TOW #13 | Written - FDR’s “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation”

Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a powerful speech that expressed the shock, anger, and fear the nation had after the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The nation, originally against involvement in World War II, took a different turn after the infamous “Attack on Pearl Harbor” incident. FDR utilizes anaphora and patriotic diction to address the issue at hand and declare war against the Japanese.

When describing the attacks that occurred the night earlier, Roosevelt uses a large amount of repetition to emphasize that it was not only our country that got attacked. He begins every sentence with “Last night, Japanese forces attacked,” followed by a location, such as Hong Kong or Wake Island. The anaphora is used to highlight the several attacks that the Japanese performed the night before. It seems as if he is listing the several different areas to emphasize how many other places were attacked along with Pearl Harbor. This allows for the audience to gain understanding that Japanese attacks are not a small issue: their attacks on other areas outside the United States are killing thousands of innocent civilians. Roosevelt takes this understanding from the civilians as a rationale to declare war against the Japanese and take involvement in World War II.

While many see the United States’ involvement in World War II a natural reaction to Pearl Harbor, there were certain measures to be taken and many factors to be considered before stepping into another world war that could potentially lead America down like the first one. Franklin D. Roosevelt appeals to both the frustrated audience that wishes revenge against the Japanese as well as the politicians that are fearful for America’s future if they choose to take entry in World War II through his speech, “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation.”

TOW #12 | Visual - EBOLA!

America is the country known to supersize everything--from drinks to people to even rumors. Most of the times, these “supersized” rumors and epidemics cause such a great deal in the United States that many begin to forget the abhorrent consequences to supersizing other things as well. The Sacramento Bee decides to address and bring awareness to this fact in their visual text, “EBOLA!” portraying the people’s ignorance to other health issues due to the prioritization of health concerns popularized by media.

The most prominent device the Sacramento Bee employs in their visual text is the utilization of words. “EBOLA!!!” is written in large font inside of a thinking bubble above the man’s head. By making the word “ebola” in a large font, the author is able to portray to their audience how important the man in the text considers the issue of ebola to be, so much that it trumps over all of the other problems he is encountering, such as obesity, smoking, and drinking. This creative use of wording continues throughout the text as the author writes “super” and “big” on the french fries to emphasize the large amounts of food that Americans consume and how that adds to one of the many overlooked health issues in the United States. The author also writes statistics in the empty spaces next to the man of the amount of deaths related to obesity, smoking, and drinking. Adding statistics to the cartoon allows the audience to understand how large-scale these health issues are and how many deaths they can cause, unlike media-popularized health epidemics like ebola.

Although the American public may not be aware, the next “big issue” will be taking over their nerves, brainwashing them to avoid a certain disease and once again steering their eyes away from the true issues that cause so many health-related deaths. The Sacramento Bee takes this issue and creates a unique cartoon that both highlights the overshadowed issue and criticizes the American public.

TOW #11 | Written - Chief Seattle's "Oration of 1854"

The 1850s were a difficult time for most Native Americans. By that time, European immigrants had taken over the majority of the United States, knocking over the Native Americans’ natural culture and history for a more modernized one. In response to such catastrophes occurring, Chief Seattle raises his voice in his “Oration of 1854,” proclaiming that their natural reserves should be conserved. Through figurative language such as similes, Chief Seattle proposes a treaty in an effort to persuade Governor Stevens to conserve the Washington territory for the Native Americans.

In the midst of an analogy between weather and the current situation of the Native Americans, Chief Seattle describes that his “words are like the stars that never set” (1). Utilizing such an analogy places an emphasis on the fact that his words are unchanging, suggesting that the following proposition he is to make will not be swayed by differing opinions. This emphasis helps to portray to the audience, Governor Stevens, that he is firm in his stance and is not willing to budge. Stevens’s gained understanding that Chief Seattle is firm in his proposition shows Stevens that Chief Seattle is serious about the proposal, and is determined to pass the treaty. Furthermore, Chief Seattle appeals to his audience’s sense of guilt through similes, comparing the white men as “grass that covers the grass prairies” and the Native Americans as “scattering trees of a storm-swept plain” (2). Through the juxtaposition of a positive illustration of white men and a negative illustration of the Native Americans, Chief Seattle is highlighting that white men are plentiful and considered higher than the less populated, lower Native Americans. Holding him and his men at such a low level evokes a sense of guilt from the audience; Governor Stevens now most likely views the Native Americans as not well treated due to him and his white people. This guilt could result in swaying him into not buying more land and instead negotiating with Chief Seattle and make a treaty.

Although by this time period, Europeans have already dominated the majority of the United States, a select few people, like Chief Seattle, believed that more could be done to conserve Native American culture and territory. He expresses his determination through tear-jerking figurative language that sets both his purpose in stone and blossoms a flower of guilt in his audience. Will those blossoms, however, be enough to change the “grass prairies” of white men into meadows of Native Americans?

TOW #10 | Written - Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

One of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s most famous texts, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," was written during his time in prison after leading a non-violent civil rights riot in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes this letter to the clergymen in an attempt to bring awareness of how badly African-Americans at the time were being treated at that there needs to be change. Through references to expert testimony, Martin Luther King Jr. defines what a “just right” is to portray that the African-American community is not receiving the opportunities, facilities, and lifestyles that they deserve.

In order to concretely define between a just and unjust right, Martin Luther King Jr. references St. Thomas Aquinas, who defines an unjust right as, “a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” St. Thomas Aquinas, a philosopher and theologian, helps the audience find credence in King’s argument. Unlike King, who is simply a pastor with no experience in philosophy, Aquinas is a philosopher, validating the statements that he makes about the definition of an unjust right. Not only does King reference one person--he goes on to reference two more men: Michael Buber, Jewish philosopher; and Paul Tillich, one of the most well-known philosophers and Lutheran theologians. Referencing two other philosophers, King establishes the fact that segregation is “a sin” and falls under the category of an “unjust” right. By allowing his audience to find credence in his claims, King is able to gain trust from the audience, building up his credibility throughout the text.

Although many other people at the time feared the government and clergymen, Martin Luther King Jr. stepped up and fought for his people’s rights by writing such a letter while contained in prison. He used references to expert testimony to establish his credibility as he protests for just rights for African-Americans.

MP2 | IRB Intro - Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents

Noted as one of Sigmund Freud's most famous and well-written books, Civilization and Its Discontents is a book Freud took upon writing one summer in 1929, where he explores the human life, connecting them to his theories, such as the Oedipus Complex. Through his use of juxtaposition of "civil" human life versus "savage" human life, Freud reveals the dirty but raw truth about human nature and society. While frequently displaying interest in Freud, I never had a chance to read any of his books or understand any of his theories to the fullest. By reading Civilization and Its Discontents, I hope to further inform as well as entertain myself about one of the most important psychoanalysts of our time.

TOW #9 | Written - Team of Vatican Geneticists Successfully Clone God

The Onion, a well-known satirical news source published an article titled, “Team of Vatican Geneticists Successfully Clone God.” Through maintaining a satirical tone throughout the article and using allusions to the Bible, the Onion effectively reveals the irony of the article in order to entertain the audience and mock the close-minded Catholic community.

The irony present in the article is very outright and straightforward. The title itself, “Team of Vatican Geneticists Successfully Clone God,” expresses irony in which Vatican people are very Catholic and conservative, and would never approve messing with “God’s power” by cloning. The act of cloning God is ironic as well for the same reasons. Because of this ridiculous irony of conservative, Catholic people going against their faith and cloning God, the being in which condemns acts such as cloning allows the audience to laugh at the ridiculousness of the irony. Throughout the article, the Onion manages to allude to the Bible in order to emphasize that the clone is being treated like God. They refer to the newborn clone of God as “He,” and claim that the newborn is able to “possesses complete omniscience, and even at this early age, we have observed Him beginning to transcend space and time” (8). These descriptions emphasize how the newborn clone is something of greater power and superior to humans. The way that the author describes and refers to the clone portrays an element of seriousness, a stark contrast to the satire present before. This added element of contrast and irony by referring to the clone in a holy, serious manner further entertains and pokes fun at the close-minded conservative Catholic community.

The irony throughout the text is portrayed through maintaining a satirical tone and adding allusions to the Bible in the article; By doing so, the Onion entertains the audience and mocks the close-minded Catholic community.

TOW #8 | IRB - Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

As Malcolm Gladwell continues to connect stories of success with the common theme of “talent plus preparation,” he presents to the curious American public how much a combination of opportunity and origin can influence successes and failures that occur throughout the world. He utilizes statistics in one specific analysis, “The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes,” to portray how one’s upbringing in a specific geographic location can influence their capability to fly a plane.

Gladwell brings up one statistic--a list of countries that were ranked in terms of “uncertainty avoidance”--to portray how a country’s tolerance of ambiguity stems from their culture. Countries that were at the top of the uncertainty avoidance list, like Greece and Guatemala, have the commonality of conservative cultures, in which their people were taught to stick by the rules and not stray away from any set of rules, regardless of the circumstances. Other countries that were at the bottom of the list, like Denmark and Singapore, have cultures that are free to conform to situations and are not constricted by a specific set of rules. The people from the countries of the bottom of the list, as a result, were able to conform better to emergency situations (e.g. the fuel running low, the plane at risk of crashing), for they had no rules that they were trapped by, unlike the countries at the top of the list. Another similar statistic Gladwell adds presents a list of countries ranked in terms of the Power-Distance Index, or PDI. South Korea, a culture that emphasizes superiority of bosses and elders, ranked second in this list, proving that Koreans’ inability to equally distribute authority and “power” resulted in the high number of plane crashes that occurred in the early 2000s. These statistics thus helped Gladwell in his attempt to show the correlation between the culture of a specific geographic location and a person’s ability to fly a plane.

Although one's culture or specific geographic location can seem so far away from one's ability to fly a plane, Gladwell manages to reveal the relationship between the two through the use of statistics. He therefore portrays to his audience the intriguing nature of how one's origins can influence their job choice. 

TOW #7 | Visual - Center For Food Safety's "Not Milk"

With genetically modified foods now a “normal” part of society, the Center For Food Safety creates the advertisement “Not Milk” to emphasize that genetically modifying food--like cloning cows for milk--is not something that should be acceptable in our society. They target the people of America, urging them to “tell the FDA” about taking out these animal clones that make up our food. The text utilizes color to help portray that genetically modified food is not good, and people should take action in changing the rules in the FDA to not allow animal clones in food.

The color green is one of the only prominent colors that are used in the text, the milk carton, and as a “milk mustache” on the child’s face. When the color green is associated with food like milk, it usually represents something spoiled or bad for one’s health. Making the child’s milk mustache green portrays that the green milk carton, which is labeled “lab cloned whole milk,” is something bad for one’s health. With green having a negative connotation in this advertisement, it shows that the Center For Food Safety also has a negative opinion towards the FDA and animal clones, portrayed by the green text above the milk carton. This green color allows the audience to gain a better understanding of the Center For Food Safety’s attempt to show the negative aspects of genetically modified foods, so that the audience will be able to fulfill the Center For Food Safety’s purpose: to take action and try to change the FDA regulations on animal cloned foods.

Although not labeled, we see genetically modified foods everywhere--from milk to cheese to bread to even strawberries--and the FDA has yet to regulate any of it. The Center of Food Safety wants to not only portray the negative aspects of genetically modified foods like animal cloning, but also wants the American people to go out and take action to get rid of the genetically modified foods. They use color as a main aspect in an attempt to have their audience go out and try to change the FDA’s rules and regulations towards animal cloning in food.

TOW #6 | Written - Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"

In Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," she defines what it means to be colored. Instead of being a characteristic one is born with, she instead associates being "colored" with feeling apart or different from the majority. She uses sharp diction and metaphors to describe her personal experiences of feeling "colored."

Although she does share her experience of how she became "colored," she highlights how being colored did not bring her down in any way. She explained how "there is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes" (6). The use of terms like "dammed" and "lurking" emphasizes on the normal reaction other people in society have once they recognize that they are colored. By using these strong terms and portraying how Hurston was able to fight against the "dammed sorrow" and the "lurking behind her eyes," it shows how strong Hurston was in those situations. This also reveals to the audience the effect stereotyping can have on people and the importance of standing up for oneself and accepting oneself as who they are as an individual, regardless of the stereotypes that come with certain traits like their skin color.

Hurston also uses metaphor to describe her experiences being the minority. She describes herself as "a dark rock surged upon, overswept by a creamy sea" (10). By describing herself as a dark rock and white people as a creamy sea, Hurston highlights the color of their skin tone to help the audience understand how she felt at the time, being a black individual at the time. The metaphor is also used for the audience to gain understanding of how she felt; she wanted to point out how much these stereotypes and discrimination "overswept her," like a huge sea would do to a small rock that had nowhere else to move.

Sharing her experiences being a black woman, Hurston expresses her discontent with society's stereotyping and discrimination through the use of sharp diction and metaphor.

TOW #5 | Written - Martin Luther's "I Have a Dream"

The mid-1900s displayed racial segregation to its fullest--from schools to public restrooms, the United States had separate facilities for whites and blacks. However, a man by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. took the first leap in ending segregation through means of peaceful protests. One of his most influential speeches, “I Have a Dream,” still clings to the hearts of Americans today, reminding them of the powerful message King delivered to the American people in an effort to stop racial discrimination and give African-Americans the rights that they deserve.

Martin Luther King Jr. utilizes a variety of rhetorical devices, but one of the most prominent devices he uses is allusion. In the beginning of his speech, King alludes to Abraham Lincoln, describing him as a “great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today” (2). By alluding to Abraham Lincoln, King brings a well-respected figure that all Americans know and think highly of to support his claim of ending racial segregation. Because Lincoln is a well-known, adored figure that advocated for equal rights for blacks, King uses Lincoln’s authoritative status to build credibility so that the audience is able to find credence in King’s argument from the beginning of his speech. 

In addition to an allusion to Lincoln, King also alludes to the Declaration of Independence, stating that according to it, all men, black and white, were promised “‘unalienable rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’” (4). Using the Declaration of Independence, one of the speeches that are a major asset to our country, King proves how that the United States was not made to segregate between races, but rather give equal rights to everyone, despite their race. Pulling out such an iconic line that everyone in America knows from the Declaration of Independence portrays how America and the people of America should begin to treat everyone with “unalienable rights.” It further allows the audience to understand the importance of equal rights to the United States and the original intent one of the United States’ most well-known speeches that helped rebuild the country out of slavery.

Being an iconic figure in black history, Martin Luther King Jr. did more than deliver a speech for the American people--he began a revolution that would soon grant African-Americans the “Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness” that they should have been given from the beginning.

TOW #4 | Written - How to Survive the College Applications Madness

In Frank Bruni’s “How to Survive the College Admissions Madness,” he discusses failures and acceptances for top-ranking students applying for top-tier colleges. He uses short sentences, incisive diction, and sets a hopeful tone to the essay; however, he mainly portrays the successes of top students that do not end up in top colleges through cause-and-effect.

From the beginning of the article, Bruni exemplifies a student named Peter Hart. He had come from a very affluent school in Chicago. However, when applying to his top two choices, University of Michigan and University of Illinois, “both rejected him” (4). He then went on to attend Indiana University instead, where he felt that he “was a competent person” (6), succeeding immensely at that university and ending up attending graduate school at Harvard. By using a specific example to show the cause and effect of an intelligent being rejected and attending a lower-ranking college, Bruni is giving the audience evidence that his points are true. The audience is also able to make a connection between his argument that top-ranking students attending lower-ranking colleges will still be successful because Bruni uses Peter Hart’s example to connect the dots and provide substantial evidence.

Bruni, an American journalist who won and was nominated for many prizes for writing, wrote this text in order to highlight the idea that success can come out of failure. He focuses his audience on students that are in high school and college—especially those in their high school senior year, applying, receiving, and being rejected of their applications. Bruni does this to show those students that just because their top choice of college rejected them does not mean that they will not go on to succeed later on in life. Not only does he make his audience as students, but parents of those students as well. In the last paragraph, Bruni adds a letter sent from parents to a student that was rejected from his top two colleges and instead attended his third choice. The letter shows the love and support his parents give him despite his inability to attend a top college. He utilizes this letter to send the message out to other parents that they should support their child to the end—for their failure not does not mean that they will not be successful later.

TOW #3 | Visual - Dr. Seuss's "Wipe That Sneer Off His Face!"

Dr. Seuss, while now known as a famous poet and author of countless numbers of children’s books, was once a popular political cartoonist during the time of World War II. “Wipe That Sneer Off His Face!” was published in PM Magazine on October 13, 1942. Seuss utilizes this cartoon as propaganda towards American citizens in an effort to convince people to buy war savings bonds and stamps. Through the use of facial expressions and clever diction, Seuss is able to persuade his audience into buying war bonds and stamps.

The use of the word “sneer” combined with the stereotypical Japanese soldier with a facial expression depicting a “sneer” helps Seuss to portray the Japanese in a pretentious, cocky light. His audience is already aware that the Japanese are part of the Axis Powers in World War II, meaning that they are rivals of the United States, who are a part of the Allies. By Seuss portraying the sneering facial expression, he conveys that the Japanese think that they are better off than Americans in terms of winning the war. The American citizens, in turn, feel a sense of disgust and abhorrence for the Japanese, and thus feel the need to help the Japanese “wipe off” the “sneers” on their faces. In order for citizens to help soldiers win against the Japanese, they must purchase war savings bonds and stamps in order to do so. Therefore, Seuss uses the audience’s disgust for the Japanese through clever diction to persuade them into buying war savings bonds and stamps.

Seuss, being that he drew this cartoon in the midst of World War II, aims his audience towards American citizens not participating in the war. He establishes his audience through the place he published the cartoon as well as the cartoon itself. The cartoon was published in PM magazine, a popular magazine at the time that most of the general public in America read. In addition, the cartoon refers to an effort to overthrow the Japanese, meaning that his audience was towards those on the side of the Allies, which include the United States.

In a response to the dire need of monetary support for the U.S. military, Seuss uses facial expressions and clever diction in his political cartoon and successfully persuades his audience to buy war savings bonds and stamps.

TOW #2 | IRB - Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell examines the outliers of society and figures out their patterns to success. Author to many other bestsellers such as Tipping Point, Blink, and David and Goliath, Gladwell takes his previous writing experiences along with research to synthesize his findings into a series of short “stories.” He uses well-known public figures and statistics to appeal to his audience and establish his credibility.

When discussing his “10,000 hour rule” theory, Gladwell references many well-known, successful figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Paul Allen, Eric Schmidt, etc. to show how almost all of today’s successful people were born between the years of 1955 and 1956. By using well-known people to prove his point, the audience is able to find more credence in Gladwell’s theories. Because the figures Gladwell listed are well-known, the audience is aware that all the people he listed were people that were highly paid and successful people. This reveals that Gladwell is not and cannot make any sort of logical fallacy in this specific conclusive synthesis of research.

Throughout the book, Gladwell utilizes detailed statistics and studies to portray a specific relationship between a certain variable with the success of a certain type of outlier. On pages twenty and twenty-one, Gladwell displays the player roster of the 2007 Medicine Hat Tigers, and inquires his audience to “take a close look and see if you [they] can spot anything strange about it” (20). Giving the audience a full, detailed list of the basketball roster and asking the audience themselves to examine it further add to his credibility. Gladwell himself had to examine the roster and figure out a pattern between these top star basketball players and their success. By providing the whole roster, Gladwell allows the audience to see the relationship between the basketball players’ birthdays and their success themselves. Much like using well-known figures, by showing the audience all the statistics, research, and steps Gladwell took in reaching his conclusion, the audience is able to find believability in his research and points that he makes throughout the book.

Gladwell does not target a specific audience. As stated in the introduction, he uses Outliers to “do for our understanding of success what Stewart Wolf did for our understanding of health” (11). By using collective terms like “our,” Gladwell places himself in the same category as the audience, as well as directly addressing the audience in an informal manner. By doing so, Gladwell closes the gap between author and reader and makes the audience feel close, almost face-to-face, with Gladwell himself.

TOW #1 | Written - The Moral Bucket List

With curiosity and a determination to reach moral success, David Brooks explores the nature of “deeply good” people. Journalist and author of “The Road to Character,” Brooks adapts an excerpt of his well-known novel in one of his New York Times article, “The Moral Bucket List.”  He highlights the idea that such people are not born with this ability, but are instead “self-made.” Through the use of examples and counterexamples, Brooks expresses his idea of what attributes to a genuine, humble person and compiles them into what he calls the “moral bucket list.”

Brooks lists each attribute in his moral bucket list: “The Humility Shift,” “Self-Defeat,” “The Dependency Leap,” etc. before analyzing the nature of each through an example. One topic in his list, “Energizing Love,” begins with addressing a well-known author and journalist, Dorothy Day. He explains the reckless life she previously lived—“drinking, carousing, a suicide attempt or two, following her desires, unable to find direction”—before showing how the birth of her daughter gave her the energizing love she needed to turn her life around. By using examples of well-respected figures, Brooks is able to show his audience how with each attribute he lists, there is evidence behind his findings. Since Dorothy Day is someone that particularly is known for turning her life around, the audience is thus able to make a logical connection between how “energizing love” can make someone a better person.

In an effort to connect with his audience, Brooks uses relatable types of exemplification to provide counterexamples for his claim. He begins one of his topics, “The Dependency Leap,” by pointing out the commonality of gifting “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” as a graduation present. Using this relatable counterexample, Brooks shows how unlike the book, life cannot be an “autonomous journey” to achieve moral success. He takes the idea of individual will, reason, and compassion expressed in the book and places it up against the horrors of selfishness, pride, and self-deception. The familiarity of the book helps the audience to relate and understand the opposing argument that follows the counterexample. Because the audience is aware of the context of the book, they are then able to realize through Brooks’s argument as to why these ideas of individual effort cannot lead to moral success.

Not only does this counterexample clarify Brooks’s argument and compel his audience, Brooks’s exemplification emphasizes the audience he is aiming towards. Using “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”, a common graduation gift, displays that Brooks is reaching for an audience that is in the transition between high school and college or is beginning college. He focuses his primary audience as these young adults, for in that time of people’s lives, many are focused on maintaining high grades, studying hard, or getting a good job instead of the moral success that Brooks believes is much more important. By distinguishing a specific audience, Brooks shows the struggle, but crucial importance to achieving both career or economic success and moral success.

In a generation where everything from social media to teachers emphasize the idea of self-success, Brooks argues otherwise. He uses both examples and counterexamples to show how with self-awareness, help from others, and a little love, one can reach a kind of success that money or a stable job could never buy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/opinion/sunday/david-brooks-the-moral-bucket-list.html

MP1 | IRB Intro - Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

Amongst the myriad of his bestselling books—Blink, The Tipping Point, and David and Goliath being a few examples—Malcolm Gladwell is most well known for his book Outliers. In a world full of different people, environments, and occupations, Gladwell finds a way to connect each and every concept down to a familiar point: success. Along with being an avid reader of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, the term “success” always had a deep meaning to me. Although I strive to be successful, the “why’s,” “how’s,” and the definition itself inhibit me from reaching the success that I yearn. By reading Outliers, I hope to use the short stories to help me learn how to be successful, figure out my own path to success, and redefine success itself.

Langston Hughes's "Bop"

In Langston Hughes’s “Bop,” the narrator and fictional character Simple discuss the evolution of jazz music and its relationship with the oppression of blacks. This essay, written in 1949 as a column in the Chicago Defender, brings attention and reveals to white people the immense amount of racial discrimination between whites and blacks during that time period. Hughes, being a successful poet, playwright, and blacks right activist, expresses his disdain for the abhorrent mistreatment of black people by connecting it with “be-bop.”

Hughes uses a huge connection throughout the whole narrative between jazz music and black oppression to reveal the heinous treatment of blacks. He uses two fictional characters, Simple and the narrator, to discuss how “be-bop” came to be. Simple, one of the two characters in the essay, explains to the narrator the origin and evolution of jazz music. Although the narrator claims that “Be-bop is passe, gone, finished,” Simple insists that although “it may be gone, its riffs remain behind” (190). Like be-bop, although huge acts of black oppression have gone and past, there are still elements of racial discrimination everywhere.

Hughes wants to show that although many people think that racial oppression does not occur anymore, there are still several instances where they occur. He uses another example through Simple who claims that the reason why “many white folks don’t dig Bop” is because “white folks do not get their heads beat just for being white” (191). Here, Hughes uses the connection to show that white people do not understand jazz music because they have not gone through the rough, oppressing experience that black people have. By using this analogy between music and racial discrimination, Hughes is successfully able to portray to his audience the idea that black oppression should be stopped. Hughes’s connection also includes an element of pathos. Using the example of how a white person cannot relate to a type of music made by blacks because they are not treated equally highlights the difference between how whites and blacks were treated at the time. Highlighting this aspect of racial discrimination tugs on the audience’s heartstrings, evoking an emotion of guilt for not taking action for such a huge mistreatment between races.

Nina Simone was a famous jazz pianist and a huge civil rights activist. Many other rights activists like Hansberry, Baldwin and even Langston Hughes himself admired her talent for jazz as well as her contribution to end racial discrimination.

E.B. White's "Once More to the Lake"

With a heart yearning to revisit his past, a father takes his son on a trip to a lake that he frequently visited as a child. While on the trip, the father struggles to balance his past memories at the lake with the present moments occurring at the lake with his son. He recalls actions that he did himself as a child with the actions of his son. When he and his son go out fishing, the lines between the past and present begin to blur, for as he looked at his son, he “felt dizzy and didn’t know which rod I [he] was at the end of” (181). As he continues his trip with his son, the father meets other aspects that are the same as his past. This comes to show that despite the father’s aging, the nature and beauty of the lake is timeless. Written as a personal narrative by E.B. White, this essay comes to show that while nature and memories are timeless, growing up is an inevitable fate that everyone must come to terms with. White uses juxtaposition between himself and his son, Joel, to show that his past self and Joel in the present are the same, the only difference being age and time. He shows that everything--from dragonflies to waitresses to fishing--stayed the same when he is with Joel from when he was a child. However, as the narrative progresses, White comes to realize that even though the lake stayed the same, he has not. He comes to terms that he is in fact growing up, feeling “the chill of death” as he watches his son going out for a swim (185). White registers the fact that his memories are just memories, and that he must accept his growing up and the idea that morality is inevitable. By using a narrative to share his personal experience in realizing the bitter truth of growing up, White successfully portrays his message that morality is something that cannot be avoided, as much as people try to cover it up with memories.

This image reveals a picture of the Piccadilly Circus juxtaposed with what it looks like current day. Similar to the nature of the lake, this image portrays that even though time goes by, memories and the beauty of an environment stay constant.

Robert Frost's "The Figure A Poem Makes"

In “The Figure a Poem Makes,” Robert Frost expresses his impression on poems and the nature behind them. He views poetry as an art, frequently comparing it to an aspect of life such as love. He highlights the similarities between both love and a poem’s figures, stating that they both “begin in delight and end(s) in wisdom” (177). Like love, poetry begins with delight, before going through a series of events and as a result gaining knowledge and wisdom.

Frost had a growing popularity by the late 1930s, as a well-known poet with a large, famous collection of poetry. This allows his audience to find credence in both his works as a poet and a critic on poetry.

The essay, being the preface for Frost’s “1939 Collected Poems,” is aimed towards people that read his poetry. Through the essay, Frost’s audience to understand what poetry is before reading Frost’s collection of poems. He uses several rhetorical devices, one of the most prominent ones being analogies. He uses an overall analogy between poetry and love, stating that like love, “a poem may be worked over once it is in being, but may not be worried into being” (178). By using an analogy such as love, the audience is able to grasp a better understanding of what Frost feels that poetry is. Love is an emotion that everyone has experienced and knows what is like, so comparing that emotion with poetry helps the audience to relate to how Frost feels about poetry and how he thinks poetry should make people feel. Frost also compares poetry with art. He explains how artists, unlike scholars, “differ most importantly in the way their knowledge is come by” (178). He then goes on to explain how like artists, poets do not obtain knowledge through “projected lines of logic,” but instead gain knowledge through experience and writing.

Frost successfully delivers his purpose to his audience that poetry is much more than writing. It is instead comparable to love an art, for it allows for wisdom and obtains knowledge in different ways. He uses analogies and figurative language to grasp the audience’s hearts and minds in an effort to have his readers better understand the nature of poetry.

As Frost stated, poetry is an art.
This image is a drawing of an eye made up of lines from famous poems.