TOW #6 - Homelessness in America

“Girl in the Shadows: Dasani’s Homeless Life” is the first part in a 5 part series about the life of an 11 year old homeless girl. It was written by Andrea Elliot who is a staff writer for the New York Times that received the Pulitzer Prize in 2007. She establishes her ethos through using quotes from interview with the girl that she is writing about. This shows that Elliot is getting the information from the direct source and that it is as accurate as possible. Elliot publishes her article from New York Times, so her audience is those who can afford to read New York Times. She wants to reach out to the American public as homeless rates are high and help the public realize that homelessness is an issue that needs to be solved. Elliot uses many rhetorical devices to establish her purpose. She appeals to logos by using statistics that support her argument that homelessness is a real struggle for many Americans. She says that there are “more than 22,000 homeless children in New York, the highest number since the Great Depression, in the most unequal metropolis in America” (6). However, Elliot utilizes the story of Dasani well to show her audience that homelessness is a genuine issue. Elliot uses narration to show that Dasani’s family has suffered from being homeless. Combined with her family’s money and drug problems, Dasani’s “future is further threatened by the fact of her homelessness, which has been shown, even in short spells, to bring disastrous consequences” (21). The effects that homelessness has had on Dasani and her family, includes her uncle’s arrest or her constant hunger and was shown effectively by Elliot’s narration. Elliot also uses metaphor language to make her writing more interesting and effective. She uses metaphors in the beginning when she says, “‘Her gaze always stops at that iconic temple of stone, its tip pointed celestially, its facade lit with promise” (2). This metaphor not only makes the article more interesting to read, but it shows the depth of Dasani’s hopes. She looks out at the city to try to find inspiration to continue working as hard as she does. These hopes show that people that are homeless are not irrelevant and that they have lives and hopes and dreams that are as important as every other American citizen. Ultimately showing the audience that they should help the homeless achieve the dreams that they have. Elliot beautifully combines logos, narration, and metaphoric language into a well crafted article that truly shows the importance of homelessness in New York. She accomplished her purpose well through the use of many rhetorical devices.

TOW #5 - Hate Race

Michael Ramirez is an American cartoonist who has won the Pulitzer Prize twice. His political cartoon, is about the presidential race, particularly showing the negativity in both candidates. He writes for the American people. He typically makes conservative cartoons so a specific audience is conservative Americans. He uses rhetorical devices to get his purpose across to his audience. Ramirez uses specific imagery. His cartoon is surrounded by what looks like dying trees, which may represent the poor shape that America is in right now. Both of the parent birds also look tired, which may show that the true leaders of the country are tired of how the candidates are bickering. He also uses juxtaposition to compare Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. By putting the two baby birds together, he shows how they are equally ugly. However, he does have the Trump bird have orange hair, which shows that one of the most memorable aspects of Trump is his hair. The text uses dark colors to possibly show the darkness of the situation and how it ultimately is a negative one. Ramirez uses symbolism well. He has the bald eagle as one of the parents of the two candidates. However, the bald eagle is supposed to represent the good in America and the two candidates don’t, which is why the eagle says that the candidates must be from another family. By underlining the word “your” and making it red, Ramirez puts major emphasis on the fact that the presidents are not from the good part of the country. Ultimately, he wants to show how both candidates are not good candidates. They have major faults which do not represent America well. I think he accomplish his purpose well because it was clear that he dislikes both candidates and wants to show that neither of them are perfect for the job as president.

TOW #4 - Blink

Malcolm Gladwell is an author, journalist, and speaker who has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has written many nonfiction books about the way the brain works and is a very credible author. In his book Blink, he discusses the way humans think subconsciously. Malcolm writes for people interested in the way that the brain works. The book is for a general audience as it doesn’t use extremely challenging vocabulary. It explains studies or scientific research that one who is an expert in the field would understand without an explanation, but the average person would need an explanation to comprehend. Gladwell writes in the present day. As psychologists/scientists are studying more about the human mind, they are making more discoveries that Gladwell hopes to convey to his audience. Given the occasion, one can see that his purpose is to teach the audience about how they subconsciously think. However, there may be more to the purpose that I have not learned as I am only half-way through the book. Gladwell uses many rhetorical devices to achieve his purpose. He appeals to logos through the use of many studies that support his arguments. He also uses narration to show stories that connect to his arguments. For example, he uses the story of a married couple to explain a phenomenon all humans experience called thin-slicing. He also includes the audience with his writing. For example, with many of the experiments he describes, he will either give the audience a website so they can experience the experiment themselves or he will put a sample of the experiment into the book so that the readers can attempt it at home. To explain one of the experiments, he includes a list of words at the beginning of one of his chapters and asks the audience to put them in categories. The point of the experiment wasn’t to put words into categories, but to see how the actual words affected the experimented. Many of the words described old people, such as “bingo,” “Florida” and “wrinkles”. After completing the experiment many people seemed to move slowly or act slower due to their subconscious thinking about older people. By providing this list, the audience can see if their behavior changes too. This was very effective in helping the audience understand what Gladwell was trying to explain. I believe that Malcolm did accomplish his purpose of teaching the audience. I learned a lot about my subconscious and it has made me more aware of how I act and think.