TOW #24- Unbroken pt. 2

“Pain is only temporary, but pride is forever” – John F. Kennedy

            This quote summarized the greatest struggle Louie faced throughout his life. Multiple times he was put in live or death situations but yet he embraced the pain and pushed though it for the better. There was the survival in the boat, the prison camp in the woods, the Japanese prison camp, and the Olympics. All of his success could only have arrived because of how he pushed through the pain and suffering in order to achieve success. This can be seen in the stories of others as well.

            One of Americas greatest presidents ever was also one of the most handicapped. FDR. Faced with a childhood struggle of polio, FDR was in a wheel chair the rest of his life. Although he was faced with this issue, he led America out of the great depression and was the reason Germany didn’t win the Second World War. With his disease, he knew he had to look strong in front of the American people. To do this he was never photographed or interviewed with him in his wheel chair. He stood strong, fought through his struggle, and ultimately became one of the greatest presidents in American history.

            One of my favorite comedians ever also faced a life of struggles. Jim Carey, the famous wacky comedian we all see on TV actually has a past that most people don’t know about. Faced with a low-income family, Jim lived in poverty most of his young life. He was forced to work at the age of 15 to help provide for his family. Instead of giving in to the poverty like many do, Jim worked to become successful and yearned for a good life for him and his future family. He tried many comedy gigs and was booed off stage, even tried out of SNL where he didn’t get the part. It wasn’t until an interview with Oprah where Jims name became big. With all the struggles he faced he didn’t give in.

            You want something you have to fight for it and that was the greatest lesson Louie could teach you in Unbroken.

TOW #22- A Week Of Misconceptions

     

       This week I read an interesting article called A Week of Misconceptions. Because April fools day just happened and is over, the author felt the need to debunk some of the misconceptions that are fooling the publics eyes. These are the types of things you here that are backed by said “studies.” The article included misconceptions like: exercise builds strong bones, most spree killers are mentally ill, the universe started in one singular place, climate change is not real, and baby teeth don’t matter. All of these “facts” have been going around the whole year. In the article you can read more about each misconceptions.

            The reason this article interested me so much was because it created the argument that people are very gullible. I don’t know if it is because of a lack of education, or it is just human nature, but people tend to fall for all these types of things all the time. Its practically the reason As Seen On TV is still bothering us with their stupid commercials all the time.

            Whenever there is a commercial or article or advertisement that include “bla bla” technology, expert testimonials, or some scientific backing, half the time everything is a lie. The satirical article we read in APELC made fun of these devices in a very comical and accurate way. The article included works like “pseudoscience” and fake scientific facts. All of which accurately portrayed the average advertisement we encounter everyday.

            I personally believe that this problem is only created because of the lack of education in this country. Im not saying I’m a genius who knows everything, but when I heard about how exercise build string bones, I thought to myself, “how could anyone fall for this.” Exercise only affects muscles, at least to my knowledge. Only reason someone would thing otherwise is because of a lack of knowledge when it comes to human anatomy.

            The same thing goes for how climate change isn’t real.  If the public was more educated on how weather and seasonal changes work, the misconception would have never gotten enough footing to become as big as it has.

            I feel like the only way this problem can be fixed, to make America less gullible, is either to increase the average education (which they are already working on) or to have stricter laws about what can be called facts and studies. Once one of these solutions or both are addressed, American can know the truth and not fall for any of these tricks again.

TOW #20- Unbroken part 1

          This will be my fist attempt at the argument TOW’s for my IRB. So lets see how it goes. I will be answering the question, “Do you agree, disagree, or qualify they authors main argument.

            For my IRB I have read about half of the book Unbroken. One of the main arguments, at least what I think is an argument is the ideas that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. This book follows the life of Louie Zamperini and his life’s accomplishments. One of the first things the author shows you is that Louie has a rough childhood. “Bullies, drawn by his oddity and hoping to goad him into uttering Italian curses, pelted him with rocks, taunted him, punched him, and kicked him” (1). He was bullied as a child and grew up hated. Obviously this was something that motivated him. It was then the reason that he went out for track. Then from there he worked through the pain to training to get good and set records. And then eventually go to the Olympics. It was the pain that he always worked through. Pain was his motivation. And I think that is what the author is trying to say. 

            I agree with this idea. I think that working through struggles makes people come out stronger than ever before. One of the examples that I can think of that I am currently learning about is a man named John D. Rockefeller. He by no means lived an easy life as a child. According to an article by thestreet.com, Rockefeller was2 “One of six children, he was raised almost single-handedly by his devout Baptist mother while his father, a traveling salesman of questionable character, was on the road. It would later be learned that his father had a secret second wife” (Mont 1). Yet he worked hard earning himself money and savings to which he was able to invest in a part of his brothers oil company. Through his skills and hard work ethics that he acquired as a child he was able to grow his company to one of the largest in the world becoming one of the richest men on earth at the time. It was the American dream and that is what the author of Unbroken is expressing through his book.

TOW #19- "Attitude" by Margaret Atwood

       

       This week I read “Attitude” which is a speech written by Margaret Atwood. Atwood is a Canadian novelist and is one of the most honored authors of fiction. This speech was written to an audience of college graduates where she gave her insight on life. Her purpose in the speech was to explain, using humor, that the student aren’t prepared for life, but it’s all about the attitude they express which will either make life great or terrible. She goes into saying, “I’m here to tell you that it’s an armpit out there. As for your university degree, there are definitely going to be days when you will feel that you’ve been given a refrigerator and sent to the middle of a jungle, where there are no three-pronged grounded plugholes” (Atwood 1). In this quote there is a lot of humor and an analogy. Quotes like these were found throughout the speech and it truly made it enjoyable. For this reason it was very effective and got her purpose across. 

         Another example of this wonderful humor can be seen when she says, “a liberal arts education doesn’t exactly prepare you for life. A preparation-for-life curriculum would not consist of courses on Victorian Thought and French Romanticism, but of things like How to Cope With Marital Breakdown, Getting More for your Footwear Dollar, Dealing With Stress” (Atwood 1). In this quote she effectively uses humor to add to the pathos of her speech. As a bonus she also expresses some credibility. She knows the courses are “Victorian Thought and French Romanticism” because she went through the same things as these graduates. So when she explains it, the addition of that information makes her speech all the more effective.

         I’m not sure if this is a rhetorical device but Atwood talked about how she was writing this speech a lot. She talked about her thought process and why she talked about what she did. This is probably a strategy of some kind and I thought it was very interesting and useful. 

         I recommend this speech to anyone who is looking for a good TOW.

TOW #18- Pepsi Advertisement

For this TOW, I have decided to do a Pepsi advertisement that I have seen many times before, but have never looked deeply into.  This advertisement has the obvious purpose of expressing how Pepsi is better than its competitor, Coke. Although it cant obviously be seen, the red bottle represents Coke with its famous red can and white wave on it. This was made so that the audience, who are soda drinkers, are more inclined to choose Pepsi over Coke. The author, Pepsi, expressed this message in a number of way that worked great.

One of the most obvious features of this advertisement is the background. It is blue like the Pepsi can. I don’t really know what the name of this deceive is, but I believe it is effective. By having the background blue, it adds emphasis on the other can, the Coke one. It perhaps makes it stand out and seem like and outsider as though to make it seem unappealing.

The other most prominent device is the personification of the straw in the drinks. The advertisement clearly juxtaposes both can to one another. Everything is the same about them. The angle, the water drips, the top. The only difference is the straws that go into them. The Coke straw seems to be putting up a struggle, as though it doesn’t want to go into the can. The Pepsi straw on the other hand is in without a fight. This personification of the two straws is meant to show that it doesn’t want to go into the Pepsi, which makes it seem unappealing to the audience looking at it.

This advertisement is simple and doesn’t have a lot going on. But I believe that it is super effective. Pepsi’s advertisement team clearly knows what they are doing and I am sure that this advertisement has made them some money.

TOW #17- Is Humanity Getting Better? by Leif Wenar

      In a time where racism seems like the worlds biggest problem, hate being everywhere, and rich ruling over the poor, it is sometimes important to take a step back and appreciate what we do have. “Is Humanity Getting Better?” by Leif Wenar, a writer for the New York Times, shows us what we should really appreciate. Ever since the turn of the century humanity has gotten better. Wars have lessen, death by disease has lessened, starvation has lessoned. All of these are great feats that humanity has achieved over time and they are under appreciated. That’s exactly what Leif Wenar’s purpose is: to express to people who complain about the way people have turned out that there is a lot of good in society and also that we need to grow and learn as a people more quickly or everything is going to catch up with us.

            One of the greatest ways the author helps to express this opinion is by little narratives throughout the article. When describing the death from the plague in London, Wenar writes, “Now spared from their predators, the rats spread the affliction even more fiercely. The medical advice from London’s College of Physicians — to press a hen hard on the swellings until the hen died — did not slow the disease. In the end, the Plague of 1665 is thought to have killed almost 20 percent of London’s population” (Wenar 1). These narratives not only include facts and statistics in order to appeal to logos, they also use imagery and depiction in order to appeal to pathos as well. This excellent use of narrative throughout the article enhances the readers experience and helps them to understand and connect to the point being made.

            This article brings up a lot of good points about the future and the direction we are heading. It was a very good piece.

IRB intro #3

      For my book this MP I've decided to read Unbroken. I was recommended this book by a friend and fortunately I've only seen the end of the movie, so I can read it then finally watch the whole thing. Looking forward to this book.

Tow #16- A Deadly Wandering pt. 2

I have finished my second book this year, A Deadly Wandering by Matt Richtel. I have to say that I really did enjoy it. For anyone that is a science lover, this book is perfect for you. It combines a true story with loads of scientific studies to make a great book that is fun to read. Based off the story of Reggie Shaw, this book discusses the consequences of distracted driving. Reggie was a 22-year-old living in Utah who was texting and driving. He swerved into the other lane and hit 2 scientists commuting to work. At first Reggie denied texting and driving but after some evidence against him, Reggie came clean. Problem was this happened in 2006, before states passed laws on texting and driving. The judge ultimately found Reggie guilty of homicide but only served in jail for several weeks because of the law. Now Reggie is a public speaker who talks about the impact texting and driving had on his life. The purpose of this book wasn’t to discuss texting and driving though, the idea was to show how technology is getting ahead of us. The speed of technology doubles every 2 years and along with this humans have an addiction to having everything under their own control, so trying to get a control on technology has become a major time consumer and distraction. This book was written for all audiences as it pertains to all drivers.

One of the greatest things Ritchel does in his novel is appeal to logos. One of my favorite quotes from the book was, “He repeated that the texting driver faces a six fold crash risk, whereas a driver talking on the phone faced a four-times increase in likelihood of a crash, which he said was roughly equivalent to someone who is legally drunk. A drunk driver and a person on a phone were equally likely to crash, whereas “we’re seeing the risk factor for accidents when someone is texting exceeds the level when people are legally drunk.” (Ritchel). I just found this statistic crazy and it expressed all the research that can be found in this awesome book.