TOW #13 - Visual Text: Star Tribune Editorial Cartoon “The Talk”

For this week’s TOW, I decided to analyze a political cartoon for the first time. This cartoon was created by the Star Tribune’s resident cartoonist, Steve Sack, the winner of several awards for his depictions, including most recently winning the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. This particular cartoon was not created in response to a specific event, but rather to address a cultural disparity: how our US justice system treats minorities a compared to their white counterparts. Sack does this by mainly relying upon the use of juxtaposition. The first thing that the viewer notices about the cartoon is its title, “The Talk”, which is in very large font and all-caps. Next he or she sees the use of juxtaposition given by two nearly identical scenes: the first, a white father talking to his son about “the birds and the bees” while in his son’s room on his bed, and the second, a black father talking to his son about guns and the supposedly blind US justice system while in his son’s room on his bed. I chose this cartoon because I can relate to it personally, as I have had the latter talk with my own parents, and the theme of injustice between whites and minorities connects to my current IRB, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Based on the cartoon’s title and the content of the talks between the white father/son and the black father/son, one can infer that Sack intended to communicate that the reality for minorities in America, specifically African Americans, is that they are treated unfairly in our justice system, and that that is a problem that whites do not have to worry about. Regardless of whether or not you agree with Sack’s message, I believe he communicated it clearly and successfully through the use of juxtaposition and by relying on cultural memory of minorities historically being treated unfairly compared to whites.

"The Talk" by Steve Sack

TOW #12 - IRB: Section One of The Autobiography of Malcolm X

From the very outset of the first chapter, The Autobiography of Malcolm X has been wildly entertaining and even more insightful. Before this school year in which the independent reading books we choose have to be nonfiction, I was extremely close minded to and doubtful of the possibility that I could somehow actually enjoy reading a nonfiction book, yet less than halfway through the year, my false fear has been turned on its head. The last book I read, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, kept me interested by stating theories that initially sounded like nonsense, until he provided the data again and again to back up his claim. The Autobiography of Malcolm X is fascinating in a way that I almost cannot believe that it is in fact a nonfiction book: the story is almost too riveting to be true. So far from what I’ve read, Malcolm X (originally Malcolm Little) has had his house attacked or burned down twice by racist hate groups, his family torn apart by the social justice system, his mother taken away to a mental hospital, had himself moved to a white foster home, and he currently lives from menial job to menial job, which he passionately hates. Even turning to selling drugs and using them himself. Starting in Nebraska, moving to Michigan, than Boston, and onto New York. I am not yet at the point at which I know he is incarcerated and begins to really turn his life around. However, as I read page after page, I become more and more invested in his struggle of rising above the stereotypes and those actively trying to keep him down. Although to an obviously much lower degree, I have seen some similarities between what Malcolm has experienced and I have experienced myself in terms of racial prejudice. As I continue reading, I plan to pay specific attention to how his circumstances combine and ultimately lead to the formation of the passionate and highly capable leader Malcolm X becomes.

Tow #11 - Editorial: The President on Inequality

In this New York Times editorial by its Editorial Board, they discuss the message of President Obama’s speech on Wednesday. Overall, the editorial is supportive of what Obama said which was that he will be focusing the rest of his time as President towards, “‘...the defining challenge of our time:’ reducing economic inequality and improving upward mobility.” To show their support of Obama’s message, they provided statistics that legitimize what he is talking about is an actual issue deserving of all the attention he plans to give it. For example, they state that, “Six in ten workers in a Washington Post Poll last week said they were worried about losing their jobs, the highest number in decades.” 

They also support Obama’s message by giving other examples of countries with similar relative wealth gaps such as Jamaica and Argentina and suggest that America’s future could be very similar: filled with “growing cynicism and despondency.” Not only does the editorial provide support for Obama’s message in this particular speech, but they also give examples of how the President has attempted to fix this issue previously, but has been blocked by republican opposition to almost any solution he has proposed. They provide the example of Obama’s views on raising minimum wage and taxes for the wealthiest American’s, the later opinion republicans seem to absolutely detest. 

The editorial ends by again referencing the President’s speech when he questions what the Republican Party proposes as solutions to the problem, instead of only what they dislike. The editorial’s author(s) last sentence states that the republicans’ silence “explains why economic inequality is rising.” Ultimately, I found the editorial to be effective as the validate the issue that will be the focus of the rest of Obama’s Presidency by providing statistics, and also compare the solutions he has already proposed to those of the republicans which, at this time, are nonexistent.

TOW #10 - Article: Me, My Selfie and I

In this CNN article titled Me, My Selfie and I by Roy Peter Clark, a writer, editor, teacher, and the founder of the National Writer Workshop, he attempts to explain why he believes “selfie” has been chosen as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) “Word of the Year”. He begins the article first by stating that he himself has never taken a single “selfie”, he then continues to provide the OED definition for it, and the statistic that the frequency of the word’s use has increased by 17,000% in the last year. Although he says he has never taken one himself, he does mention that they can be fun and amusing to be in when eager fans of his ask to take them with him, usually at book fairs.  He also attempts to compare them to photo-booths, as that used to be the most popular method of having pictures taken of yourself, especially when out with friends. In this context, he says seflies are good in that they informally capture particular moments. However, when he compares taking selfies to when it was more popular to simply ask someone else to take a picture of you and your friends, he says that they are bad in that they eliminate the small bit of human connection that used to be necessary. After discussing the ultra-popular selfie in those perspectives, Clark comes to the conclusion that “selfie” was an appropriate choice for the OED’s “Word of the Year” because it accurately represents the time and society in which we live today: “Technologically forward looking and self-obsessed.” (Clark) Personally, I agree with Clark’s opinion after having seen them all over social-media sites such as twitter and facebook, day after day. However, I don’t believe he would be successful in convincing someone with an already differing opinion due to his lack of evidence.

MP2 IRB Intro Post

For the second marking period, I plan to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X co-written by Alex Haley, the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family, and, of course, Malcolm X himself. The book explores Malcolm's life, focusing specifically on his influence in African American civil rights, as well as the Nation of Islam and how those roles overlapped. I have studied Malcolm X in previous years of school and independently as well, and have always wanted to read his autobiography and figured that this was the perfect opportunity. My father also grew up under similar circumstances to Malcolm X and shared many nearly identical experiences, so reading this book should also give me greater insight into his life and the adversity that he has overcome as well. Ultimately, by reading this book I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the African American civil rights era and the Nation of Islam.

TOW #9 - Visual Text: Apple iPhone 5 “FaceTime Every Day” Ad

The Apple iPhone 5 advertisement titled “FaceTime Every Day”, which originally aired earlier this year in August, uses extremely diverse exemplification and personal hand-held camera shots to create a personal feel that allows Apple to display the many instances in which people can, and do, use FaceTime. The ad is comprised of several short clips that show families and friends, husbands and wives, brothers and sister, parents and their children, all using FaceTime to connect with each other. Also important to note is that the subjects in each clip vary significantly, thus creating a very racially, ethnically, and socially diverse audience. For example, one shot goes from a young African American man sitting on his front steps FaceTiming with someone in English, to a teenage Japanese girl conversing in Japanese, to a middle-aged Caucasian women communicating in Sign Language. Between all of the clips within the commercial, nearly every race, both genders, and even several different languages are all represented. This makes the iPhone and FaceTiming seem like a good fit for anyone, as almost everyone around the globe is using it, making an effective bandwagon appeal. Additionally, it makes it almost impossible to not find at least one person or situation within the commercial that you can identify with.

The use of slightly shaky hand-held camera shots, often very close to the subject or subjects, also gives the commercial a very personal feel. The shots make it seem almost as if the people and situations displayed in them are real-life instead of actors in a carefully crafted scene, and that the audience is right there with them, very similar to the effects of watching a home video. This makes the iPhone and FaceTiming seem like a necessity that every family, couple, or pair of friends needs to have.

Overall, I found the ad to be successful in its use of extremely diverse exemplification and personal hand-held camera shots to create a personal feel that allows Apple to display the many instances in which people can, and do, use FaceTime. 

TOW #8 - IRB: Section two of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

After having completed Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, I know have an entirely different look on success, and why some are more successful than others. Gladwell’s argument of the importance that the world around us has in our level of success is nearly impossible to refute given the evidence that he displays, often using the stories of real successful people from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, to The Beatles. Gladwell argues that the environment in which we are born into or otherwise find ourselves in will lend us advantages, or disadvantages. Many of these are often undeserved, and have nothing to do with whether or not we’ve earned these at all, but rather just a mere function of chance. While we ourselves as individuals do have an obvious role in determining our own success, such as how much we practice, the time we devote to doing something well, and the level of sincerity to which we attempt to achieve our goals (just to name a few), the factors that our environment have towards our success are often just as important, if not more so, to note and take into consideration. 

Going forward, I’ll be sure to remember that others will have “unfair” advantages that, for whatever reason, I may not, and that I myself will also have many “unfair” advantages that others will not. While there may be nothing one can do to alter some of these circumstances, we must understand that we do have some control over other circumstances and must do whatever we can to ensure that what we can control, we do.  Overall, I greatly enjoyed Outliers and have learned a lot from it. I highly recommend it and will certainly look into the other works that Gladwell has written.

TOW #7 - Article: Why You Should Keep Your Head in the Clouds

In this CNN article by TED talker, magazine co-founder, author, and founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, Gavin Pretor-Pinney argues that we should appreciate clouds more as well as strive to understand them better. The article begins with the current connotation that clouds often bring with them as we get older: sadness, gloom, or almost always something negative. He says that this is an injustice and that carefree pastimes we enjoyed as children such as cloudspotting may be even more crucial today. Pretor-Pinney argues that in today’s digital age, cloudspotting, “...is an activity that legitimizes doing nothing.” (Pretor-Pinney) Which, also according to Pretor-Pinney, will in turn bring us more happiness. He states, “Happiness comes not from a desperate search for stimulation elsewhere but from finding what is intriguing, surprising and ‘exotic’ in the everyday stuff around us.” (Pretor-Pinney)

Pretor-Pinney argues that clouds should not only be enjoyed an appreciated more, but better understood as well. He states that the one conclusion that all sides of the climate change debate agree on is that clouds represent the, “...greatest uncertainty in scientists' attempts to predict future global temperatures.” (Pretor-Pinney) He then continues to expand on the possible ways in which clouds can influence our atmospheric temperatures stating that clouds can either reflect the sun’s heat or trap the earth’s warmth. 

Ultimately, even though I agree with his opinion, I would say that Pretor-Pinney failed to achieve his purpose of convincing his audience that they should appreciate clouds more as well as strive to understand them better. He appeals to logos through the climate change angle and appeals to pathos through the carefree childhood pastime aspect, however fails to back either of the claims with direct evidence. The inclusion of some kind of study or data that proves cloudspotting, or a similar activity, actually decreases stress or has some kind of benefit would have greatly strengthened Pretor-Pinney’s claim.

TOW #6 - Article: Data-Mining Our Dreams

In the New York Times article titled Data-Mining Our Dreams by author and scholar Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D., he discusses the timeless concept of whether dreams are just random sequences that occur in our minds while we sleep or if the dreams we experience actually hold any significant meaning. He begins the article by giving context to his argument that dreams do hold significant meaning by introducing the more widely accepted theory among scientists: dreams are meaningless. However, Bulkeley argues that very recent research with more modern technology that he himself has taken part in goes contrary to the currently accepted theory. He then continues on to describe the method which he and his colleagues use to conduct their research and “data-mine” people’s dreams. While the research taking place right now only proves that relatively basic factual information about the dreamer can be obtained or “mined” from his or her dream, such as major hobbies or important relationships, Bulkeley’s goal is that he and other researchers will soon be able to learn not just surface-level information about the dreamer based on his or her dream, but subconscious information about the dreamer as well.

In order to achieve his purpose of convincing his audience that dreams do hold some significant meaning, Bulkeley uses several examples of real information he himself has “mined” from peoples dreams to support his claim. By far the biggest and most obvious appeal being made in this article is to logos, through his examples and use of research. At the very end of the article, there is a short blurb that gives background information about Bulkeley himself stating that he was, “Former president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams [and] is the author of ‘Dreaming in the World’s Religions: A Comparative History.’” This is also rather obviously a very strong appeal to ethos by establishing him as a credible author who knows what he’s talking about. While I feel the article would have made a more lasting impact if the blurb describing Bulkeley’s credibility was at the begging of the article instead of the very end, I do believe that he was successful in achieving his purpose by primarily appealing to logos using factual evidence and research.

Spinning top totem from Inception (2010)

TOW #5 - Visual Text: Anti-Child Abuse Advertisement

While there are many advertisements for raising awareness of eating disorders, domestic violence, and animal cruelty, seldom are there very many for child abuse. This advertisement, created by the ANAR Foundation, seeks to do just that: raise awareness of and help those suffering from child abuse. However, it does so in a rather ingenious fashion. By utilizing new imaging technology, this ad allows two different images to be seen on the same surface. For children who are possibly victims of abuse, the ad shows an image of a child’s face with bruises and a number to call if they are being abused and need help. However, for adults and possible abusers themselves who are most likely taller than the average ten-year-old, the ad displays an image of the same child’s face but without the bruises accompanied by a message that states, “Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.”

The ad itself appeals very heavily to pathos through use of an image of a very innocent looking young boy who can be assumed is a victim of child abuse himself. Due to the general nature of abuse and violence especially on the innocent, there is also a very powerful appeal to ethos as well through a right versus wrong medium. The ad may also help adults who have never considered whether the way they treat their child to be abusive or not to think twice about how their actions may be perceived by others, including the child him or herself.

Overall, I found this advertisement to be very effective through its obvious appeals to pathos and ethos and its less obvious yet innovative dual message to victims of child abuse and the abusers themselves.

Link to video explaining the advertisement and how it works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6zoCDyQSH0o

TOW #4 - IRB: Section one of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

After having read just the first section of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, I’m already hooked. The introduction to the book starts off in a lone Pennsylvanian town named Roseto in which only around two thousand people live, all of who are Italian immigrants from a village of the same name in southeastern Italy. At the time, heart disease was an even larger epidemic in the US then, and was the number one killer of men under age sixty-five. However, in Roseto, virtually no one showed any signs of having this disease. Scientists and phycologists tested the residents to see if it was their diet, genetics, or exercise habits that was what allowed them to so effectively avoid the disease, but found that none of those were contributing factors. Instead, a doctor named Stewart Wolf discovered that it was their culture that allowed them to resist the disease so well. The societal norm of having three family generations under the same roof, saying hello to people as they walk down the street, sitting out on one’s porch simply enjoying the day, etc. The discovery was groundbreaking by adding the entirely new concept that where we’re from and who we surround ourselves can actually affect the state of our health. Gladwell then states, “In Outliers, I want to do for our understanding of success what Stewart Wolf did for our understanding of health.” (Gladwell 11) In the next chapter, he uses the example of professional hockey players’ birth months as an example of a previously unthought of factor to success. He uses actual teams’ roster information that includes their birthdays to show that an overwhelming majority of professional players are born in either January, February, or March. Why? Because the cutoff date for hockey leagues that precede the professional one is always January 1st. This means that as children, someone born on that day as opposed to someone born on December 31st of the same year will have a significant physical advantage of someone nearly twelve months younger. Then they will be selected for a better team, receive better coaching, practice more, and their advantage grows. Ultimately, it results in the best players virtually all being born early in the year due to an unearned and unfair advantage simply because of the cutoff date. These are the underlying factors of success that Gladwell attempts to point out and have his audience notice primarily through the use of statistics and specific examples.

Image courtesy of The New York Times

TOW #3 - Article: The Hero of "Breaking Bad"

In the New York Times opinion article by Ross Douthat titled The Hero of “Breaking Bad”, the author and editor discusses what he considers to be one of the show’s greatest accomplishments: the creation and development of a “compelling, interesting, entertaining, good person.” (Douthat) Douthat first sets up his claim by stating that far too often, bad guys will have the best lines not only in “dumb action movies” but in works by Shakespeare, Milton, and Dickens. By comparison, Douthat argues that the good guys usually tend to seem excessively one-dimensional and boring, using this as a reason why television series such as “Mad Men” (in its later seasons) no longer have an easily recognizable good guy type character. Douthat states that this is part of what sets “Breaking Bad” apart from its competition, having a complex good guy rather than having a straightforward one or not having one at all. This character is Hank Schrader, Walter White’s D.E.A. brother-in-law. Douthat states that what makes Schrader interesting is that, at times, he hasn’t always actually been seen as the good guy. In fact, at the beginning of the series, Douthat argues Hank was somewhat of the opposite, being portrayed as a jerkish and blunt government officer acting as a foil for the originally sincere and kindhearted school teacher, Walter. He continues to argue that it isn’t simply having a good guy chasing Walter that makes “Breaking Bad” special, but rather the “moral stake” that Hank provides for the audience during controversial events.  Douthat goes so far as to state that having a character that displays everyday heroism and moral decency actually makes the show more realistic than it would be without. Overall, I do believe that Douthat successfully achieved his purpose of explaining how having a complex “good guy” character has contributed to “Breaking Bad”’s wild success and popularity. As I, along with millions of other viewers from across the globe, tune in to watch the series finale tonight, I will be sure to keep Hank and the role he played in the show, and in its success, consciously in mind.

R.I.P Henry R. "Hank" Schrader 

TOW #2 - Article: Will You Still Love Me When I'm 164?

In Sonia Arrison's opinion article published by Time, the national bestselling author discusses the possible effects she predicts will result from Google’s new company, Calico. Calico, which was publicly announced this past Wednesday, is another branch of Google that specializes in health and well-being, with a focus on aging and the detrimental diseases that come with it. Due to the simple fact that it is an opinion piece, her article will obviously be biased with the intent to convince her audience, which most likely consists of almost everyone besides young children, that her viewpoint is the correct one. To achieve this purpose, Arrison uses examples, multiple statistics, and attempts to discredit opposing opinions. The first possible effect she discusses is that people will have more time to spend with their spouses, with different spouses, and having children decades apart. To support this, she uses actress Elizabeth Taylor as an example who has been married eight times to seven different husbands. She then uses a statistic that compares the average age men and women married at in the 1950s compared with 2013. Comparing the two shows that men and women are more likely to marry 5-6 years later in life in 2013 than in the 1950s which she attributes partially to increased life expectancy. Later on in the article she references a statistic from the University of Chicago that states $3.2 trillion per year have been added to the national wealth due to increased life expectancy from 1970-2000. Lastly she refutes the opposing opinion that a drastically increased life expectancy will potentially devalue the richness of life by saying that will more able years, people can spend more time with friends, family, innovating, exploring, learning, and helping others. Ultimately I do believe that Arrison achieved her purpose of convincing her audience that her opinion of increased life expectancy being good was successful due mainly to her appeal to logos through the statistic and pathos through being able to spend more time doing good things.

TOW #1 - Visual Text: Old Spice Commercial

If you have access to either a functioning television or youtube, chances are that you’ve seen or at least heard of the ultra-popular Old Spice ads featuring the impossibly handsome and charming Isaiah Mustafa. The most popular commercial begins with Mustafa in a bathroom wearing nothing but a towel around his waist and holding a bottle of the featured body wash while speaking directly to his primary audience, ladies. Mustafa’s very first lines make it explicitly clear who their target audience is when while staring straight into the camera he states , “Hello ladies, look at you man. Now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me.” The purpose of this series of commercials is rather obviously to sell Old Spice Body Wash by using Mustafa as rhetoric himself. Firstly, this is extremely persuading rhetoric for women buying for men given that Mustafa is an exceptionally handsome man and that all they need to do for their men to be just a little more like Mustafa (devilishly attractive) is to buy and use Old Spice Body Wash. But wait, of course there’s more. The commercial presents Mustafa not only as good-looking, but as if he is the perfect man. After the bathroom scene, the commercial advances to Mustafa on an expensive boat holding “two tickets to that thing you love” which then magically mutate into countless diamonds and as the camera zooms out we see that he is actually riding a horse on a tropical beach with an ocean sunset in the background. As if his looks and charming voice weren’t enough, he is shown to also be thoughtful through the “two tickets to that thing you love”, as well as genuinely romantic through the horseback ride during a picture-perfect tropical sunset. Aside from using Mustafa himself as rhetoric, the commercials also utilize comedy to appeal to males buying for themselves. If having the chance to become more like an ideal man isn’t enough, the outrageous and ridiculous perfection should without a doubt seal the deal. Through the rhetorical strategies of using Mustafa himself and outright humor, Old Spice successfully convinces its audience of both men and women that buying its body wash will be one of the best decisions they can make.

MP1 IRB Intro Post

For the first marking period I plan to read Outliers by multi-award winning journalist and nonfiction author Malcolm Gladwell. While Outliers is one of his more well known publications, the list of his most popular works also includes The Tipping Point and Blink. Throughout Outliers, as its title suggests, Gladwell explores what causes certain people rather than other to achieve exceptional levels of success. I decided to read this as my first independent reading book for a couple of reasons: one, because many of my friends and teachers have read it and recommend it highly; and two, because I’ve simply always been interested in looking at what other factors lead to success besides the cliché, although true, hard-work and determination. I’ve often thought to myself how it could be possibly for two people, even being born into nearly identical circumstances, to end up in completely different places. Especially family situations in which two brothers, for example, who both initially had very promising futures end up with completely opposite lives interest me greatly. With that being said, I think it’s clear that by reading Outliers I hope to gain a greater insight into the lesser known factors of success, and if possible, apply any of those to my own life to aid in hopefully becoming successful one day. Additionally, it will force me to go out of my fiction-based comfort-zone as I assume the APELC course in general will do as well.

5. "Auscultation" by Steven Church

Steven Church, an english professor at California State University in Fresno and multi-award winning author, is also the author of an essay titled “Auscultation” about the importance of rhythm sensing technology. Church uses a personal story of his as well as two horrific events of trapped miners to convey his point. The essay begins with an event in which an earthquake traps six miners under 1,500 feet of dirt and rescue teams attempt to listen for the sound of thumping, but are unable to hear anything and ultimately give up the search, assuming the miners are dead. The essay continues to talk about how another doctors device is what allowed Church to first hear his child’s heartbeat, the first sign and sound of life. The essay ends with another tragic story of trapped miners, but this time they are able to hear the thumping of hammers, locate the earthed prisoners, and ultimately rescue them. Metaphors, imagery, or any other common rhetorical devices are not evidently used in “Auscultation”. Instead, Church relies on raw emotion. From a tragic story of six innocent deaths, to his heartfelt recount of hearing his child’s first heartbeat, and finally ending on a happy note of persistence and salvation, “Auscultation” successfully conveys the importance of sound detecting devices by showing the detriments of a world without them, as well as the benefits of a world with them. These potentially life saving devices range from the human ear to the doctor’s stethoscope and Church insists that neither be underestimated in their importance. Again, by rhetorically using raw emotion evoked by a personal anecdote and two very similar real stories with dramatically different endings, Steven Church accomplishes his purpose of communicating the importance of sound detecting devices to those who may not appreciate them, or take them for granted.

Laennec examining with a stethoscope. Painting by Robert Thom

4. "Magical Dinners" by Chang-Rae Lee

To most of us, Thanksgiving dinners are traditional, family gathering meals that have been practically the same as long as we can remember. Chang-Rae Lee, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, the Asian American Literary Award, and current professor of Princeton’s creative writing program, attempts to show us the experience of a customary American meal from his perspective, that of a young Korean immigrant in New York, in his essay titled “Magical Dinners”. To do this, Lee uses the rhetorical tools of imagery and similes. The essay begins with him and his family on Thanksgiving Day waiting for the Turkey to finish cooking. Having no previous experience of Thanksgiving, Lee states, “I can already imagine how my father will slice into the grainy white flesh beneath the honeyed skin of the breast, this luscious sphere of meat this is being readied all around the apartment complex.” While many of us are already very familiar with Thanksgiving turkeys, through Lee’s use of imagery, we are offered a window into his point of view and how his first Thanksgiving turkey is perceived and imagined by someone who is entirely new to the traditional holiday and meal altogether. Later in his essay, while describing his experience with another common American dinner, Lasagna, Lee states, “my mother runs down her shopping list - it’s as if she were at the library searching for a book in the stacks, trying to find the particular spices and herbs, the right kind of macaroni, the right kind of cheese or cream...each decision another chance to mar the dish beyond my ignorant recognition.” Here, Lee uses a simile to compare his mother’s search for the proper ingredients to the often difficult and tedious search for specific books at a large library. This is particularly effective in conveying his and his mother’s perspective and confusion because in most supermarkets, we are familiar with where certain ingredients usually are found, but almost everyone has a somewhat hard time finding the exact book they are looking for among thousands of others. This allows us to relate the difficulty of finding the right books in a library to their Lee’s mother’s struggle of finding the right ingredients in an American supermarket. I believe Lee is ultimately successful in communicating his foreign experience of common American meals to those familiar with them through his rhetorical use of imagery and similes.

"The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" (1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe

3. "Port-au-Prince: The Moment" by Mischa Berlinski

Mischa Berlinski is a relatively young American author who has already won several awards including the Whiting Writers’ Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Addison M. Metcalf Award, and finished as a fiction finalist for the National Book Award. His 2010 essay titled “Port-au-Prince: The Moment” attempts to convey his experience of the days following the catastrophic Haitian earthquake of the same year to anyone who wasn’t there to experience it themselves. Berlinski successfully does this through the rhetorical use of imagery, irony, and metaphors. The essay itself opens just as the earthquake is beginning, and is described by Berlinski as, “a series of rolling waves, each sharper than the one before.” He uses this metaphor of comparing the 7.0 magnitude earthquake to waves because while very few people have experienced an earthquake of any magnitude, most people have been in either a pool, the ocean, or some other body of water in which waves may be present. This allows his audience to understand the feeling of the quake by relating them to the familiar feeling of waves. A little further into the essay, Berlinski recalls his family’s initial reaction to earthquake and states, “Cristina was in tears. The baby was collected and calm.” Here he uses irony as you would suspect his wife’s and baby’s reaction to be switched. Normally, his wife, a full grown and matured woman, would have be “collected and calm” and you’d expect the baby to be crying. However, the reality was in fact the opposite. Lastly, he uses imagery to describe scenes that the average person has never seen. Berlinski states, “A very large woman wearing a yellow bra cradled an unmoving bloodied child in her arms.” This paints a graphic picture in our imagination that without such use of imagery, may not have been possible. It is for these reasons and Berlinski’s use of imagery, irony, and metaphors that I believe he accomplished his purpose of communicating his experience of the Haitian earthquake and that of the days following to those who were not there to experience it firsthand.

Haiti Earthquake Building Damage by Flickr Upload Bot 

2. "Rude Am I in My Speech" by Caryl Phillips

Caryl Phillips is a second generation Kittian-British novelist, playwright, and essayist. His notable awards include the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and receiving the Commonwealth Writers Prize twice. In his essay titled “Rude Am I in My Speech”, Phillips discusses and attempts to explain the plight of first-generation immigrants relative to gaining social confidence in an entirely new country in which they are the minority. The audience of this essay is primarily second and third-generation immigrants, such as Phillips himself. He aims to do this by using the rhetorical devices of historical and literary allusions to the extent that the essay’s title itself is an allusion to Shakespeare’s Othello, as well as the use of a personal anecdote. His primary allusion is to Othello in Shakespeare’s play by the same name in which a lone celebrity immigrant moor arrives in Venice, marries a white woman, but is not looked down upon because of his celebrity status. With no other immigrants and due to his celebrity, Othello eventually goes crazy, killing his wife and later himself. However, as Phillips discusses the story of his own father, also a first-generation immigrant to Europe, there are two key differences: his father did not migrate alone and he was not a celebrity. Phillip states that these differences are what allowed his father to successfully fit-in (as much as is possible for an immigrant) because his father could be whoever he wanted in his own home, and when he was out with other immigrants. This allowed his father to stay sane by giving him a sort of “break” from who he had to become and act as around the European locals. In a historical allusion Phillips states, “When West Indians first arrived in England in the 1950s, countless pamphlets were thrust into their hands which explained to them the ways of the English.” This allusion demonstrates the pressures placed upon immigrants to behave in a certain fashion in England that would otherwise be abnormal for them. By using literary and historical allusions along with an anecdote of his own, I do believe that Caryl Phillips accomplished his purpose of communicating to second and third-generation immigrants like himself the plight of their parents and grandparents relative to finding their place in a foreign society.

"Othello and Desdemona in Venice" by Théodore Chassériau (1819-1856)

1. "Topic of Cancer" by Christopher Hitchens

In his essay appropriately titled “Topic of Cancer”, award winning author and journalist Christopher Hitchens attempts to explain to those without cancer, how it feels to those who do have it. Hitchens’s extensive list of literary awards include the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, the National Magazine Award for Columns, the Richard Dawkins Award, and, most notably, the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. In this essay, the main rhetorical device Hitchens sticks to using is metaphors in order to achieve his purpose of communicating how it feels to be diagnosed with cancer to his audience of those who haven’t been diagnosed with it. He begins with the metaphor of comparing himself and others diagnosed with severe illnesses to, “citizens of the sick country”. He then continues to describe his initial experience as a self proclaimed citizen stating that, “The new land is quite welcoming,” and, “Everybody smiles encouragingly and there appears to be absolutely no racism. A generally egalitarian spirit prevails, and those who run the place have obviously got where they are on merit and hard work.” By using this metaphor, it makes his experience of becoming a patient more easily understandable to the common person who has never had a severe illness, but perhaps has been to a new place or country allowing them to relate their experience to his. He continues his use of metaphors while comparing his cancer to an “alien” that, “had colonized a bit of my lung as well as quite a bit of my lymph node. And its original base of operations was located - had been located for quite some time - in my esophagus.” By using this metaphor to describe his cancer, the common person can relate what they’ve seen or heard about aliens in movies and science fiction, most often characterized by their hostile and invasive nature, to what it feels like to actually have cancer. Ultimately, I do feel that Hitchens accomplished his purpose of conveying how it feels to be diagnosed with and having to live with cancer through the use several specific yet very familiar metaphors.

Alien Invasion from http://www.scificool.com/the-alien-invasion-will-never-end-even-in-year-12/