TOW #13- "Terrorism"

              On an uneventful Saturday morning, I came across a video that popped up on a social media website. Unlike other videos, this one wasn’t about people doing questionable things to follow our society’s standard of being “funny”. It was simply a conversation between a white American and Muslim student, talking about the topic of terrorism during a college class. When the professor told the students that words such as “mercy, peace, and compassion” are mentioned in the Karan 355 times and that Islam is a religion that preaches peace and tolerance, the white American student, just like any other white students would, asked why the world’s most troubled spots were plagued with Islamic terrorism if Islam is a religion that preaches peace. By appealing to logos and pathos, the Muslim student answers this question as well as putting the situation into perspectives.

            The Muslim student starts with the definition of terrorism. Although terrorists are often classified as Muslims who invade different parts of the world to act against other religions, he claims that the world’s biggest terrorists can be the “white superpowers”. He tells the class that everyone around the world knows that the strike of the twin towers killed 3,000 people, but that nobody knows that the bombing of Afghanistan killed more than 15,000 people as 50,000 tons of explosives were dropped onto innocent civilians. The numbers that he presents to showcase his argument stands for itself. It reveals how uninformed people are about the harms that come to the Islamic states from the US and Britain and how dramatized the terrorized events in US can be when comparing the harms that were done of both sides. Then, he continues by stating that overall, 500,000 innocent men, women, and even children were killed in Afghanistan in order to appeal to pathos.

            Finally, when the white student asked, “If Muslims like you feel that way, then why don’t you get out of our country?” he simply replies by saying, “We will… as soon as you promise to leave ours.”

             The Muslim student was effective by appealing to logos and pathos when putting the rest of the students into his perspective when talking about terrorism. I was able to be aware of how uninformed I was and thought his way of portraying his position was very effective.

TOW #12- "The Liar's Club" IRB

            In the memoir ‘The Liar’s Club”, Mary Karr recalls back to when she is seven, experiencing the most traumatic event in her life. Living in Leechfield, one of the “the ugliest towns on the planet”, Karr grew up in poison- infested environment with a family full of violence, dislocation, and fragmentation. During the first half of the book, Karr introduces her mom by describing how she was taken away to a mental institution due to her nervous breakdowns.  With her grandma suffering from cancer and her father becoming an alcoholic, Kerr and her little sister is left neglected and goes from door to door, begging for a meal. By including similes, Kerr displays the emotions she encountered during her brutal childhood experiences as well as her complex thoughts.

            In the beginning of the book, Kerr only has broken pieces of her memory from a tragic event. She can only describe this indescribable moment with similes that help readers grasp her emotions. As she recalls back to when she discovered a fuzzy memory of being assisted out of her house by the police, she says it felt like the moment “a crystal ball that whirls from a foggy blur into focus” (14). Once she can no longer piece her stories back together, she compares her frustration to a ghost and how “like the smudge of a bad word quickly wiped off a school blackboard, the ghost can call undue attention to itself by its very vagueness” (25). With the use of similes, Kerr displays her complex emotions as well as her inner conflicts.

            It is undeniable that Kerr’s use of figurative language, such as simile, makes her memoir dramatic, portraying the great warmth and pain that built her strong sense of self. The gritty eloquence of her voice incorporated in her similes gave me vivid pictures and left me speechless.

TOW #11- “It’s Going to be Just Turned Around”

                As evidently shown in this political cartoon, this image depicts the American’s favor in changing the immigration law. From my background knowledge, I know that during the 1920s, Communism was expanding in different countries and that Americans feared the effects of having immigrants over: terrorists bombing their cities, foreign workers killing their land owners, and the expand of communism. Through the use of juxtaposition and appealing to logos, the artist proposes her though in order to change the present immigration law.

                Through juxtaposition, the artist clearly states what he is in favor of and what he isn’t. Using funnels that face the opposite direction, it makes it even more obvious that he wants to turn the immigration law around 180 degrees. One other difference in the two pictures is the white, dusty smoke. The smoke that is on the top left, surrounding the New York City shows not only the chaos, but the 40 bombs that harmed and threatened the Americans, essentially creating a negative bias toward the immigrants. The smoke on the right, showing the open end of the funnel shows the mess that is disturbing the peace in the United States. People are unrecognizable and their bags are carelessly thrown in the air. On the bottom right picture, however, the foreigners are patiently waiting until it is their turn to be selected and meet the requirements before they are allowed into the United States. There is no smoke on both ends of the funnel, which represents peace, and people are recognizable, walking in an organized order. This shows a logical reasoning as to why their immigration law should be changed and to show that it is the most rational solution to the problem.

                Evans uses juxtaposition as well as appealing to logos in order to portray his thought on the present immigration law. I think that the artist was successful as I was able to understand what he was in favor of with just a little bit of background information.

TOW #10- "What are Masterpieces and Why are There so Few of Them?"

           Written in the 1900s, during the time of the great depression, this controversial piece of literature reminds us of the time when the Americans, including Stein, believed that they could no longer be inspired to create masterpieces. In the Essay “What are Masterpieces and Why are There so Few of Them,” Stein displays her opinion on what builds a masterpiece. Through the use of ambiguous sentence structures and repetition, Stein intrigues the readers’ curiosity to get to her purpose in explaining what a masterpiece is, isn’t, and why there are so few of them.

            Stein’s style of writing ignores the rules of grammar and sounds as if she is directly speaking to the audience. However, Stein purposely manipulates her words to display the exact mess of thoughts on why there are very few masterpieces: “I’m I because my dog knows me but, creatively speaking, the little dog knowing that you are you and your recognizing that he knows, that is what destroys creation” (Stein, 131).  This ambiguous sentence structure shows how ironically, clarity on one’s identity consequently make one remember themselves and fail to produce originality, a masterpiece.

            In addition to his unique style of language, Stein continuously repeats words and phrases to emphasize the negative effect of over thinking. By stating that “Remembering is never clear [because it] makes secondary writing [when] one begin[s] to write something and suddenly remember something. If [that person] continue[s] to remember, [the] writing gets very confused” (130). This shows the difference between pieces and masterpieces and how it requires one to avoid labeling and limiting their possibilities on their creations.

            Overall, I don’t think that Stein’s devices are effective, because even though they were insightful and deep, the purpose got lost in the complex ideas that he wanted to share. However, her way of approaching the readers was unique, one of the qualities of having a masterpiece.

TOW #9- “President Obama Offers a Statement on the Attacks in Paris”

            Dozens of people fell to the pools of blood, escaping from the cries that filled the Bataclan Theatre, where gunmen fired towards the crowd of innocent French civilians. In an instant, families were torn as they held onto the motionless bodies of their loved ones. Bombing and shooting up six different places in France simultaneously, terrorists left over three hundred people either killed or injured. On November 13^th, President Obama delivered a statement on behalf of enraged Americans in a conference, where he appealed to pathos to imply his strong desire to support and assist the French government in their war against the terrorist groups.

            His anger aroused by the injustice he witnessed occur in France, Obama uses pronouns such as “we” and “us” as evident in the quote, “This is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share” (para 1,2) in order to morally justify U.S. plans of helping France in the process of seeking justice. He also recalls back to how America has “gone through those kind of episodes ourselves” and could “count on the French people to stand with us” (para, 5) in order to help U.S. citizens remember to give back to France for what they’ve done for us. To emphasize their unity in power, Obama portrays the two nations as victims of terrorist attacks and portrays his strong compassion for the families and friends in Paris, whose lives are now forever changed.  

            For me, the speech was effective, because I wanted to join Obama in offering our condolence to France throughout the speech. Through his appeal to pathos when emphasizing the values the people of U.S. and France share, Obama powerfully depicts his supportive stands.

IRB intro post #2- "The Liars' Club"

The memoir "Liars' Club" by Mary Karr, is a story of Karr's dark childhood that consisted of growing up under an alcoholic father and a neglectful mother. The catastrophic events that she describes makes it hard to believe that this book is a true story. I chose this memoir, because I was intrigued by the narrative tone and small flashbacks that are told in between stories, which reveals the author's humorous tone. Despite the hardships, Karr reveals the conquering of her past and the discovering of the future.

TOW #8- “The Soloist” (Part 2)

            With an ambition to change Ayer’s life, Lopez continues to convince Nathaniel to stay at Lamp, a facility center that could protect him and his instruments. Due to Nathaniel’s lack of trust in doctors who work in Lamp, Lopez struggles to make progress in Nathaniel’s life until Peter Snyder offers free music classes to Nathaniel. Once Nathaniel settles down in the facility, Lopez begins to search for Nathaniel’s lost sister and father to reconnect the three of them. However, when Nathaniel reads all the articles that Lopez has written about him, he is furious and demands Lopez to stop helping him. Lopez is left with a crushing disappointment and a recognition of the limit that has been imposed by the severe disorder of schizophrenia. In order to portray his hopeless defeat against Nathaniel’s condition, Lopez includes repetition of inappropriate diction in the memoir, “The Soloist”.

            Lopez’s dream is broken when Nathaniel yells, “I don’t have to stay in this stinking town that I absolutely motherfucking hate. I despise Los Angeles. I despise you!” (Lopez, 258). The strategic diction creates a sense of frustration that Lopez feels when realizing that even though his column audiences praise him for his actions, Ayers will never be capable of acknowledging Lopez for his guidance or seek help to get treatment for his schizophrenia. Not only that, but Lopez, as an author includes the repeated sentence, “get out”, spoken by Nathaniel to build up the tension that is present in the atmosphere. Nathaniel’s harsh diction in response to Lopez’s articles is what makes this text portray Lopez as a failure in his battle against Nathaniel's schizophrenia. 

TOW #7- “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”

          In the “Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, Richard Rodriguez shares the conflicts he had to withstand growing up as a bilingual Hispanic living in America. He expresses his complicated encounter with the American culture and continues to reveal the positive and negative affects it had on him. Attending a private school with Caucasians, Rodriguez felt that he had to abandon his Hispanic culture and speaking Spanish because it yielded him from learning English. He soon began to feel a disconnection between him and his parents and “no longer kn[ew] what words to use in addressing them” (para, 18). Although he felt that it was important that he assimilate to the American culture, he felt “guilty” and felt a “sad confusion” (para, 41) at home. Through Rodriguez’s use of anecdote, he is able to appeal to ethos and pathos in order to emphasize the struggles he faced growing up as a bilingual child.

            When establishing ethos, Rodriguez shares his experiences of having Spanish as his primary language by gradually revealing the conflicts he faced when learning to speak English. Humiliation, terror, and sadness, he describes, sums up his childhood. This reveals his credibility as the experiences and feelings that are describes, were what motivated him to write the memoir. Pathos is revealed when he explains his poor relationship with his parents. He describes how he “shared fewer and fewer words with them” (para, 35), as he tried to neglect the culture that used to be important. He also claims himself as a “victim of a disconcerting confusion”(para, 46), emphasizing the emotional impact the new culture and language had on him.

            Overall, Rodriguez’s use of anecdote that helped to appeal to ethos and pathos is a successful method of emphasizing the distraught he felt growing up as a bilingual child. As a bilingual child myself, I was able to connect to his experiences and reflect back to the South Korean Culture that I came from. 

TOW #6- China’s Big Test

          In most Eastern Asia countries, it is a strong belief that elite U.S. education is beneficial when applying for successful jobs in foreign countries. In 2013, “U.S. reached more than 270,000” Chinese students, with a “16.5% increase each year” (Rauhala, 5). During the October SAT test in 2014, however, the College Board administration has found evidences of students in China illegally obtaining and sharing test materials, and told the students that their SAT results would be delayed. This left the Chinese students with devastation as college admission deadlines approached. In the article, “China’s Big Test”, Emily Rauhala reveals anecdotes and juxtaposes two ideas in order to compare and contrast different existing opinions on Chinese students in America.

            In the beginning paragraphs, Rauhala introduces a story of Xu Quing, a Chinese student preparing to study abroad. Her anxious process of studying for the SAT test and the shocking response after receiving an e-mail from the College Board reveals the author’s sympathetic feelings toward the innocent Chinese students who were affected by those who cheated. The writer also includes China’s nature of cheating my mentioning “Gaokao”, an exam that determines the lives of young Chinese, which give them undeniably high pressures, essentially become a leading cause to why they cheat. Not to mention, the Chinese parents have stressed the importance of education since they only have one child due to the “one child policy”. The writer than, juxtaposes the Chinese students and the American students to portray a different side of the situation.

            Showing a different view of the problem, the author mentions how Harvard has admitted only “5.9% of applicants for the class of 2018” (Rauhala, 7), stressing how it has gotten more difficult for Americans to get accepted in colleges. The parents in America are worried that the foreign students will take over the jobs and positions in high authority. They have recently begun to voice the unfairness as the Chinese are taking advantage of the time difference between America and China to allegedly cheat on the exam. This has added more to America’s uneasy relationship with East Asia.

            Overall, Rauhala’s anecdote and juxtaposition of two opinions leaves the readers with a great understanding of the existing conflict between China and America.

TOW#5- "This Won't Hurt A Bit"

            While browsing through a social media page, I came across this eye- opening picture. This visual text was used by a vegan journalist, who uses photo-shopped images of women wearing makeup to convince other women to stop purchasing from cosmetic companies that brutally test on animals. Through the use of imagery, perspective, and pathos, the journalist arouses the emotion of readers.

            Without an explanation of what animal testing is like, the picture itself describes the violence that it contains. The bloody and swollen face of once a beautiful woman is attention seeking, emphasizing the brutal effects of animal testing if it was done on human. When I first encountered this photo, I was scared to find out how undeniably cruel animal testing was. It was an eye- opening experience to see the true story on behalf of tested animals.

            Although many pictures that argue against animal testing often portray poorly treated animals, this journalist used a different point of view to make women into victims of the violence. This change in perspectives allows women to relate personally more than the picture of abused animals. Not only that, but his change in perspective evokes guilt and anger for the readers.

            The journalist uses pronoun such as “you” to emotionally approach to the readers. Even though it is hard to sympathize abused animals, this picture of blistered woman evokes sympathy and even guilt as it allows the readers to reflect on human’s poor choice of actions.

            Overall, this dark and cruel piece is shocking to many, and the guilty feeling is what makes this text effective in raising awareness of violence that takes place in animal testing and in persuading women to avoid buying animal tested products.

TOW #4- "The Soloist" (Part 1)

          Portraying a complex nature of friendship, Steve Lopez recalls back to the time when he became friends with Nathaniel Ayers, despite their differences. When Lopez first met Nathaniel, he worked for the Los Angeles Times and was thirsty for story for his column. He was lucky enough to encounter Nathaniel, a homeless man playing an old, destroyed violin on Skid Row. Ayers at the time had more than just the ability to make music. He had a story. A story that eventually gave heart aches to thousands. Determined to find out what caused the talented man to live on the streets, Lopez decided to become friends with Nathaniel to find out his story. Discovering that Ayers used to be an ambitious, charming classical bass student at Juilliard that dropped out due to his mental disorder, Lopez believed that his story was perfect for a successful column. When his column was published, Lopez was attacked with companies sending him new instruments for Nathaniel to play. With an audience who wished for Nathaniel’s success as a musician, Lopez realized that he had the power to change Nathaniel’s life and decided to look for ways to help him. However, Lopez continuously faced crushing disappointment whenever he tried to convince Ayers to be treated at a hospital. In order to spread the awareness of mental disabilities, Lopez reveals his emotion in his memoir, The Soloist.

            By revealing his anger towards uncured mental disabilities that he witnesses during his journey with Nathaniel, Lopez evokes the feelings of readers to make them realize the importance of knowing about mental disabilities. For example, Lopez recalls back to when his aunt and uncle committed suicide and how he later noticed that he and his family didn’t recognize them as being “mentally sick” but as “depressed”. He shows remorse when he realizes that depression is a treatable medical condition and makes sure that the readers are aware of his realization. He also mentions the “unsolicited comment” made by Tom Cruise and criticizes his stereotypes about mental illness. By stating Cruise’s comment that said mental illness was caused by “chemical imbalance and lack of vitamins” (Lopez, 82), Lopez mocks Cruise saying that he would” like to give Cruise a tour of Skid Row and see if he thinks a vitamin deficiency explains the mad scene there” (Lopez, 83). By including his strong emotions towards mental illness, Lopez successfully calls attention to the awareness of the mentally ill and how it can be cured with help. He tells the readers of all age to stop being bystanders to mental illness and to make changes by educating others and by taking actions. Through his use of pathos, Lopez is successful in portraying his purpose.

TOW #3- How It Feels to Be Colored Me

            As an African American living in the 1900s, Zora Hurston recalls back to when she was little, living in a Negro town in Eatonville. Growing up in society where she felt belonged, Hurston mentions how she felt no different from the white people because they generously respected her existence in the South. However, when she left to Jacksonville to receive education, she felt as if she was oil floating in water, feeling the undeniably strong distinction between her and the white people. Through her use of metaphor, she depicts her positive view of her background despite living in a culture where a strong contrast between the black and whites existed. For example, Hurston says. “Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, over swept by a creamy sea. I am surged upon and over swept, but through it all, I remain myself. When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again” (Hurston, 10). By using this figurative language, Hurston is able to describe how she was never felt sorrow or defeated by her differences and also shows her strength as an African American woman.

            Throughout this personal anecdote, it is evident that her purpose is for all people of all races to feel pride for their culture despite the sorrows it can bring them under certain circumstances. She does this by describing the positives of being an African American. For example, Hurston writes, “It constricts the thorax and splits the heart with tempo and narcotic harmonies. This orchestra grows rambunctious, rears on its hind legs and attacks the tonal veil with primitive fury, rending it, clawing it until it breaks through the jungle beyond.” (Hurston, 11). Again, with the use of personification, she shows how she appreciates the beauty of music more compared to her white friends and shows her love for being an African American. Hurston’s strangely strong optimism leaves the readers with pride for their background and through her use of figurative language, she is able to effectively portray her message of self- worth.

TOW #2- In Search of Refuge

       Opening the eyes of those who are uninformed around the world, the columnist Simon Shuster and the photographer Yuri Kozyrev, both civilians in Leros, Greece, describes the mass migration of people from the Middle East such as Syria to Greece and Western Europe. The audiences are people in the European countries who are negatively impacted by the exodus from Syria and might be against the migration. They also include the governments of the influenced countries in convincing them to continue keeping their doors open for the Syrian escapees. This is evident through the writer’s emphasis on how desperate these Syrians are in need of help and how hopeful and excited they look when they finally arrive in a foreign land after traveling for days and possibly weeks in an overcrowded, inflatable boats. Through Shuster’s appeal to pathos, it is heart rendering for the audience to read about the poor living conditions that the immigrants live in. The descriptions of squalid places and tarps in the European Countries that provide little protection arouse the sympathetic views of the readers. 
       Through pictures that show horrified and exhausted faces of the Syrians and moms carrying their sick and dirty babies that could not be taken care of on the boat describes the emotions of these people more than words are capable of. The writer also achieves his purpose by proving his credibility. Providing quotes that are from the refugees explain the hardships they felt during the process of separating from family and escaping from the terrorist group ISIS, Shuster dramatizes the event as well as supporting his purpose. In my thoughts, the writer was effective in achieving his purpose by appealing to pathos and ethos by using not only words but pictures as well, evoking the values and beliefs of the audience.

IRB Intro Post #1

The Soloist by Steve Lopez is about a journalist who finds a mentally ill musician on the second street and his attempt in writing a column about the musician on the Los Angeles Times. I chose this book because I am a musician myself, playing the violin. I was also intrigued to hear a story of a musical genius with a mental disorder and his relationship with a man that is the polar opposite. I hope to learn to enjoy reading non-fictions through reading this memoir and be able to write one as well.

TOW #1- …And Don’t help Your Kids With Their Homework

  

            Releasing a groundbreaking story to parents across the world, the author Dana Goldstein, on behalf of the researchers Keith Robinson and Angel Harris, stated in the magazine Atlantic the effect of parental involvement in school on the improvement of their children’s education. Using the data that Robinson and Harris published in the article The Broken Compass: Parental Involvement With Children’s Education, Goldstein stated that although parental participation often serves for the purpose of increasing the student’s academic wellness, it actually doesn’t affect it and that their involvement sometimes even backfires due to the burdensome pressures that the students feel from their parents.

            Using ethos and logos to appeal to all parents, the author refers to sociologist Annette Lareau’s observation on how the socioeconomic status of the student and the choice of teacher effects the improvement in students’ grades more effectively than the parental involvement does. She continues to support her reliability through using the statistics made by the University of Texas and gives an example for her argument saying that Asian Americans, even with uninvolved parents can perform well in school.

            The author’s purpose is to let the working parents know that they shouldn’t feel guilty of not being able to make time to participate in their children’s’ school events, because it will not affect their children’s grades. She also informs the parents who endlessly put their effort into school thinking that it will influence their children, because their children’s well being in school is dependent on their children’s performance and not theirs’. However, she states that parents should engage in school activities not for the beneficiaries of their children but to have a good citizenship. In the article, the audience was evidently shown in the title being said, “don’t help your kids with their homework” and when the author asked several questions directed to parents during the article. Overall, the author successfully portrayed her purpose to her targeted audience through using the effective rhetorical devices of ethos and logos.

Putting Daddy On

Putting Daddy On

          Tom Wolfe, graduated from Yale University and the author of 15 novels, depicts a relationship between a son and a father that live a very different lifestyle in the essay, “Putting Daddy On”. It contrasts the poor and the rich, young and the old, and right and the wrong, which causes Parker, the father and Ben, the son to lose their bond. Traveling down to the Lower East Side where only poverty exists, Parker, dressed fancily in uptown clothes brings a friend to retrieve his son, who dropped out of Columbia and chose to be a hippy. From a perspective of a frustrated and a guilty parent, “Putting Daddy On” allow all teenagers in a stage of rebellion to know what their parents might think. Although Parker speaks to Ben as if he is mocking his of life, it is revealed in the essay that he understands why Ben is acting the way he is. Parker also reveals that although he didn't speak to Ben much when they net, there were not much he could have said and that he tried the hardest he could. It shows Parker’s understanding of Ben growing up as an independent and letting go his control over him.

          Although it is not clearly stated in the novel, the audience can be assumed to be the teenagers and the parents who are under conflicting relationships. Tom Wolfe achieved his purpose through using various rhetorical devices such as colloquial language, perspective, and visualization. Using colloquial language allowed the readers to understand what type of character Parker was. Through his use of words, we were able to identify his humorous and sarcastic side. Wolfe’s interesting use of perspectives easily draws the attention of many readers, because although a lot about Parker and his visit to the lower east side is revealed, there are a lot of things about the situation that is ambiguous because of the nameless narrator. However, Wolfe’s use of visualization of the settings allowed the readers to see the big differences between the father and the son. Although the author’s purpose was rather hard to find, through many rhetorical devices, Tom Wolfe did a successful job in portraying the conflict between Parker and Ben.

Sometimes We Must Understand to Let Go

Parents can’t always believe that they can construct the lives of their children.

Work Cited

"Movie Reviews: 'The Nut Job,' 'Big Bad Wolves'" NY Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Aug. 2015.

"Tom Wolfe." Tom Wolfe. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Aug. 2015.

Coatesville

Coatesville

          Slavery is a topic that most people are aware of, but the information about slavery is often hard to consume and relate to. John Jay Chapman, an American poet, dramatist, critic, and an activist as an anti- slavery speaks of the cruel event that took place in Coatesville that allowed me to touch the deeper aspects of slavery. During the essay, he refers to the shock he felt when he first found out about a man that was burned alive and tortured but felt a greater shock when he learned that there were hundreds of witnesses that saw such a devastating, inhumane action and chose to do nothing about it. Chapman tells us the consequences of being silent. The silence that was present in Coatesville in 1911 not only failed to save the man that was struggling out of the pitchforks that faced him but tolerated the offenders of their unjust actions.

          Out of many purposes and lessons that were evident in Chapman’s essay, one that stood out to me the most was to never wait for someone to make the changes you want to see in the world. After the occurrence, those hundreds of witnesses blamed everyone else in the crowd except for themselves with an excuse that they were waiting for someone to stop the murderers. Chapman, after discovering the consequences of silence that effected slavery in great degree, stands for not only against slavery, but also for people of all ages to be affected by the lessons that he was able to learn through the event that occurred in Coatesville. Chapman successfully achieved his purpose by using two different but effective rhetorical moods. First one is description mood, where he visually described an event that took place to a deeper level. The second one is the exposition mood, where he analyzed the given event to a broader degree that captivated the readers visually and analytically. Overall, the author accomplished his purpose in describing the severity of silence in slavery and leaves us with a lesson to take actions for what we believe in.

Silence Exacerbates Problems

Do not avoid problems by being silent, but voice your thoughts.

Work Cited

"John Jay Chapman | Biography - American Writer." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.                   Web. 17 Aug. 2015.

The Handicapped

The Handicapped

            While delving into the topic of disability through the essay, “The Handicapped” by Randolph Bourne, I was able to learn the effects of limitation due to physical circumstances on a person’s life. Despite his physical differences, Randolph Bourne graduated from Columbia University and worked as a journalist, social critic, political activist, and an advocate. Learning from the hardships that constantly challenged him, Bourne describes that being handicapped had its advantages as much as it had its disadvantages. First, he describes his disadvantages by describing how he often neglected himself and always believed that he was not capable of achieving success and acceptance in society even with the best attitude. He also depicts a sense of discrimination he faced from the society when he was left out at social events or when he was in search for a job and found himself being given a fewer chance for acceptance compared to those without a handicap. However, he tells us the positives of having deformities as well, for he was able to understand a better perspective of the world and able to achieve self- respect and wide- ranged of intellectual achievements.

            Through Bourne’s realization that deformed can establish achievements as well, he speaks for the handicapped to have hope and to find satisfaction in their experiences no matter how hard and bitter their journey was. He encourages his readers to never judge their abilities by comparing their achievements with others and to search for those who they can rely on. He achieves this purpose by speaking through a first person narrative, allowing the readers to rely on his thoughts and to relate their experiences with his. Not only that, but he also uses pathos, heart- rendering stories to capture the attentions of the readers. Overall, Randolph Bourne successfully accomplished his purpose in indicating that the handicapped have the abilities to make changes in the world just like others through sharing the lessons he learned through his adversities.

Tony Parsons: The Handicapped Aren't Worth It

The disabled don’t want special treatment. They just want a fair treatment and a helping hand.

Works Cited

"Randolph Bourne Institute." Randolph Bourne Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Aug. 2015.

"Tony Parsons Column Disabled Go from Paralympic Winners to Humiliated as 'scroungers' in Space of a Year." Mirror.             N.p., 14 June 2013. Web. 17 Aug. 2015.