Tow #3, Pope Cartoon (visual)

As the Pope entered The States for his first time, it seemed as though everyone from New York to D.C was impacted by his prodigious trip.  In the cartoon above, cartoonist Scott Stantis depicts how amidst the Pope's friendly visit, US politics are still at full fledge battle with each other.  This cartoon was published in US News, and Stantis's clever cartoons are also published in several of his books, as well as several of the most popular news companies in The United States.  His audience consisted of anyone who reads US News, and was intended to show how US politics are so filled with egotistical politicians, that they do not take time to think about the positive messages that are spread throughout the US.  One very effective device of rhetoric that Stantis uses in this cartoon was ambiguity.  His indirect, yet intentional use of of color highlights the differences between the Pope, and US politicians.  His use of a dark color scheme to make the US seem darker and evil, makes the bright white Pope seem like the good guy in this cartoon.  The multiple meanings behind his use of color contribute to his purpose of illuminating the egotistical, self-centered politicians that fight more than actually coming to productive agreements.  Along with that purpose, the words in the bubble above the Popes head bring along another effective use of rhetoric, which is colloquialism.  The short sentence which has the complexity of a third grader, gives the cartoon an informal vibe, yet is still as impactful as if he had used SAT words.  It adds to his purpose, because it is almost as if the Pope is treating the politicians like elementary schoolers, telling them to "be kind to each other."  Through Stantis's use of colloquialism and ambiguity, he accomplished his purpose in this visual.

TOW #2 "Filter Fish" (nonfiction)

Oliver Sacks, famed neurologist and idol to many,  recently wrote a short personal memoir, reflecting on his childhood and how it seemed to be shaped around his love for gefilte fish.  On the surface, it seems uninteresting, because who cares about gefilte fish?  However, as he recently was diagnosed with terminal cancer, his reflection of the fish is a symbol for the joyful life he lived.  Not only did he enjoy the gefilte balls, but they reminded him of his mother, and everything that she provided for him.  They reminded him of how he could not bare to eat anyone else's cooked fish, as none were as good as his mother's homemade style balls.  His audience, anyone from readers of the New York Times, but also those near the end of their lives, wanting to relive their joyful childhood memories are drawn into his writing through his appeal to pathos.  His use of the short stories he describes ensues his purpose of wanting the reader to think back on their special childhood memories.  While he was writing on how the only other gefilte fish besides his mother's he could eat was that made by his housekeeper, he gave emotional appeal while describing the situation.  His housekeeper, an African American catholic, would make the fish balls for her church, as he described the situation, "I loved to think of her fellow-Baptists gorging on gefilte fish at their church socials."  This appeal to emotion gives the reader something to chuckle at, while they think of little things that made their childhood unique.  To conclude, Sacks's legendary life full of achievement will be missed, but his short memoir published in the Times is achieving every purpose that it has.  When I am sitting on my front porch in sixty years, pondering the little things that shaped the man I will have become (just as Oliver is pictured in the article), I will think similar thoughts as Sacks did, realizing every little positive occurrence in life adds up to your overall happiness, just as Sacks wanted his readers to think.

TOW #1 "I have a dream" (nonfiction)

The Atlantic Magazine and College Board have teamed up this year to have their first annual writing contest.  The Atlantic asked students around the world to send in their best essays where they were asked to choose a document that shaped the United States, and analyze it in fewer than 2,000 words.  After thousands of submissions, lots of reviews by College Board and Atlantic editors, a student named Nicolas Yan of New Zealand won the contest, and his essay was published in the magazine.  Yan chose Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream speech" to analyze, and did so with such grace that it is hard to believe he is only a 17 year old student.  Yan is top of his class and entering his final year at King's College in Auckland.  His intended audience were those grading the essays, however was evidently the millions of people that read the Atlantic, and those that care about the past and current day civil rights.  He goes through MLK's speech, highlighting its impact, but MLK's diction as well.  Yan writes, "Nevertheless, he now found himself at the wheel of a massive vehicle for change."  The diction that Yan uses here to compose this fluid sentence is highly effective in his attempt to convey the large outcome MLK had accomplished.  As well as using rhetoric to capture the reader, Nicolas connected this past event with current day issues, where he writes "King in his 'dream' speech called 'the winds of police brutality,' such as in the cases of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray."  Yan's initial purpose in writing this essay was to not only to be rewarded and published by The Atlantic, but to analyze and speak on MLK's large development on shaping the United States.  In my eyes, but clearly in the eyes of millions of others, he accomplished his purpose in just under 2,000 words by using rhetoric strategies to convey his purpose, which won him the contest.

IRB Introduction- Wild Ones

The first independent reading book that I will be reading is "Wild Ones" by Jon Mooallem.  I saw this book in a book shop on the Lopez Islands off the coast of Washington State, and figured it would be cool to buy it as a souvenir.  Little did I know, this book about the extinction crisis of animals and what we can do to solve this issue is an award winner, and was on the New York Times 100 notable books list in 2013, leading me to actually wanting to read it.