Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saterical Analysis
Claim:
Although many studies prove that global warming is real and that humans are responsible for its rapid growth, Senator James Inhofe chooses to deny the “hot” topic of global warming.
Data/Evidence:
The source shows actual news footage of an inclusive interview with the ignorant senator, admitting to the interviewer and those watching that global warming is not real and “they” are making up the entire thing.
The source also shows a legitimate article that is titled “Study; Earth is hottest now in 2,000 years; humans responsible for much of the warming” which is exactly what the senator of Oklahoma denies.
Warrant: Although the report by Lewis Black is presented satirically, the footage of the interview with the senator and David Asman and the article of global warming credits the claim.
Humor: After Senator Inhofe, in charge of environment and public works, is shown saying the entire theory of global warming is a “hoax”, Black says having a man who denies something as apparent as global warming in charge of the environment is a hoax.
Juxtaposing: After Inhofe denied global warming and the theory that earth hasn’t been this hot in 2000 years, Black deals with the “time” issue satirically. He asks the viewers who was even here on the planet 2000 years ago to check earth’s temperature, and then a blown up image of Jesus appears across the screen. Black justifies that Jesus himself was aware of the warming climate by exaggeratedly quote the Bible with “ Go ye and get me and ice pop.”
Although many studies prove that global warming is real and that humans are responsible for its rapid growth, Senator James Inhofe chooses to deny the “hot” topic of global warming.
Data/Evidence:
The source shows actual news footage of an inclusive interview with the ignorant senator, admitting to the interviewer and those watching that global warming is not real and “they” are making up the entire thing.
The source also shows a legitimate article that is titled “Study; Earth is hottest now in 2,000 years; humans responsible for much of the warming” which is exactly what the senator of Oklahoma denies.
Warrant: Although the report by Lewis Black is presented satirically, the footage of the interview with the senator and David Asman and the article of global warming credits the claim.
Humor: After Senator Inhofe, in charge of environment and public works, is shown saying the entire theory of global warming is a “hoax”, Black says having a man who denies something as apparent as global warming in charge of the environment is a hoax.
Juxtaposing: After Inhofe denied global warming and the theory that earth hasn’t been this hot in 2000 years, Black deals with the “time” issue satirically. He asks the viewers who was even here on the planet 2000 years ago to check earth’s temperature, and then a blown up image of Jesus appears across the screen. Black justifies that Jesus himself was aware of the warming climate by exaggeratedly quote the Bible with “ Go ye and get me and ice pop.”
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Cartoon
Claim: Global Warming is affecting the oceans by causing a radical rise in sea level. If the sea level continues to rise, then creatures of the waters will also invade the dry land in no time.
Graph
Claim: Although the global temperatures are expected to variate, they have increased drastically over the decades because of the effects of global warming.
Analysis- Global Warming
NEW YORK TIMES
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html#
Claim: Global warming, whether humans have more to do with its cause, is affecting the planet and changes will continue to happen- temperatures will continue to rise- for years to come.
Data/ Evidence: -United Nations claimed that human activity has much to do with global warming.
-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change found that humanity had likely played a role in the build up of global warming.
- Carbon Dioxide and other heat-trapping gases played a role in rising the surface temperature by more than one degree F, since 1990.
-“Supreme court made its first global warming decision- Environmental Protection Agency had not justified its position that it was not authorized to regulate Carbon Dioxide.”
- “Gases like carbon dioxide and methane allow sunlight to reach the earth, but prevent some of the resulting heat from radiating back out into space.”
- “But as ever larger amounts of carbon dioxide have been released along with the development of industrial economies, the atmosphere has grown warmer at an accelerating rate: Since 1970, temperatures have gone up at nearly three times the average for the 20th century.”
-“The climate panel predicted that the global climate is likely to rise between 3.5 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit if the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reaches twice the level of 1750. By 2100, sea levels are likely to rise between 7 to 23 inches.”
Assumptions that Warrant the evidence:
- The author of the source believes that the organizations/influential groups cited for their opinions and predictions about global are credible and reliable. Also with the evident data that the author of the source itself includes, the assumption for this data being important in supporting the claim is that the statistics of rising numbers in temperature and sea levels are factual and logical to the reader.
Science Daily:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080325141202.htm
Claim: Climate change will irreversibly alter water circulation in Lake Tahoe in the next ten years; drastically changing the conditions for plants and fish in the lake.
Data/Evidence:
- At the Tahoe scientific conference the new findings of global warming’s affects on the lake and the life within it were announced by three lake experts from the Tahoe Environmental Research Center at UC Davis.
- One of the experts stated that he expected “deep mixing of Lake Tahoe's water layers will become less frequent, even non-existent, depleting the bottom waters of oxygen. This will result in major, permanent disruption to the entire lake food web, leading to Anoxia (oxygen depletion).”
- Another expert believed that “lowered global greenhouse-gas emissions would significantly slow the lake's decline, or even prevent it”.
-December 2004, the experts reported that the lake was showing a new influence. The waters were getting warmer. The experts deduced that it was because of a global climate change. Its water was warming up, probably because of global climate change. Their assumption is backed by 40 years of weather data in the basin and logical/mathematical models of global climate.
- The scientists who have studied the lake closely released a new study that if global greenhouse-gas emissions continue at current levels, mixing could become less frequent and less deep -- even stop altogether as soon as 2019. The mixing of the lake “has profound ecological and water-quality impacts. Deep mixing moves nutrients from the lake bottom to the water surface, where they promote the growth of algae. And it takes oxygen from the surface and distributes it throughout the lake, which supports aquatic life.”
- If the mixing stops new oxygen will not be able to get to the bottom of the lake and creatures will die. As well as the phosphorous at the bottom of the lake that would rise and cause and algae bloom, this has many ecological problems in itself.
- The problems in this specific lake are happening all around the world.
Assumptions that Warrant Evidence:
- The source includes direct evidence and data found by the actual scientists who have been deeply affiliated with Lake Tahoe itself. The source must believe that the source, in which the evidence is found, is credible. With the credibility/reliability of the scientists, the sources own data and evidence is taken to be credible as well. Overall the evidence and data is pertinent to the argument that global warming is affecting our lakes.
Global Warming - an Overview BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/global_warming1.shtml
Claim: “…man is adding to and changing the levels of the gases responsible for the greenhouse effect and is therefore enhancing this warming.”
Data:
- 'Greenhouse effect' is a natural and essential feature of our atmosphere without which our planet would be unable to live on. The greenhouse effect works by atmospheric gases that permit short wave radiation from the sun to pass through them, not being absorbed. However, at the same time absorbing some of the long wave radiation reflected back to space. Thus more heat is received from the sun than is lost, which keeps the earth's surface 30 to 35C warmer than it would be.
- “Globally 1998 was the warmest year ever recorded and eight of the ten warmest years fell in the last decade.”
- “Global ice sheets have decreased, so has global snow cover.”
- However the time now is the most rapid change in temperature since the Ice Age.
- CO2 is the gas most responsible for the causing global warming.
- “The combustion of fossil fuel (oil, natural gas and coal) by heavy industry and other human activities, such as transport and deforestation, are the primary reasons for increased emissions of these gases.”
- Scientist’s simulations determine that global temperature will rise approximately 3 degrees in the next generation. However, the difference between average global warming temperatures now and the last ice age is only 6 to 8C.
- The Simulations also predict changes in rainfall and continued rise in sea level. Sea level rises will be due to thermal growth of the ocean as well as with the melting glaciers and mountain snow/ice. (estimate is 50cm by 2100)
Assumptions that Warrant Evidence:
- The evidence given as whole was relevant to global warming and how humans have contributed to the rise in temperatures. The data proved what global warming is and what gas emissions specifically cause the earth’s surface temperature to increase. The source itself is a credible Broadcast Meteorologist, as stated prior to the actual article. So the evidence given by the source must also be reliable.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html#
Claim: Global warming, whether humans have more to do with its cause, is affecting the planet and changes will continue to happen- temperatures will continue to rise- for years to come.
Data/ Evidence: -United Nations claimed that human activity has much to do with global warming.
-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change found that humanity had likely played a role in the build up of global warming.
- Carbon Dioxide and other heat-trapping gases played a role in rising the surface temperature by more than one degree F, since 1990.
-“Supreme court made its first global warming decision- Environmental Protection Agency had not justified its position that it was not authorized to regulate Carbon Dioxide.”
- “Gases like carbon dioxide and methane allow sunlight to reach the earth, but prevent some of the resulting heat from radiating back out into space.”
- “But as ever larger amounts of carbon dioxide have been released along with the development of industrial economies, the atmosphere has grown warmer at an accelerating rate: Since 1970, temperatures have gone up at nearly three times the average for the 20th century.”
-“The climate panel predicted that the global climate is likely to rise between 3.5 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit if the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reaches twice the level of 1750. By 2100, sea levels are likely to rise between 7 to 23 inches.”
Assumptions that Warrant the evidence:
- The author of the source believes that the organizations/influential groups cited for their opinions and predictions about global are credible and reliable. Also with the evident data that the author of the source itself includes, the assumption for this data being important in supporting the claim is that the statistics of rising numbers in temperature and sea levels are factual and logical to the reader.
Science Daily:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080325141202.htm
Claim: Climate change will irreversibly alter water circulation in Lake Tahoe in the next ten years; drastically changing the conditions for plants and fish in the lake.
Data/Evidence:
- At the Tahoe scientific conference the new findings of global warming’s affects on the lake and the life within it were announced by three lake experts from the Tahoe Environmental Research Center at UC Davis.
- One of the experts stated that he expected “deep mixing of Lake Tahoe's water layers will become less frequent, even non-existent, depleting the bottom waters of oxygen. This will result in major, permanent disruption to the entire lake food web, leading to Anoxia (oxygen depletion).”
- Another expert believed that “lowered global greenhouse-gas emissions would significantly slow the lake's decline, or even prevent it”.
-December 2004, the experts reported that the lake was showing a new influence. The waters were getting warmer. The experts deduced that it was because of a global climate change. Its water was warming up, probably because of global climate change. Their assumption is backed by 40 years of weather data in the basin and logical/mathematical models of global climate.
- The scientists who have studied the lake closely released a new study that if global greenhouse-gas emissions continue at current levels, mixing could become less frequent and less deep -- even stop altogether as soon as 2019. The mixing of the lake “has profound ecological and water-quality impacts. Deep mixing moves nutrients from the lake bottom to the water surface, where they promote the growth of algae. And it takes oxygen from the surface and distributes it throughout the lake, which supports aquatic life.”
- If the mixing stops new oxygen will not be able to get to the bottom of the lake and creatures will die. As well as the phosphorous at the bottom of the lake that would rise and cause and algae bloom, this has many ecological problems in itself.
- The problems in this specific lake are happening all around the world.
Assumptions that Warrant Evidence:
- The source includes direct evidence and data found by the actual scientists who have been deeply affiliated with Lake Tahoe itself. The source must believe that the source, in which the evidence is found, is credible. With the credibility/reliability of the scientists, the sources own data and evidence is taken to be credible as well. Overall the evidence and data is pertinent to the argument that global warming is affecting our lakes.
Global Warming - an Overview BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/global_warming1.shtml
Claim: “…man is adding to and changing the levels of the gases responsible for the greenhouse effect and is therefore enhancing this warming.”
Data:
- 'Greenhouse effect' is a natural and essential feature of our atmosphere without which our planet would be unable to live on. The greenhouse effect works by atmospheric gases that permit short wave radiation from the sun to pass through them, not being absorbed. However, at the same time absorbing some of the long wave radiation reflected back to space. Thus more heat is received from the sun than is lost, which keeps the earth's surface 30 to 35C warmer than it would be.
- “Globally 1998 was the warmest year ever recorded and eight of the ten warmest years fell in the last decade.”
- “Global ice sheets have decreased, so has global snow cover.”
- However the time now is the most rapid change in temperature since the Ice Age.
- CO2 is the gas most responsible for the causing global warming.
- “The combustion of fossil fuel (oil, natural gas and coal) by heavy industry and other human activities, such as transport and deforestation, are the primary reasons for increased emissions of these gases.”
- Scientist’s simulations determine that global temperature will rise approximately 3 degrees in the next generation. However, the difference between average global warming temperatures now and the last ice age is only 6 to 8C.
- The Simulations also predict changes in rainfall and continued rise in sea level. Sea level rises will be due to thermal growth of the ocean as well as with the melting glaciers and mountain snow/ice. (estimate is 50cm by 2100)
Assumptions that Warrant Evidence:
- The evidence given as whole was relevant to global warming and how humans have contributed to the rise in temperatures. The data proved what global warming is and what gas emissions specifically cause the earth’s surface temperature to increase. The source itself is a credible Broadcast Meteorologist, as stated prior to the actual article. So the evidence given by the source must also be reliable.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Just a Creamy Sea of White...
Zora Neale Hurtson’s essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”, although short, is full of various rhetorical strategies that affect the overall meaning and purpose expressed in the essay. Her opinions about being colored and how her changing environment altered the way she felt about her race were the principle areas where these multiple and effective rhetorical devices were used. Among many similes, metaphors, and hyperboles, the way in which Hurston used imagery was the most effective rhetorical device that conveyed the purpose of the essay; which was that even in a town of all white people she does not belong to any one race and at that one’s race is one of the many components that make up a person. After Hurston describes her life before she recognized the color of her skin, where the only difference between Negros and whites was that the whites were just tourists in the town of Negros, she paints a picture in the mind of the reader of her as a dark rock in a creamy sea of white. This rhetorical strategy allows the reader to see exactly what the author herself felt at this point in her life, at this point when she discovered the color of her skin. The second use of imagery she uses is the more powerful of the two. Hurston relates what makes up a human being to the components of a brown bag. She illustrates herself as a brown bag propped against a wall with many other bags, of different colors. Her bag contains things priceless and worthless, a metaphor to the different attributes of each person. After detailing the many things that consume her “brown bag”, she logically explains that one colored piece of glass really has no if any effect to the bag as whole. Thus one’s race is not as important as some may view it. These two uses of imagery beautifully illustrate the way in which Hurston overcame the recognition of being colored. She came from a black stone in the abyss of white waters into the revelation of being human and belonging to no race or time other than “the eternal feminine with its string of beads.”
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Spring Break work...wait spring break and work...together??
Amanda Bortle
Mr. Ehret
AP Language and Composition
March 15, 2008
“Coatesville” Analysis
John Jay Chapman addressed his speech in 1912 at a prayer meeting held to commemorate the lynching of a black man in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He bitterly expresses his anger about the fact that “one of the most dreadful crimes in history” was not stopped by the Americans in their cars and suits simply watching the catastrophe happen. He openly says that he understands that legal action has been made to prosecute the criminals of the act and that the failure of the prosecution is mere proof of the great guilt of the whole people. Chapman recounts to his two person audience the day he read in the paper of the black man who was burned alive while well dressed American citizens watched and how not one had the courage to stop the cruelty. He says that this event revealed to him the heart of America, rather the heart of a criminal. The audience stands still and aloof in the midst of crime and cruelty with nothing provoking them to act. The lack of the American people that day portrayed them as helpless- waiting for something other than themselves to act. Through this act of violence, Chapman saw what the world’s true need was and he knew that he could not forget what he had seen. The wickedness, he quotes from a friend, of America is of the slave trade of three hundred years. This crime has accumulated over the years and America can not suddenly rid themselves of its effects. He then says that anyone looking on a violent has the duty to repent because they were involved. He reveals that our need is new life; as slavery and then the war over slavery hit the world, also came the “cure” and the realization of what the initial evil was. Chapman addresses a specific moment in history and expands the causes and effects to the American people. He traces the path from times of slavery to the present and speaks of the need for a new life- the gradual process of discovering truth from centuries of evil.
Vocabulary:
Blighted: verb. Turned pale
Paralysis: noun. Loss of motion in certain part of the body
Tone:
Bitter, anger
Rhetorical Terms:
Metaphor- “I seemed to get a glimpse into the unconscious soul of this country. I saw a seldom revealed picture of the American heart and the American nature. I seemed to be looking into heart of a criminal…” (p.72)
Simile- “The people stood like blighted things, like ghosts about Acheron…” (p.72)
Parallelism-“The opposite of hate is love, the opposite of cold is heat; what we need is the love of God and reverence to human nature.” (pg. 72)
Metaphor- “With the great disease (slavery) came the climax (the war), and after the climax gradually began the cure, and in the process of the cure comes now the knowledge of what the evil was.” (pg73)
Word choice/Diction- “On the next morning the newspapers spread the news and spread the paralysis until the whole country seemed to be helplessly watching this awful murder…” (pg. 73)
Discussion Questions:
What is the true need that Chapman believes that “we” need?
How does the writer’s style in the second paragraph relate to the second to last paragraph?
Is the concept of Americans just watching evil happen before their eyes without any action still present in 2008? And do you think we are still in need of a “new life”?
“Knoxville: Summer or 1915” Analysis
James Agee’s 1938 essay titled “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” is a first person narrative of summers spent in Knoxville, more detailed of the sounds of the summer evenings and “fathers of families”. Agee describes the street his home was on as a mixed sort of block with lower class families and middle-sized houses and intertwining yards separated by puny shrubs. The adults of the time didn’t have intimate relationships with other adults, however made an effort to say hello if one ran into the other in town. He details the evening with fire flies, flopping frogs, and children playing in the street with the supervision of their fathers on the front porch, while the mothers remained inside cleaning up after dinner. Agee then states that what he wishes to speak of is the atmosphere of the evenings- the fathers of families in their own lawns. An intense description of the watering hoses held by the men and the sounds the hoses make in the night, pitched much alike, follows. The noise of the locusts is dry and the sounds of the creatures seem to be coming from nowhere and everywhere simultaneously, he reveals that sounds of the evenings are “habitual” to the summer nights, and one would only recognize the sounds if one catches themselves listening. He then describes the time of the evening when men put away their hoses and go back to their homes; families sit on their porches rocking and watching the night unravel. Agee concludes with the image of his father, mother, uncle, aunt, and himself lying on a quilt in the wet dew of the night watching the stars. His meditation reveals his appreciation for “his people” and he asks God to remember in their time of need. James Agee’s essay shows the beauty of summer nights through the detailed illustration of sound and atmosphere. His traditional and classic American living is exemplified through his reflection.
Vocabulary:
Jut- noun. Overhang
Trivially-adverb. Insignificantly
Contemporaneous- adj. at the same time
Desists- verb. To stop or discontinue
Quietude- noun. Calmness
Elliptic- adj. Having the form of an ellipse
Assailant- noun. An attacker
Tone:
Calm, reflective
Rhetorical Terms:
Simile- “There was still daylight, shining softly and with a tarnish, like the lining of a shell…” (pg.171)
Simile- “…re-crossing their traceless footsteps like the lifetime journeys of bees…” (pg.171)
Simile-“…and a pitch as accurately tuned to the size of stream as any violin…” (pg. 172)
Parallelism- “That, and the intense hiss with the intense stream; that, and that same intensity now growing less bur growing more quiet and delicate with the turn of the nozzle…”(pg. 172)
Personification- “Sleep, soft smiling, draws me unto her…” (pg. 175)
“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Analysis
Zora Neale Hurston’s 1928 essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” encompasses the realization of her colored skin and the times where she has no race, where she is only herself. Her first person account begins with her life as a young girl in a small Negro town of Eatonville, Florida. She described how the wealthy Northerners and Southerners would pass through the town and the Negros of the town would hide in privacy by the timid whites. However she, like other courageous people, would sit and watch them pass through. Hurston called the place she sat on her porch “a gallery seat” where she watched and conversed with the white people and they too exchanged the greeting. Here she felt like the only difference between the Negros and the whites was that the whites were just passer-bys. When she was sent to Jacksonville at the age thirteen for schooling he color became more apparent and she was no longer the accepted Zora of Eatonville, but rather a little colored black girl. However she did not mind the color of her skin and had athe hurtle of her relation to slavery far before people reminded her that she was a granddaughter of slaves. In her new life the color of her skin stood out so much more than ever because she was one of few Negros in front of a white canvas. However even in the midst of white she felt herself and embraced the Zora that she once was, where her color was not defined. Hurston’s use of imagery and many rhetorical strategies aid in her reflection on her life as a colored person and the realization that even in a sea of white, she still did not belong to any race or time and even through discrimination we are all people and race is just one of the man things that makes up a person.
Vocabulary:
Deplore: verb. To condemn or criticize
Circumlocution: noun. A roundabout way of saying something
Tone:
Reflective, personal
Rhetorical Strategies:
Metaphor- “Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you.” (pg. 115)
Personification- “The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said ‘On the line!’ The Reconstruction said ‘Get set!’; and the generation before said ‘Go!’…” (pg. 115)
Imagery- “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” (pg. 116)
Metaphor- “I am a dark rock surged upon, overswept by a creamy sea.” (pg. 116)
Hyperbole- “[the orchestra] It constricts the thorax and splits the heart with its tempo and narcotic harmonies.” (pg. 116)
Metaphor/Personification- “This orchestra grows rambunctious, rears on its hind legs and attacks the tonal veil with the primitive fury, rending it, clawing it until it breaks through to the jungle beyond.” (pg. 116)
Simile-“My pulse is throbbing like a war drum.” (pg. 116)
Imagery/Simile-“I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red and yellow.” (pg. 117)
Mr. Ehret
AP Language and Composition
March 15, 2008
“Coatesville” Analysis
John Jay Chapman addressed his speech in 1912 at a prayer meeting held to commemorate the lynching of a black man in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He bitterly expresses his anger about the fact that “one of the most dreadful crimes in history” was not stopped by the Americans in their cars and suits simply watching the catastrophe happen. He openly says that he understands that legal action has been made to prosecute the criminals of the act and that the failure of the prosecution is mere proof of the great guilt of the whole people. Chapman recounts to his two person audience the day he read in the paper of the black man who was burned alive while well dressed American citizens watched and how not one had the courage to stop the cruelty. He says that this event revealed to him the heart of America, rather the heart of a criminal. The audience stands still and aloof in the midst of crime and cruelty with nothing provoking them to act. The lack of the American people that day portrayed them as helpless- waiting for something other than themselves to act. Through this act of violence, Chapman saw what the world’s true need was and he knew that he could not forget what he had seen. The wickedness, he quotes from a friend, of America is of the slave trade of three hundred years. This crime has accumulated over the years and America can not suddenly rid themselves of its effects. He then says that anyone looking on a violent has the duty to repent because they were involved. He reveals that our need is new life; as slavery and then the war over slavery hit the world, also came the “cure” and the realization of what the initial evil was. Chapman addresses a specific moment in history and expands the causes and effects to the American people. He traces the path from times of slavery to the present and speaks of the need for a new life- the gradual process of discovering truth from centuries of evil.
Vocabulary:
Blighted: verb. Turned pale
Paralysis: noun. Loss of motion in certain part of the body
Tone:
Bitter, anger
Rhetorical Terms:
Metaphor- “I seemed to get a glimpse into the unconscious soul of this country. I saw a seldom revealed picture of the American heart and the American nature. I seemed to be looking into heart of a criminal…” (p.72)
Simile- “The people stood like blighted things, like ghosts about Acheron…” (p.72)
Parallelism-“The opposite of hate is love, the opposite of cold is heat; what we need is the love of God and reverence to human nature.” (pg. 72)
Metaphor- “With the great disease (slavery) came the climax (the war), and after the climax gradually began the cure, and in the process of the cure comes now the knowledge of what the evil was.” (pg73)
Word choice/Diction- “On the next morning the newspapers spread the news and spread the paralysis until the whole country seemed to be helplessly watching this awful murder…” (pg. 73)
Discussion Questions:
What is the true need that Chapman believes that “we” need?
How does the writer’s style in the second paragraph relate to the second to last paragraph?
Is the concept of Americans just watching evil happen before their eyes without any action still present in 2008? And do you think we are still in need of a “new life”?
“Knoxville: Summer or 1915” Analysis
James Agee’s 1938 essay titled “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” is a first person narrative of summers spent in Knoxville, more detailed of the sounds of the summer evenings and “fathers of families”. Agee describes the street his home was on as a mixed sort of block with lower class families and middle-sized houses and intertwining yards separated by puny shrubs. The adults of the time didn’t have intimate relationships with other adults, however made an effort to say hello if one ran into the other in town. He details the evening with fire flies, flopping frogs, and children playing in the street with the supervision of their fathers on the front porch, while the mothers remained inside cleaning up after dinner. Agee then states that what he wishes to speak of is the atmosphere of the evenings- the fathers of families in their own lawns. An intense description of the watering hoses held by the men and the sounds the hoses make in the night, pitched much alike, follows. The noise of the locusts is dry and the sounds of the creatures seem to be coming from nowhere and everywhere simultaneously, he reveals that sounds of the evenings are “habitual” to the summer nights, and one would only recognize the sounds if one catches themselves listening. He then describes the time of the evening when men put away their hoses and go back to their homes; families sit on their porches rocking and watching the night unravel. Agee concludes with the image of his father, mother, uncle, aunt, and himself lying on a quilt in the wet dew of the night watching the stars. His meditation reveals his appreciation for “his people” and he asks God to remember in their time of need. James Agee’s essay shows the beauty of summer nights through the detailed illustration of sound and atmosphere. His traditional and classic American living is exemplified through his reflection.
Vocabulary:
Jut- noun. Overhang
Trivially-adverb. Insignificantly
Contemporaneous- adj. at the same time
Desists- verb. To stop or discontinue
Quietude- noun. Calmness
Elliptic- adj. Having the form of an ellipse
Assailant- noun. An attacker
Tone:
Calm, reflective
Rhetorical Terms:
Simile- “There was still daylight, shining softly and with a tarnish, like the lining of a shell…” (pg.171)
Simile- “…re-crossing their traceless footsteps like the lifetime journeys of bees…” (pg.171)
Simile-“…and a pitch as accurately tuned to the size of stream as any violin…” (pg. 172)
Parallelism- “That, and the intense hiss with the intense stream; that, and that same intensity now growing less bur growing more quiet and delicate with the turn of the nozzle…”(pg. 172)
Personification- “Sleep, soft smiling, draws me unto her…” (pg. 175)
“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Analysis
Zora Neale Hurston’s 1928 essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” encompasses the realization of her colored skin and the times where she has no race, where she is only herself. Her first person account begins with her life as a young girl in a small Negro town of Eatonville, Florida. She described how the wealthy Northerners and Southerners would pass through the town and the Negros of the town would hide in privacy by the timid whites. However she, like other courageous people, would sit and watch them pass through. Hurston called the place she sat on her porch “a gallery seat” where she watched and conversed with the white people and they too exchanged the greeting. Here she felt like the only difference between the Negros and the whites was that the whites were just passer-bys. When she was sent to Jacksonville at the age thirteen for schooling he color became more apparent and she was no longer the accepted Zora of Eatonville, but rather a little colored black girl. However she did not mind the color of her skin and had athe hurtle of her relation to slavery far before people reminded her that she was a granddaughter of slaves. In her new life the color of her skin stood out so much more than ever because she was one of few Negros in front of a white canvas. However even in the midst of white she felt herself and embraced the Zora that she once was, where her color was not defined. Hurston’s use of imagery and many rhetorical strategies aid in her reflection on her life as a colored person and the realization that even in a sea of white, she still did not belong to any race or time and even through discrimination we are all people and race is just one of the man things that makes up a person.
Vocabulary:
Deplore: verb. To condemn or criticize
Circumlocution: noun. A roundabout way of saying something
Tone:
Reflective, personal
Rhetorical Strategies:
Metaphor- “Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you.” (pg. 115)
Personification- “The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said ‘On the line!’ The Reconstruction said ‘Get set!’; and the generation before said ‘Go!’…” (pg. 115)
Imagery- “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” (pg. 116)
Metaphor- “I am a dark rock surged upon, overswept by a creamy sea.” (pg. 116)
Hyperbole- “[the orchestra] It constricts the thorax and splits the heart with its tempo and narcotic harmonies.” (pg. 116)
Metaphor/Personification- “This orchestra grows rambunctious, rears on its hind legs and attacks the tonal veil with the primitive fury, rending it, clawing it until it breaks through to the jungle beyond.” (pg. 116)
Simile-“My pulse is throbbing like a war drum.” (pg. 116)
Imagery/Simile-“I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red and yellow.” (pg. 117)
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