Claim: Although the global temperatures are expected to variate, they have increased drastically over the decades because of the effects of global warming.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
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)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
"Bill Nye the Science Guy" - in a nasally voice
Although the entirety of Saturday happens in one day, Perowne experiences various things that lead him to have great faith in the power of science and the many things it can resolve. As neurosurgeon, Perowne sees everything logically and solves all of his problems by means of mathematical, proven answers. With this mindset, the tragedies and problems he faces through one day, he feels can be solved easily through science, like a systematic neurosurgery. However, as he comes to realize science can only go so far. Science may be able to prove why a plane exploded or a man’s illness, but science can not prove why two lovers are fighting in the square at dawn or the lost connection between a father and his daughter. And when the power and effect of science ends, humanities step in.
The earlier part of his day starts by Perowne waking up suddenly in the wee hours of the morning. He is starring out of his window and observing the silent streets, when he sees what he thought was a projection from space, but then realized he was witnessing a plane crash. For the early part of the morning, he could not get the incident out of his mind. He had no control over the status of the passengers, nor did he have any knowledge of why the plan crashed. He resorted to the news that eased his mind with the announcement that the plane was a carrier plane that exploded due to mechanical difficulties. This problem that he could not solve was eventually solved by science. Science proved why the plane crashed, which proved to Perowne that science can solve everything. Even later when he has to do brain surgery on Baxter, he knows and is assured that the power of science will heal his brain injury. However, Perowne is confronted with other obstacles that he can not find the answer to overcome, because he thinks with science on a pedestal.
Later Perowne prepares himself for a game of “squash” and a casual visit with his mother. He looks out the window of his bedroom and sees a couple arguing in the square. The young man is trying to embrace the young women but she wants nothing to do with him. In this instance, when two lovers have a deeply entwined passion for each other, science can not prove why they are arguing. Humanities, the interaction of humans, the conversations of the two lovers, s what will heal their broken string connecting each other. And when Perowne later embraces his daughter, she is upset and can not find the moment to tell her father why she is so upset. When she is finally forced to undress and her physical body signs reveal to her family that she is pregnant, Perowne now knows what’s been bothering her. Sure science can prove how someone got pregnant, but it can not explain the lost connection between the entire family and the treachery of Daisy having to tell her parents she is baring a child.
I agree with Perowne’s faith in science to some extent. Science can solve our logical problems and the mechanical things that can be proven. However, I believe the rest is up to humanities. Interaction of humans- feelings, values, and morals- is the other link to how our world functions. Where science can no longer provide answers, humanities step in. This proves true in not only Perowne’s life, but ours as well.
Worde Count: 579
The earlier part of his day starts by Perowne waking up suddenly in the wee hours of the morning. He is starring out of his window and observing the silent streets, when he sees what he thought was a projection from space, but then realized he was witnessing a plane crash. For the early part of the morning, he could not get the incident out of his mind. He had no control over the status of the passengers, nor did he have any knowledge of why the plan crashed. He resorted to the news that eased his mind with the announcement that the plane was a carrier plane that exploded due to mechanical difficulties. This problem that he could not solve was eventually solved by science. Science proved why the plane crashed, which proved to Perowne that science can solve everything. Even later when he has to do brain surgery on Baxter, he knows and is assured that the power of science will heal his brain injury. However, Perowne is confronted with other obstacles that he can not find the answer to overcome, because he thinks with science on a pedestal.
Later Perowne prepares himself for a game of “squash” and a casual visit with his mother. He looks out the window of his bedroom and sees a couple arguing in the square. The young man is trying to embrace the young women but she wants nothing to do with him. In this instance, when two lovers have a deeply entwined passion for each other, science can not prove why they are arguing. Humanities, the interaction of humans, the conversations of the two lovers, s what will heal their broken string connecting each other. And when Perowne later embraces his daughter, she is upset and can not find the moment to tell her father why she is so upset. When she is finally forced to undress and her physical body signs reveal to her family that she is pregnant, Perowne now knows what’s been bothering her. Sure science can prove how someone got pregnant, but it can not explain the lost connection between the entire family and the treachery of Daisy having to tell her parents she is baring a child.
I agree with Perowne’s faith in science to some extent. Science can solve our logical problems and the mechanical things that can be proven. However, I believe the rest is up to humanities. Interaction of humans- feelings, values, and morals- is the other link to how our world functions. Where science can no longer provide answers, humanities step in. This proves true in not only Perowne’s life, but ours as well.
Worde Count: 579
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Imagination of Images
Ian McEwan described the images shown by the media on 9/11 as one’s with a “curious kind of silence”. He noted that, as a viewer at home, he could only imagine the human panic inside the burning buildings as “breaking news” images sullied the television screen. He noted that various TV crews rushed to track down family members of those who tragically died in the burning buildings. As messages were played over the news of those trapped in the buildings to their loved ones, McEwan was amazed at how cell phones “so completely penetrated daily life, even dying moment when people were trapped in buildings and rooms they knew they couldn’t get out of”. The simple words “I love you” was all that these innocent victims had to say as they knew that would be the last instance of human contact. He established an emotional legacy of September 11TH – an expression of love- that revealed to America “love was all they had to set against the hatred of their murderers”.
McEwan said the most terrifying thing about the tragic event was that we had “to imagine ourselves in the position of people on those planes”. Our moral understanding encompasses humans imagining themselves into the minds of other people- an act of empathy. He also noted the image of people jumping from burning buildings revealed no hope to him and left him with an image of “utter desperation…sheer panic”. McEwan felt from the events that took place on 9/11, America needs to have more doubt, skepticism and less certainty, especially when it comes to defining evil. He says we have to take in all of 9/11 in human terms, not put into the hands of the “sky gods”. After the effects of 9/11 have been consumed by viewers and their minds and beliefs have been shaken up, McEwan reveals the balance of our capacity to love and what human nature is capable of need to be held together in balance.
In both this article and McEwan’s Saturday, a plane crash occurred. As Perowne wonders what story lies behind the mysterious plane that crashed in the middle of the night, McEwan also describes how America imagines, from pictures and news reports, what the tragic of event 9/11 entailed. Perowne’s assumptions of the plane and what the passengers were thinking were confirmed when he saw the news report that stated the status of the plane’s passengers and the reasons for the crash. The people in the streets of New York and viewers throughout America also had their assumptions confirmed through the news reports of the terrorist attack on September 11TH. Although McEwan description here of the images and America’s reaction to them is much more tragic that the minor plane crash in Saturday, the power of images and imagination our both equally present.
Word Count- 473
McEwan said the most terrifying thing about the tragic event was that we had “to imagine ourselves in the position of people on those planes”. Our moral understanding encompasses humans imagining themselves into the minds of other people- an act of empathy. He also noted the image of people jumping from burning buildings revealed no hope to him and left him with an image of “utter desperation…sheer panic”. McEwan felt from the events that took place on 9/11, America needs to have more doubt, skepticism and less certainty, especially when it comes to defining evil. He says we have to take in all of 9/11 in human terms, not put into the hands of the “sky gods”. After the effects of 9/11 have been consumed by viewers and their minds and beliefs have been shaken up, McEwan reveals the balance of our capacity to love and what human nature is capable of need to be held together in balance.
In both this article and McEwan’s Saturday, a plane crash occurred. As Perowne wonders what story lies behind the mysterious plane that crashed in the middle of the night, McEwan also describes how America imagines, from pictures and news reports, what the tragic of event 9/11 entailed. Perowne’s assumptions of the plane and what the passengers were thinking were confirmed when he saw the news report that stated the status of the plane’s passengers and the reasons for the crash. The people in the streets of New York and viewers throughout America also had their assumptions confirmed through the news reports of the terrorist attack on September 11TH. Although McEwan description here of the images and America’s reaction to them is much more tragic that the minor plane crash in Saturday, the power of images and imagination our both equally present.
Word Count- 473
Monday, February 11, 2008
Wanted...Dead or Alive
Why is "thought experiment" of Schrödinger's cat (btm. 17- 18) so fitting an end to the first section of the novel? Why does Henry reject it as a thought experiment? How does the image of the cat in the box address the idea of disasters that occur outside the range of our own consciousness? In other words, why after hearing on the radio that the plane has crashed, does Henry think "Schrödinger's dead cat is alive after all" (36).
McEwan introduces Henry Perowne in his novel Saturday as a successful surgeon who is happily married with two grown children. Perowne lies in bed in the early hours of Saturday morning. He has just finished a long and strenuous week at the hospital and now "wakes to find himself already in motion" (McEwan 1). Perowne rises from bed and watches the city slowly awake as well and details even the nurses walking home from the hospital. After much contemplation of why is awake and references to the draft coming in from the cold of the night, he sees a plane- what he first thought was a comet- caught on fire crash into the bed of the darkness. He goes back and forth in his mind whether he should wake his wake but decides not to wake her to a nightmare. He wonders to himself what could have happened to the plane and if the people on the plane are dead or alive. He resides back to his quarters and concludes he "observed a catastrophe from a safe distance"(15).
As he comes away from the window back to his bed he remembers a thought experiment he learned in a physics course. The process was that Schrodinger’s cat was covered in a box and it is unknown whether the cat is alive or randomly been killed. Until the lid to the box is lifted, both possibilities exist in a parallel universe. This thought process is very fitting to the first section of the chapter because it indicates Perowne’s need to know the outcome of things and the power he has in everyday life- as a surgeon- to predict and control the effects of causes. However in this situation he has no idea of the state of the passengers on the plane or even if there were any passengers on the plane while it exploded. In a parallel universe, where the lid is not lifted, both possibilities exist- whether the passengers are “frightened and safe, or dead” (18). However, because Perowne is accustomed to have the power and knowledge of outcomes he can make no human sense of this thought experiment. He believes the result “exists separately in the world, independent of himself, known to others, awaiting his discovery” (18).
Soon after he lingers at the foot of the bed debating on whether to wake his wife, he decides to go downstairs and speaks with his “blues-musician” son over a cup of coffee. Perowne tells his son about the plane crash he witnesses and they look on the news for a “breaking news update”. The two men learn it was a Russian cargo plane on the run from Riga to Birmingham. The news report announces that one of the engines caught on fire and that neither of the two-man crew was hurt. Henry then thinks that the dead cat is alive after all. He thinks this because now that the news has announced the event publicly and numbered casualties at zero, his mind can finally cease and no longer race between whether the passengers are alive or not. This disaster has occurred outside the range of man’s consciousness, only until it is announced publicly- when the lid is lifted.
Word Count- 536
McEwan introduces Henry Perowne in his novel Saturday as a successful surgeon who is happily married with two grown children. Perowne lies in bed in the early hours of Saturday morning. He has just finished a long and strenuous week at the hospital and now "wakes to find himself already in motion" (McEwan 1). Perowne rises from bed and watches the city slowly awake as well and details even the nurses walking home from the hospital. After much contemplation of why is awake and references to the draft coming in from the cold of the night, he sees a plane- what he first thought was a comet- caught on fire crash into the bed of the darkness. He goes back and forth in his mind whether he should wake his wake but decides not to wake her to a nightmare. He wonders to himself what could have happened to the plane and if the people on the plane are dead or alive. He resides back to his quarters and concludes he "observed a catastrophe from a safe distance"(15).
As he comes away from the window back to his bed he remembers a thought experiment he learned in a physics course. The process was that Schrodinger’s cat was covered in a box and it is unknown whether the cat is alive or randomly been killed. Until the lid to the box is lifted, both possibilities exist in a parallel universe. This thought process is very fitting to the first section of the chapter because it indicates Perowne’s need to know the outcome of things and the power he has in everyday life- as a surgeon- to predict and control the effects of causes. However in this situation he has no idea of the state of the passengers on the plane or even if there were any passengers on the plane while it exploded. In a parallel universe, where the lid is not lifted, both possibilities exist- whether the passengers are “frightened and safe, or dead” (18). However, because Perowne is accustomed to have the power and knowledge of outcomes he can make no human sense of this thought experiment. He believes the result “exists separately in the world, independent of himself, known to others, awaiting his discovery” (18).
Soon after he lingers at the foot of the bed debating on whether to wake his wife, he decides to go downstairs and speaks with his “blues-musician” son over a cup of coffee. Perowne tells his son about the plane crash he witnesses and they look on the news for a “breaking news update”. The two men learn it was a Russian cargo plane on the run from Riga to Birmingham. The news report announces that one of the engines caught on fire and that neither of the two-man crew was hurt. Henry then thinks that the dead cat is alive after all. He thinks this because now that the news has announced the event publicly and numbered casualties at zero, his mind can finally cease and no longer race between whether the passengers are alive or not. This disaster has occurred outside the range of man’s consciousness, only until it is announced publicly- when the lid is lifted.
Word Count- 536
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