might have found comfort in seeing that other people made it out “okay.”  The most predominately used rhetorical device in this book was pathos. In telling her story and the terrible injustices she went though Laura causes the reader to empathize with her.  The most effective uses of pathos in my opinion were the times that she had every day feelings that allowed readers who haven’t experienced anything like the Holocaust to relate to her more.  An example of this would be when she said “Love is not something you plan, it just happens.”  Even people who haven’t fallen in love recognize surprise and will be able to recognize that.  Another rhetorical device Hillman used throughout her memoir was diction.  Her story was retold in short sentences as if she were speaking out loud to each and every person that read the book.  It also gave the impression the words she was writing were difficult to choose and write because of the importance they held to her.  A quote that shows this is one which tells the story of the memoir's title “‘A lilac tree,’ I said.  ‘It bloomed every May around the time of Mama’s birthday.  Papa was a romantic; he would stand under the tree and sing songs of lilacs and love to her.’”

Wonders of the African World

The source I analyzed this week was an excerpt from Wonders of the African World by Henry Gates.  It was about the apathy, disconnect, and sometimes even contempt the African-American community has towards its homeland.  The author is Henry Louis Gates Jr, Cambridge and Yale graduate and awarded writer, educator, and intellectual.  Gates wrote the book to help the plight of African-Americans. That community has a different history from the rest of America and they are turning away from it.  I think he hoped to, by showing them that Africa isn’t all tribes and genocide, get African-Americans to reconcile with their heritage.  o   The situation of context that most accurately applies is occasion.  Henry Gates wrote this book to answer the question what do Black people have in common with Africans after a lifetime growing up with people who turned away from their ancestry.   I think the intended audience was people who try to distance themselves from their roots not just African-Americans.  The history of who we are can change the opportunities we have in life and our experiences so it’s important to hold a certain level of respect for where we come from.  One rhetorical tool Gates used with ethos.  He established himself as someone who could speak on both African-American apathy to heritage and to the richness of African roots.  He showed that he knew about how Black people turned away from their culture by referencing an “I ain’t left nuthin in Africa” award given at his family reunion and his daughters who were “unrepentantly American.”

I have a dream

http://dblawg.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/att00037.jpg?w=510&h=380

The political cartoon is one of Martin Luther King sitting in a chair with his I have a dream speech saying pinch me. The pinch me related to the dream he had of equality.  The idea that the audience is supposed to get is that his dreams are finally coming true so he wants to be pinched to see if it is reality or not.  The rhetor is political cartoonist Chan Lowe from the Florida Sun Sentinel.  I considered this source to be reliable because it was from a newspaper and because Chan Lowe has created countless cartoons to depict current events.  The purpose of this cartoon was to commemorate the election of Barack Obama and the progress that this country has made in terms of racism.  The cartoon was made in 2008, presumably around the time that Obama was elected into office.  The intended audience was the people who regularly view Lowe’s cartoons on the “Lowe-Down.”  Another part of the audience was supporters of Obama and the apathetic so that they could appreciate and understand the importance of Obama’s win.  The rest of the audience was people who read the Sentinel.  One rhetorical aspect to Lowe’s picture is the use of pathos.  By showing a very tired looking Martin Luther King saying pinch me the author evokes feelings of triumph, happiness, and pride.  MLK worked for so long to find equality for all people and the country had just taken a huge step towards his vision.  It was also celebratory which made people feel happy.

This is the Election of a Lifetime

When they occurred a few weeks ago I watched both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.  After being armed with the idea of notemaking and close-reading I re-watching certain speeches like those of Clint Eastwood and Scarlett Johansson and realized I hadn't obtained all the possible information.  I laughed and cheered when I was supposed to but was reminded that it wasn't until halfway through Eastwood’s monologue that I realized he wasn't being senile but talking to an invisible Obama.  So I decided to go back and examine some of my favorite and least favorite speeches.  The speaker I finally landed on was Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts.  His speech “This is the Election of a Lifetime” focused mostly on current democratic ideals and on the potentially great or horrible future waiting for Americans. He also spoke on both Obama and Romney’s past experiences in leading government.

The speech was filmed by PBS (along with many other news stations) but given by Patrick.  Due to his job as governor he is qualified to speak on politics and as governor of Massachusetts he is qualified to speak on Mitt Romney.  Deval had many purposes to his speech.  One was to rally the democrats at the DNC and get them excited about President Obama.  Another reason for the speech was to reach the viewers at home; the everyday people who might not keep up so ardently with politics, and inform them who their options were.  Deval wanted to make people feel that not only is Mitt Romney a poor choice for president but that Obama is a great one.

Deval was in the ideal setting to deliver a speech that advocated gay marriage, being pro-choice, and other liberal ideals.  Tha crowd was already amped up and by the end he had them on their feet, cheering and believing that Obama was the best chance for their future.  Had he been speaking to Republicans he would have most likely been received poorly for that exact speech.  The Massachusetts governor had four different audiences for his speech at the DNC.  The first being the democrats present at the convention that he was merely working to motivate.  His second audience was the people at home who weren't sure who they were voting for who he attempted to sway towards Obama.  He intended for his third audience, Republicans who are voting for Romney to educate them on the hopes of the Obama administration and Mitt Romney’s track record.  The fourth and final audience—American citizens indifferent to the election—were meant to understand how crucial this election is and who their best chance for a better future was.

As with most public speakers Deval utilized rhetoric to persuade people to agree with his point which in this case that yes, Obama is our best chance.  An example in which he used rhetoric was pointing out the republican stance on education.  They say that the children are the future but many of their policies would leave those who weren't fortunate enough financially behind.    “Today’s republicans…and their nominee for president tell us that those first graders are on their own.  On their own to deal with their poverty…With an underfunded school …with no access to nutritious food…With a job market that needs skills that they don’t have, with no way to pay for college.  But those Orchard Garden’s kids should not be left alone.  Those children are American’s children too!  Yours and mine.”  This quote uses rhetoric to sway readers to feel and think many things.  It makes you feel for the unfortunate and their plight for success.  From that worry the idea would sprout  to vote for a president that would help those children.  In Deval's opinion, that president would be Barack Obama.  The quote also pulls on the heartstrings of Americans.  It appeals to the softer side of people that makes them protective of their family.  By telling his viewers that all of America's children are their children he makes each parent want to protect the futures of those children just like they would their own.  Another instance of rhetoric would be when Patrick said, “And we believe that government has a role to play—not in solving every problem in everybody’s life—but in helping people help themselves to the American dream.  That’s what democrats believe.  That’s what America believes…We’re Americans.  We shape our own future.”  This particular except focuses on patriotism.  Every person living in America right now is struggling towards the American dream and by associating the president with patriotism (not a difficult feat) he creates the idea that the patriotic thing to do, the right thing to do, is to vote for Obama.

I think Deval succeeded in his aims for three reasons.  One, his speech stuck in my head and it his words and those of others at the DNC that would cause me to vote for Obama if I had the chance.  Two, he did reach his democratic listeners both at the convention and at home and assure them that a vote for Obama was essentially a vote for their own happiness.  And third, unlike other speeches like Eastwood's or the words of others celebrities like Scarlett Johansson, Deval could not be criticized for rambling at any empty chair or for talking about a topic he was not authorized to speak on.