TOW #13

Elizabeth Wurtzel employed anaphora as a strategy to show how she thought that perhaps her life was turning around and thus how people and small things can significantly improve one’s mood just for it to fall back down again. She did so in her creative nonfiction book, Prozac Nation, which became a national bestseller and a major motion picture due to its profound truths about life with depression and trying to recover from it. In trying to make sense of the different aspects of depression, she mentions an anecdotal story of her short romance with a boy named Zachary; how that relationship elevated her mood just to deplete it shortly after when he broke up with her. She used anaphora by writing, “I start to think, Maybe Zachary and I will be together forever and it all really will work out okay. Maybe I will marry him. Maybe I am Cinderella at the ball. Maybe fourteen isn’t too young to know who’s right for you, especially since nothing ever seemed right before Zachary.” (Wurtzel 101). Through repeating ‘Maybe I will’ and ‘Maybe’, Elizabeth Wurtzel expresses how hopeful she was for the prospect of a better future, likely spent with Zachary. A few paragraphs later though, she breaks the unfortunate news that he broke up with her not long after their relationship significantly impacted how she was feeling. This instance, and this use of anaphora, was used by Wurtzel to show the reader how someone with depression has a fragile mental state that can easily be swayed by a simple interaction. It shows the reader how someone can transition from being a hopeful, loving character to an emotional wreck due to the actions of another person. I believe that her rhetoric helped her prove this idea and supported her purpose by showing how happy and hopeful she felt and how that great mood can be diminished so quickly. 

TOW #12

In a letter to the editor of the New York Times regarding an editorial article about the controversy in connection to Muslim women wearing traditional Hijabs and Burqas, Anne Rosselot strategically lists her credibility to support her point. The New York Times published the letter on its website due to its interesting points about people who disapprove of the custom of wearing the concealing articles of clothing. Rosselot’s purpose in writing and subsequently sending the message was to express her dismay and show the impracticality of how she is labelled as a bigot for wishing that people refrained from hiding their faces. In order to show her ethos as someone who is, in any other sense, not at all bigoted, Anne Rosselot listed her ethos as a liberal. She said, “I am a woman, a feminist, a Democrat, an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter, the proud mother of a lesbian, a progressive Christian, a supporter of civil rights, a believer that Black Lives Matter, and a welcomer of refugees and other immigrants.” (Rosselot 1). These descriptors of Rosselot show the reader how she is not a bigot, because these are all feelings and actions opposite to those felt and taken by dictionary definition bigots. By listing all of the many reasons why Anne Rosselot believes she is not a bigot, she shows how insane it is that just because she worries about the security risks that emanate from women wearing the headscarves. She thus builds credibility of her statement about how she is personally not a bigot in order to support her claim that people who disagree with one liberal ideal should not immediately be cast out as conservatives or rudely called bigots. I believe that this use of rhetoric was incredibly supportive of the author’s thesis and effectively helped her convince the reader of her point. 

TOW #11

In his second inaugural address on March 4^th, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln employed the appeal to logos in order to strengthen his argument that though there was a lot to celebrate in America, there was even more to work on in order to create a better nation. Lincoln’s speech was very positive because he was glad to have been elected president again although it had and underlying tone that gave the speech an unhappier mood. Lincoln discussed how there were many things which the nation had to improve on before there could be cause for celebration. As an example of something that the country need to change, Lincoln stated, “One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it.” (Lincoln). In this quote, the president employed an appeal to logos in his specific fact about how many people in America were slaves prior to the Civil War. The shocking reality of 1/8^th of the country being slaves was an appeal to logic, or logos. Lincoln included this appeal to surprise the listener and convince them that slavery was a real problem that they were lucky to have changed, but also that there are still other issues which need to be addressed and fixed by the citizens. By appealing to logos in this way and by sharing a shocking statistic about the nation’s past in order to show how much work is still left to be done in the future, Lincoln further achieved his purpose which was to convince the listeners that the nation should be proud of where it has come from but also not neglect the progress it has yet to make. I believe that through this use of rhetoric amongst others throughout the piece, Lincoln proved the argument he was trying to make. 

TOW #10

In his political cartoon depicting the 2017 presidential inaugural address during which president elect Donald Trump will be sworn into office next January, author Mike Luckovich uses humorous irony to make a powerful statement about the man which American has decided to run this country. Mike Luckovich created this image for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, which he has been creating similar political cartons for since 1989. He has won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning and the Reuben Award for Most Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. The image shows the United States Presidential Inauguration, set to take place on Friday, January 20^th 2017 in which Donald Trump, who was elected president this year, is drawn swearing on the bible. In the image, Donald Trump is drawn saying, “For a limited time, you too can own one of these fabulous Trump Bibles.” (Luckovich). There is irony in how Donald Trump is using the most esteemed honor in American history as a ploy to make more money by selling the Holy Book for profit. By using this rhetorical strategy, Luckovich is making a powerful statement about how Donald Trump is more a business man than political figure, and that he will treat this high-ranking position as such. He is also making a statement about how Donald Trump plans to use his position in office to benefit himself and his business and that he does not respect the honor that has been placed upon him. It is clear that this image was created in spite of Trump, to undermine his political agenda and reason for running for office. Mike Luckovich used his skills as a political cartoonist to convey such thoughts of his and to show his audience the real man which they have voted for and placed in office. I believe that his use of rhetoric, specifically irony, convey a strong and pronounced message about this year’s president elect. Luckovich strategically employed the irony in his cartoon and it helped him effectively achieve his purpose. 

TOW #9

      Jesse Wegman employed subtle symbolism in his editorial piece, ‘The Doll in the Blue Pantsuit’ to convey how Hillary Clinton supporters showed such interest and commitment soon after she announced she would be running for her chance to become the 45^th president of the United States, although not long after that her supports lost interested which ultimately cost her the election. This piece was thoughtfully composed by Jesse Wegman, editorial writer on law and the Supreme Court for the New York Times and previously the managing editor of The New York Observer, days after Donald Trump was announced the president elect in the 2016 presidential election. In his article, Wegman talks about how his daughter once idolized a doll depicting Hillary Clinton, then discarded it until the day of the election. The doll was used by the author as a symbol of Hillary Clinton and his daughter’s ephemeral amusement was used to depict that of Hillary’s supporters. Wegman writes about his young daughter’s time spent playing with the doll, stating, “For a while, Sami loved the doll; she called it Blue Baby, and when her language got better, Hilly Kinton. Then she lost interest” (Wegman 3). Many people, mostly democratic voters in support of Clinton, blamed poor voter turnout on the account of liberal youth as the reason she lost to her seemingly incompetent opponent. In this text, Wegman uses the symbolism of his daughter’s doll to express to his readers how many people supported Hillary in the beginning of her campaign, then forgot about the ongoing election for a few months in between, only to regain interest in the last minute. Wegman later reveals in the article that he and his wife were devastated by the result of the election thus Wegman used his writing and employed various rhetorical devices to subtly intertwine his thoughts into his work. I found this symbolism to be powerful, although very hidden. If it was more pronounced, I feel like it would be much more effective in achieving the author’s purpose.

TOW #8

In Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel, the author employs the rhetorical strategies of allusion and metaphor to convey how sad and hopeless she felt in order to make her audience understand what it is like to have chronic depression. In this book, Wurtzel reminisced on the true story of how she came to realize that she was depressed and bipolar at a young age. She was a published author prior to the release of Prozac Nation and this book made her a national bestselling author. The rhetoric is evident when Wurtzel writes, “Just like Gregor Samsa waking up to find he’d become a six-foot-long roach, only in my case, I had invented the monster and now it was overtaking me.” (Wurtzel 46). By alluding to The Metamorphosis, a 1915 novel about a man who transforms into a giant cockroach, Elizabeth Wurtzel is able to support her metaphor that follows. She does so by relating a possibly confusing statement to something that is more commonly known and understood. Wurtzel’s mention of creating and becoming a monster is a metaphor for how she created and became a victim to her own sadness. By comparing the depression to a monster, Wurtzel is able to show her audience how terrifying and violent the illness is for most people and that it is often inescapable. She also states that she created the monster or the depression as a way of saying that she felt as though the depression was her own fault, which is a common and often misunderstood feeling for depressed people. Overall, Elizabeth Wurtzel strategically employs various rhetorical devices to further support her purpose of the book. I believe that she is very successful in doing so since I found that, as someone who has suffered from both bipolar and depression, what she said was very relatable and true. I can imagine that for people who have never experienced either disorder, reading this book would help them understand the common feelings associated with them. 

TOW #7

In “Getting In” by Malcolm Gladwell, the author employs the rhetorical strategy of repetition to support his idea that the pressure to get into top colleges is constant and repetitive for students in the United States. Malcolm Gladwell is a well-known writer, speaker, and journalist for the New Yorker. He attended college at the University of Toronto in Canada, as he recalls in his essay, and first heard of the competitive nature of U.S. college admissions soon after arriving in the country. Gladwell writes about how this surprised him and varied quite a bit from his experience with college admissions in Canada. He explores the purpose and reasoning for the prominence of this idea of getting into the best of the best schools. In the essay, Gladwell discusses the competitiveness revolving around college admissions in the United States and the pressure to get into a top university. He makes a point about this by writing, “the precocious and sensitive protagonist always went to Harvard; if he was troubled, he dropped out of Harvard; in the end he returned to Harvard to complete his senior thesis” (Gladwell 4). By repeating the name Harvard three times in one sentence, Gladwell makes a bold statement about how prevalent these prestigious Ivy League schools are in American society and that the proud, outspoken nature of the colleges creates stress for applicants to want to get in. The repetition of the prominent university name shows how Malcolm Gladwell believes that it is talked about far too often in the ambitious United States society, making the name almost seem redundant for people and students. I found that this device greatly aided in Gladwell’s strive to achieve his purpose throughout his essay. It made me think about and question the stress that society puts on students and that students put on themselves as well to get accepted into schools like Harvard. 

TOW #6

In this political cartoon by Jerry Holbert for the Boston Herald newspaper, the author uses hyperbole and humor to capture the audience’s attention and cause them to understand the bad situation this nation is in as a result of the nominees running for president. Jerry Herald is a photographer and political cartoonist for the Boston Herald, a reliable and dignified news source. The cartoon depicts three people sitting down near a board game. The man on the left says “Would I rather get thrown off a cliff or run over by a truck?” (Holbert) and the reader, as well as the lady sitting to his right, assume that it is a question from a ‘Would-You-Rather’ board game. The man on the right then clarifies the reality of the situation by saying, “[It’s] not a game, he’s deciding ‘Hillary’ or ‘Trump’” (Holbert). The man was referring to the 2016 presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, suggesting that neither would be a good fit for president by comparing the choice between them to picking one of two awful deaths. The hyperbole in Holbert’s comparison is in the extreme nature of the options the man on the left was trying to pick between. This rhetorical strategy draws attention to how horrible he thinks the two candidates are and that either one is going to have devastating effects on America’s government and citizens. The author also used humor in his depiction by comparing something so important as choosing between presidential candidates and playing a silly bard game. This draws the attention of the reader and makes them more attentive to the message which Holbert is trying to get across. The two devices work together to create an extreme and joking tone for an image regarding a heavy topic. This pulls the reader in and shows them how serious and horrible the state of the election is in. I believe that the author was definitely successful in his strive to achieve his purpose and I found that the cartoon was very funny and knowledgeable at the same time.

 

TOW #5

Mikayla Joffe

TOW #4

In The Butterfly Effect by Jennifer Lunden, the author uses drastic comparisons to help the reader understand the migration of Monarch butterflies, the beauty in their journey, and, overall, form a new appreciation for the spectacular creatures. This essay by Lunden won her first place in the Creative Nonfiction’s Winter 2011 issue and a Pushcart Prize. More of her works have been featured in Orion and Wigleaf and the Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine. In this essay, Lunden depicts her journey from the frosty Canada to a more temperate area in California, similar to that of migrating monarch butterflies, although she traveled via plane. By employing the strategy of comparison, the author explains the differences between the journey of Monarch butterflies in their migration and the human journey on an airplane. She does this to create a feeling of envy in the reader, making them jealous of the simplicity in their migration and thus bring the reader to further admire the elegance and magnificence of the often over-looked insect. Lunden writes, “When a monarch butterfly sets off on its journey to its winter destination, it does not have to pay a $100 fee because its suitcase is 25 pounds over the limit. It does not have to take off its shoes, its watch, its coat and scarf, in case of bombs. […] It does not have to worry about going down. It does not worry.” (Lunden 10). By describing all of the small nuisances of travel which humans going on planes have to endure, like paying fees and removing various articles of clothing as a precaution against bombs, and comparing that too the simplicity of the butterflies’ journey, the author supports her purpose. Jennifer Lunden therefore sparks a newfound appreciation and admiration of monarch butterflies in the reader. I, too, experienced this feeling of jealousy and appreciation for the butterflies. I was swept up in the author’s writing and use of rhetorical strategies and I believe that she achieved her purpose with ease. 

TOW #4

In What You Learn in College by Karen Donley-Hayes, Hayes uses powerful anaphora to provoke a sense of urgency and anxiety in the tone so that the reader can feel what she was feeling and understand the terror she experienced. The author is the College Editor at Hiram College and has published many works in sources like The Journal of the American Medical Association and The Healing Muse. What You Learn in College is a short nonfiction story about a dreadful period of revelation for the author in which she agrees to play strip spin-the-bottle in with her college friends while under the influence. The text was written for other college students to prevent them from partaking in risky or dangerous activities, given that they have just received a tremendous amount of independence. In order to achieve her purpose, the author employs the rhetorical strategy of anaphora, repeating the same two phrases in order to change the tone of the essay. This device is evident when she writes, “The bottle spins. You learn you couldn’t leave even if you had the nerve […] The bottle spins. You learn […]” (Hayes 3-7). Not only does the author use anaphora at the beginning of each paragraph by starting each with ‘You learn’, but she strategically uses the device here as well. By repeating the phrase ‘The bottle spins’ followed by the sad revelations she discovers afterward, it builds up to her regretting the decision, and it creates a feverish sense of anxiety for the reader. The urgency can be felt as the reader quickens their pace and devours the words to reach her final lesson. This makes the reader’s heart race and breaths shallow as they follower her on her similar journey, thus making them feel the same way, understanding her fear, and knowing not to make the same mistake. I whole-heatedly believe that the author accomplished her purpose. Her work made me fear for her and feel scared with her. It taught me not to make quick decisions like she did, which is what she was trying to achieve. 

TOW #4

Sleepless in Any City by Janine Zeitlin is a nonfiction short story about the writer’s insomnia which she faces during her time studying in Madrid. She feels like she is going crazy because she cannot fall asleep due to hearing ‘thumps’ that might not actually be there. The writer, Janine Zeitlin, is an award winning journalist. A few of her articles have been published in popular news outlets including USA Today and NY Daily News to name a few. Janine’s purpose in writing this short essay is to explain to her audience how being alone in crowded areas can cause people to hear things that are not really there as a way to help them cope with the loneliness they feel. She wanted to do this in order to prove to herself and to other people in similar situations that they are not weird or crazy, rather they are feeling the side effects of our dehumanized world. In order to achieve her purpose, Zeitlin employs the rhetoric strategy of personification. For example, she writes, “I am prey to the nocturnal creaks in my mind and weak to the city creatures that stir at night. I am lonely but not alone.” (Zeitlin). In this quote, Janine uses personification to describe the city as a predator that will steal away her sleep. This appeals to the authors pathos and makes the reader empathetic to her situation and allows her to create a villain in her story. She creates a character to describe the city as a way to direct her anger at something or someone other than herself and her condition. By playing victim to a more easily imaginable source of fear and hate, Zeitlin is able to blame something other than her sanity, or lack thereof, for her condition. This makes the reader understand that perhaps she is not crazy or delusional, just mistreated by society. I found this use of rhetoric to be helpful in supporting her purpose, although it did not quite do the job. More rhetorical strategies would have been very helpful to me as the reader. 

TOW #2

In The Art of Flight, author Fredrik Sjoberg retells the story of his cross country travels in his endeavor to understand his favorite painter’s motives and inspiration. Fredrik Sjoberg is a columnist and a best-selling author for his autobiography, The Fly Trap. In Chapter 7 of The Art of Flight, he is trying to explain the immense beauty and size of the Grand Canyon to anyone who has not yet seen it before. His overall goal in doing so is to help himself and the reader understand why Gunnar Wildfross, the painter, would make so much art depicting the same scene. Fredrik Sjoberg employs the rhetorical devices of imagery and similes in an attempt to capture the Grand Canyon and all its magnificence. Sjoberg describes the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on page 103 of the book by stating, “the climate is warmer and drier, the forest sparser and bushier, more or less like Southern Europe” (Sjorberg 103). He uses imagery to give the reader a clear image of the glorious view he is witnessing so that they might be able to comprehend the artist’s reason for painting it so many times. He uses a simile to compare the image to Southern Europe, a more universally known image, to further describe the view and give a more distinct idea of it to the reader. He wants to be able to capture the beauty of the Grand Canyon in his words and transport that scene to the reader of his book. By doing so, the reader will not only appreciate the incredible journey Fredrik made to reach that point, but they will also be able to sympathize with the artist and comprehend his slight obsession with the natural phenomenon. I found Fredrik Sjoberg’s description of the Grand Canyon to be very helpful and almost vital to fully comprehending his point. His excellent imagery allowed me to understand and feel what it was like standing on the edge of the immense canyon and absorbing its beauty. 

TOW #1

For my first Text of the Week assignment, I will be analyzing a political cartoon regarding the 2016 presidential election. Since the election is coming up soon, there is a vast amount of propaganda circulating the media. This photo specifically is a political cartoon depicting the wall which Donald Trump swears to build on the Mexican-American border. Instead of the wall being placed there, it is inside his mouth, blocking what he is trying to say. In Donald’s hand is a list of his ‘platform’ he is using to win over voters in the election. The artist is John Cole, a popular political cartoon artist for the Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pennsylvania. By creating this image, Cole is sending a message to American voters about one of the nominees. The author is using the element of irony to depict Trump as a hypocrite. Trump has talked about building a wall to keep illegal immigrant from entering the U.S. He rallied voters and audiences by describing the immigrants as criminals, calling them racist and sexist. The author is making a point about how if Trump wants to build a wall against such atrocities, he should place the wall in his mouth to prevent his words from spreading. John Cole spread this message to prevent people from getting wrapped up in Trump’s ‘inspirational’ speeches by telling a truth about what he says and means. I think the author supported his point to educated people, but not to most of the population. I was able to understand the message because I have been trying to keep up with the election since it will have such a large effect of the nation depending on who wins. For people who do not know as much, or who only view the election from one extreme side, probably would not understand the meaning as well since it draws points and information from both sides of the argument.

My First Nonfiction Book Intro

For my first non-fiction novel I will be reading The Art of Flight by Fredrick Sjoberg. It is about his travels and how he learned and saw many new things throughout his journeys which he was not expecting to come across. I chose to read this book because I want to travel the world someday so travel literature really interests me. I was also drawn to Sjoberg's theme of "accidental journeys" because I think it will teach me a very important lesson about sometimes letting go and allowing life to guide me.

Katherin Anne Porter's "The Future is Now" analysis

Katherine Anne Porter, Pulitzer-Prize winning writer, wrote The Future is Now in the midst of a worldwide fear of death by bombs. Porter was no exception to this fear in the beginning of the essay, though she slowly reached the realization that death is inevitable and our fear of it only distracts from life. Thoughts and messages about the possibility of a bomb dropping and eradicating human existence ran feverishly through the veins and the interworking’s of American society. People like Katherine Anne Porter were vulnerable to such overwhelming fears which sadly led them to cower instead of rightfully living their lives to the fullest. Porter discovered this flaw and wrote The Future is Now to explain the shortsighted nature of humans fearing death instead of living life. Her purpose was to show people that they should not always be afraid and they should not let fear stop them from doing the things that they love. Porter wrote this for anyone who allows fear to hold them back from life. One strategy she used to support her point was parallelism. On the second page of her essay, Porter wrote, “all that effort and energy so irreproachably employed were not going to be wasted on a table that was to be merely used for crawling under”. She then stated on the next page that, “he was not preparing a possible shelter […] he was restoring a beautiful surface”. She successfully uses these two statements to show how life can be so much more enjoyable without the constant irrelevant fear which innerlaced society at that time. At first, she described the man’s task as almost futile in that he would be using the table for nothing more than shelter, but later she eliminated the sense of fear and he was thus enjoying himself while crafting a beautiful piece of furniture. This parallel greatly helps support her purpose in writing this story and allows the reader to see the great impact her suggestions may have on their lives.

(image from flickriver.com)

This image depicts someone cowaring under a table as Porter expected the man across the street to be doing woth his table.

Rachel Carson's "The Marginal World" analysis

The Marginal World by Rachel Carson is a descriptive essay about the beautiful wonders of the ocean and its many inhabitants. Carson, a marine biologist and writer, used this essay to describe the breathtaking images she encountered in and around a natural pool in the early hours of the morning. Rachel Carson wrote about the incredible natural wonders she witnessed on her short journey and described all of the little details of the morning that built up to an amazing encounter with nature. Carson’s purpose in writing this essay was to show the reader through incredible and noteworthy imagery the beauty of the natural world which people often overlook. She wanted to show people all of the extraordinary things they can witness by simply walking through a forest or exploring quaint subsets of the great ocean through her extensive detail in writing. Carson wrote this essay for the many people who are so close to nature yet still so detached from all of its magnificence. Through her outstanding description, she is able to virtually transport the reader into another world. One amazing example of her imagery is evident as she states, “When I looked out into the early morning the sky was full of a gray dawn light but the sun had not yet risen. Water and air were pallid.” In a work like this, she makes the reader feel like they are somewhere else. With her use of the senses in this specific quote, sight and feeling, she enables the reader to feel what she is feeling. I found that this extensive amount of imagery allowed me as the reader to understand where she was and how she felt, without even being there. This helped me to further understand her purpose and to a certain extent, agree with what she was saying. 

(image from http://www.charlottecellularrepair.com)

This image shows people distracted by their phones. Although there were no phones at the time this essay was written, it is similar to how people are distracted from nature then and now.

Robert Frost's "The Figure a Poem Makes" analysis

The Figure a Poem Makes by Robert Frost explores the true purpose of a poem and what a poet should strive to accomplish in writing one. Frost was a teacher and a lecturer as well as a very successful and influential poet. He won four Pulitzer Prizes for his outstanding work. In this essay, Frost explained what he believed is the reason for writing and reading poems. He wrote that poetry should be used to share knowledge and insight that can last lifetimes. Frost expressed the idea that poems should be eternal in that their teachings remain relevant and useful for many years after they are written. The purpose of the essay was to share that idea with others and hopefully inspire people to write better poems, not only for entertaining the audience, but also to teach them something important. Frost wrote this essay with other writers and poets as the intended audience. He wanted them to understand that they should write with the same emotion that they wish the audience of their writings to feel as they read them. To prove his point, Frost uses rhetoric devices such as analogies. In the third page of his essay, Frost states, "Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.” He used this specific analogy to help the reader understand how a poet should be written with ease and that worry will not help to get it anywhere. While reading this essay I personally found that Robert Frost was incredible at using rhetoric to support his point. While I would have appreciated a wider variety of devices instead of only comparisons, I was fully convinced of Frost’s point and I believe that this work influenced me in a significant way. As a writier, it taught me the importance of writing with passion and emotion, which is what I think Frost was trying to accomplish.

(image from 95percent.com)

This image is of a heart draw on paper to show how Frost wants writers to write with their heart and their feelings in their work.