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.