Persuasive 3: High Treason

Summary

This is a movie review on the film Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, a sequel of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. The writer, Dana Stevens, says, “Everything you need to know about the difference between [the two films]…is right there in the titles”. She talks about the original movie being a “flop” on the big screen, only getting recognition from a small group of people after it came out on DVD. Dana talks about the plot of the first movie stating the possible themes: “tribute to friendship, spontaneity, racial tolerance, and the problem-solving properties of weed”. Dana attributes the first movies popularity from the “cult following on DVD” (one can only guess what she meant by cult) to these themes of high, brotherly love. The tone in the sequel is “far more serious”, touching on “racial profiling and the war on terror”. The writer is unimpressed with the themes of this movie since those themes have been heavily and frequently touched on, “render[ing the films point] completely banal”.

Dana runs through the plot of the sequel, talking mostly about the parts that she didn’t like or the ones that were very close to being funny. Apparently, the sequel is a direct continuation of the first film, starting with “the first of the many scatological gags”. Even with heavier themes, this film’s humor “is too shallow to constitute real satire”. Dana feels that the sequel totally ruined “the spirit of the stoner comedy” that was built up in the first movie.

 

Analysis

There is only one time when she appeals to the ethics of the reader. She refers to the part in the movie where George Bush gets high with Harold and Kumar. It is ridiculous to her that they happened to find themselves in that spot, but also that they show the president “getting blazed”. It doesn’t make sense that the guy who is “responsible for Guantanamo” would be able to enjoy the pleasures in becoming “a high-fiving bro…betraying the spirit of stoner comedy”. Is it ethically sound that the ultimate antagonist would get to have the same fun that the protagonists have?

It is strange that Dana uses logic to show most of her opinions on this very irrational and illogical movie. Often times, she gives her own opinions as facts in her logical arguments, making them seem a little weak. The best example of this is when she calls Neil Patrick Hariss’s future “a puzzling downer”, when some people might not have been feeling that way while watching the movie. She also talks about the poor impression that James Adomian gives of George Bush, making a subjunctive statement for her argument that's not factual at all. Her point is that, logically, if you weren’t a stoner (or you didn’t enjoy that type of humor) and you still had plans for seeing the movie, you aren’t missing anything. She says that all of the events that drive the movie's plot are predictable from the title, again encouraging people no to see it. Even though she warns that this movie could ruin the good parts of the first film, her warning is not strong enough to sway some readers from their want for more frat-boy humour.

http://www.slate.com/id/2189889/

Persuasive 2: Prince Valiant

Summary

The main argument in the article by Christopher Hitchens is that prince Harry should not have gone to fight in Afghanistan. He starts out his article by calling Harry’s removal from the front-line “hasty”, almost mocking the fact that “everybody seem[ed] to assume that it was the only right thing to do”.  He then points out the illogical points about Harry joining in the combat inside Afghanistan.

It is silly to him that Harry was taken out because of the threat of increased danger for him and his comrades. He says that everyone fighting in the area where Harry was already is a “bullet magnet”. He thinks it was silly for people to imagine that Harry’s activation would “be of any operational use” to jihadist who doesn’t really care about British royalty. The writer starts to tattletale on the chief of British defense staff for being the one to freak out and secretly remove Harry from the war. He says that it could have been a little “encouraging for the Islamist gangsters” since the act could have been mistaken as a retreat. He refers to a time when Condoleezza Rice went to Afghanistan and “was not announced in advance” then questions “our obsession with security”.

He wants to know why the British government agreed to letting Harry go in and fight when there was no point to it. It doesn’t show the valiant character of Britain, and it just gives a bad example of leadership when he didn’t “stay in the same trenches as his fellows”.  He then makes his point with Shakespearean quotes.

 

Analysis

 Hitchens uses mostly logical appeals in his article. He starts to make them when he invited the reader to “examine the nonlogic that supposedly underlies this decision”. He questions the logic that was used, if any, in okaying this sort of move. By making fun of the British governments actions, he makes his own opinions seem validated and more right-minded than those of the chief of the British defense staff. A hasty generalization fallacy in this section is evident when Hitchens decides to make fun of the chiefs name; its unrelated evidence that shows he’s trying to get personal, and he almost tries to make the reader draw a conclusion about the guy before we even fully understand everything he’s done..

He makes fun of the words “bullet magnets” that were used to describe the potential dituation of the unit Harry was a part of. The fact that only a few of the soldiers in the active military could be in danger of attracting bullets is all just “piffle”. He thoroughly explains his statement, and though he doesn’t back it up with cold hard facts, he still proves his point. When it comes down to the nitty gritty, the enemy is just going to shoot at whoever they see, whether or not they are able to recognize Harry’s red hair and freckles.

He feels that it was to no ones advantage that Harry left for the front-lines. Hitchens does do a good job of showing both sides of things. He doesn’t fail to mention that Harry was “disappointed” when he had to leave. There is a faulty analogy in this article. Hitchens tries to correlate two things, and though he mentions that he’s aware that the connection is only by name, he proceeds to correlate them. The faulty analogy and the information he gathered on the subject made this article a very interesting read, and the reader is persuaded to see the situation as the writer does.

http://www.slate.com/id/2186186/pagenum/2/

Persuasive 1: Will Miley Cyrus Become the Next Britney

Summary

 The writer doesn’t think that Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus are impressive. She “get[s] that this show is wildly popular with teens [and]…that her 3-D movie made $29 million in its opening weekend. That doesn’t mean its good”. The writer isn’t bad-mouthing Miley Cyrus, she even says that “she’s cute and personable and she has a pretty good singing voice”. What the writer does not like is how engrossed everyone, and their mom (literally), is in “Hannah Montana”.

 The writer doesn’t even think that all of the hype is worth it. She is disgusted with “all the public talk of virginity” and the way that characteristic has been used to encourage the public to like her more. She calls the act hypocritical too, saying that Miley “proclaimed her virginity” while dressing rather scantily. The writer starts to compare Brittany Spears image to Miley’s drawing a correlation between the two. The writer believes that “there is only one point to dressing sexy”, so it’s a little “insincere” to do that as a young girl who has “pledged [her] virginity to [her] father”.

 The writer again compares Miley’s star-studded youth to the lives of previous child stars that “children idolize[d]”, coming again to the conclusion that Miley’s road to fame could lead to a disastrous future. That, along with the hypocrisy promotion of lacking morals, are reasons she feels children shouldn’t idolize these young stars in the extreme way that they do.

 

Analysis

 The writer makes appeals to the audience’s ethics, logic, and emotion. The ethical appeals call into question the character of Miley Cyrus. The author does this by slyly making the readers mind connect the image of Miley with the notoriously vulgar images of Britney Spears, the guy who “dated Pamela Anderson”, and the like. She even goes as far as to say that Miley “ripped a page from Britney’s handbook” (diary?). This connection makes her look guilty by association (though she never has been known to associate with any of them).

 She uses logic to support her argument. She tries to show the hypocratic side of Miley with the whole “virginity shtick” and the 30 dollar fan-club membership that the parents pay for but get nothing from.. When she alludes to other movie stars gone bad, it makes the reader believe that path could logically be taken by another, potentially Miley. Her statement towards parents that encourage their kids to “blow off an important obligation” to see Hannah Montana is also an appeal to logic.

 Logically, a good parent wouldn’t let their kid eat “chicken nuggets” all the time. The problem with her logical appeals is that they are all slanted. She only provides stacked evidence, building a case up against Miley. The one time she says something good about her, she follows it up with a “But fascinating? Only insofar as she is the next most likely teen star to go Brittney Spear’s on us”. This is also an appeal to the emotions of the readers, most of whom are adult. They read about the parent’s behavior and see it as shocking that parents could be so inept. The problem with the emotional appeals is the writer’s assumption that these things concerning Miley and her pseudonym will lead to yet another "tween" sliding down a slope.

http://movies.msn.com/movies/PMG/teenidols?GT1=7701

Free Choice 4: Nicaragua Mission Trip Letter

April 25, 2008

 

 Hey Guys,

  I’m graduating this year! On June 26^th this summer (my first summer out of high school!!), I am going to be taking a week-and-a-half mission trip to Nicaragua along with other members of the Summerville Church of Christ with the international Mision Para Cristo group heading us up. I am really looking forward to traveling to Nicaragua and meeting with people from a totally different culture than my own. It will be an enriching experience to encourage and show love to people in God’s name.

            Since this will be my first mission trip, I only have a rough idea of what to expect. I have talked to some people who went on the trip last year, and they filled me in with some of their experiences. On one trip, there was a small feeding program that they worked in, feeding large families for only a couple of U.S. dollars. On another trip, they took a school bus full of kids and treated them to lunch and much-needed play time.  There are many different ministries to work in while we’re there, so I’ll be busy the whole time. A couple of ministries that I’m really looking forward to helping with are the ‘Hope for the River’ ministry and the ‘Smile for a Child’ program. We will also be able to help in the schools, churches, and medical centers in whatever ways we can.

            To go on this mission trip, I need to raise $1,550 by June 10^th, and to do that I need donations from anyone who is willing to give them. Checks can be made out to Summerville Church of Christ. If a money donation is just something that you cannot fit into your budget, then please donate in a different way. We can use anything that you can give, whether it’s clothes, blankets, or a product that can go into action to raise money. Any contribution you could make will be appreciated. This is a chance for you to help. Thank you so much for reading this letter, and I hope you have a great day!

 

Love Ya,

                                    Jordan Washington

Free Choice 3: Poser

This goes with Picture 2 at the bottom of the screen.

I helped this little fella get out of a scrap with my cats. I guess they were chasing him for a couple of minutes before he finally found a place to hide. When I found him, he was cowering between two creases in a towel, waiting for the perfect moment to head back outside. I picked up the towel and I realized I had exposed him. So, because of the guilt I felt for ruining his getaway and the strong sway of human duty, I put him back outside into our wisteria bush. He thanked me by posing for my picture. He didn’t even blink when the flash went off.

It would be fun to indulge myself by pretending I have a little Snow-White fantasy relationship with the animals of the wild south, but I don’t. Sure, I can help them out, but they won’t remember or pay me back. One time we brought a hurt bird home and helped it get better, but it didn’t come back after we let it go. The same thing happened with this lizard. While I was taking him back outside, he was squirming in my hand, trying to get out. I think he was just watching me take this picture because he thought that I might try to eat him.

Free Choice 2: "Budding Future"

This goes with Picture 1 at the bottom of the screen.

I’ve had an orchid plant for two years. These flowers are investments that you have to take care of with more effort than a regular houseplant. This flower is not only sensitive to the amount of water you give it, but also to it’s surrounding temperature and the amount of nitrogen and acids in the soil. The care that is supposed to be given to this plant would be year round, even though there is no flowery yield in the winter.

I was sitting at our kitchen table one springy Sunday morning and I saw a bloom like the one in the picture. The look of the bloom scared me. If you look at it, it looks like the face of a medieval sea-creature with slit-like eyes and a tiny sucking mouth with very sharp teeth. To make the picture look a little more intimidating, I took a picture of the bloom in front of darker glass, messed with the focus, and played around with the colors and sharpness level.

In this picture, I see my fears of the future. I have invested many years in my future. I am a senior in high school who is still debating on which university to attend. I am behind in everything, and I (like most everybody) am unsure about where I am headed. This bud is scary, just as my unknown, ‘unopened’ future is. After all the work I have put into helping this flower, my future, will it start to open? Will it be a pretty blossom? I am sure now, though, that once the bud is open, it won’t be scary at all, and I won’t be able to help but enjoy it. At least, that's how I felt when the orchid bloomed last year.

Free Choice 1: Awake

This has been happening for a couple months. I wake up, turn to my window, and just glare at that stupid blue lamplight that keeps me from going back to bed. It must not have been there when they built the house. If it was there, it’s funny to me to think that the guy who drew the plans never took into consideration the most uncomfortable feature of the house. That’s the only thing that bugs me in this whole place. He totally ignored the streetlamp, and now I can’t.

            But I'll be fine. Tonight’s been a little different. I still woke up too early, but when I turned to look out the window, I saw that beautiful blonde head lying on her hand that’s spread out on my chest. It’s been so long since I’ve seen her, and there she was, just laying on me with her unconscious face facing mine. I start to look at her.

            She’s got the prettiest face I’ve ever seen, even with her eyes closed. Her symmetrical features looked so adult and refined in the blurry light we were in. Her womanly brow kept furrowing every half-minute or so. It was weird watching her in this state, having not seen her for so long. I got to look at what her insides were feeling without her even knowing it. What should we do tomorrow? I couldn’t just leave a note for her in the morning telling her I’d call when I had the chance.

            Work is going to be so busy tomorrow. With all the blueprints I have to draw between the meetings and the sight I have to oversee for the new condo building. How would I be able to focus now at work, just knowing that she was back to see me, maybe for good?  What would she be okay with? I’ve asked myself these questions before. I guess I’ll have to ask her. It’s pretty clear to me, especially since last night, that what little I remembered about her has changed. I know I still love her though.

            I still love her. That decision has been one fact that hasn’t changed. All the others have. There is no rule, no absolute except for my love for her; not one thing that has been half as true. My marriage was factual until it became false, but I guess that was my fault. My job, I have always questioned it, in every aspect, and come up with unreliable rebuttals to ease my piece of mind. My dog decided that he wasn’t even mine. I can’t even say that she’s been mine, all I know is that I’ve loved her all this time, and I am so glad she’s lying here.

            I attached so many wishes to this house. When I drew it, I thought it was a fact that I would be living in it forever with my wife. My dreams were faulty, just like my plans. Ever since that big change, my sleep has been interrupted by the blue light from that streetlamp. But now my little lady's back, and when I helped her carry her hello-kitty bags into the house yesterday, she smiled. After I read to her last night, she hugged my neck and gave me a kiss on the cheek, and she wasn’t scared to ask me for my company after she had a nightmare.

            Her blonde hair hits her small, round shoulders when she’s standing up, but right now its fanned it’s way across my chest like her fingers have. I get to sit here and watch her. Her tiny head moves up and down with my breathing. As she moves, her skin shimmers beautifully in that blue lamplight that's kept me up. If it wasn’t for that light, I wouldn’t be able to see her glowing now, in the most natural and gorgeous state she’s ever been in. Her little ears were lulled to sleep by that strong drum-pulse that comes from in between my ribs. She doesn’t know yet that she’s the drummer.

Literary Devices

From The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy

1) “the tangled bine-stems scored the sky”

            When Hardy uses imagery to describe the view from the coppice gate the way he does, the reader can imagine the way the shrubs cut their image into the view of the sky.

2) “The Century’s corpse outleant”

            This is an example of diction. Instead of simply saying that the 19^th century was over, he describes it in the way he feels about it. To him, the century is dead and gone.

3) “The weakening eye of day”

            Hardy is giving the day human characteristics. The day really has no eyes, but it was to the narrator’s advantage to personify the day with eyes. The bad time he is going through has effect on everything else as well, and this is made clear by the dimming of the portals to even the day’s soul.

4) "blast-beruffled plume”

            This is another example of imagery. It describes the thrush’s feather colors in a way that makes him seem lively, even with his gaunt body.

5) The thrush is a symbol for hope. The times in which the narrator is writing are unhappy and lifeless. He is outside, observing everything, even nature, as bleak and scoring. The thrush, who has been through tough times himself (assuming by his age and scruff), is able to sing a song that makes the narrator hopeful.

 

From the novel Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

6) “Le Chiffre is getting into deep water” (page 10).

            “Getting into deep water” is an exaggeration, a hyperbole, because even though Le Chiffre is in trouble like he would be if he was in deep water, he is really not in that situation. He is just in a situation that is a little hard to run out of.

7) “In nearly all respects he is an admirable agent of the USSR, but his gross physical habits and predilections are an Achilles heel” (page 10).

            “Achilles heel” is both a metaphor and an allusion. Achilles was an ever-victorious warrior who had only one weakness that could cause his demise (his heel). The quote alludes to this legendary Greek character dually serving as a metaphor for ‘weakness’.

8) “He seemed undisturbed when not more than a mile separated the hare from the hounds and he even brought the car down from eighty to sixty miles an hour” (page 119).

            In this passage, James Bond is on a high-speed car chase (of course) trying to catch Le Chiffre. The phrase “separated the hare from the hounds” refers to the situation in which the two opposing parties find themselves. “The hounds” refers to James Bond who is chasing tracks belonging to “the hare”, Le Chiffre, in hopes of killing the hare himself or giving his location away to the hunter ( MI6).

9) “Like snow in sunshine his capital had melted” (88).

            Snow melts quickly in sunshine, and that is why Fleming used this simile to describe the speed at which his money was gambled away. It helps the reader understand how fast he was losing.

10) “The two cards came slithering towards him over the green baize…which was no longer smooth, but thick now, and furry and almost choking, its color as livid as the grass on a fresh tomb” (89)

            This is a great example of imagery because in it there’s a hint of symbolism. The way the felt and cards are described is so easy to picture, and the reader can imagine this unwanted snake making its way closer through the grass. In that image, the change in Bond’s view towards the playing table would symbolize his change in view towards the game he is playing- he is now scared that the ‘slithering’ game will get the best of him.

Poem 4:Little America

I knew so much when I was five,

I had 10 pennies

And I knew how to dive.

 

When I was fifteen

I grew my own mind

Though a combination of my peers

I thought my own seed-thoughts I aligned

 

Had that cup been filled before

When the water o’er the edge did flow

Or had I just been a reckless envoy

Making the swells and crests grow

 

We knew so much in 76

With our Common Sense, Articles, Declaration

Coming from English stock

We had small trouble with equal representation

 

We had the money

To go into debt

And we had the great fathers

And our diving cadets

 

Onward and up with power and fame

The peacemaker with atoms

The force behind NATO

The butt of EU jokes now our name

 

Had that cup been filled before

When water o’er the edge did flow

Or had we just been reckless

Making the swells and crests grow

And grow

And grow

And spill out.

Poem 3: Retrospect and Wrinkles

These eyes do not see

As they saw in their youth.

Now spending their time

Finding falsified truths.

 

Those young ears are gone

With that patience, unmet

Replaced now with holes

Filled with sawdust and sweat

 

These lips have no strength

And to this mind’s crooked hand cede

Leading those cynical proverbs

To cause this tongue to bleed

 

Those hands that were once

Content with a fond, loving touch

Recoil to rough, slipp’ry work

That’s been relied on too much.

 

It’s false appeasement,

Only digression has been achieved.

And it’s self-induced

But it’s comfortable, being deceived.

 

So the good won’t return

Since ill stance can ne’er restore

The better, now lost

Though in abundance before.

Poem 2: The Game

Daddy! Daddy! You must come quick!

She is doing this all wrong.

She put his hand with her hand

right there, where yours belongs.

 

That is no match,

as you well know.

All the card-games you played

helped you learn that’s so.

 

Yours and hers, a pair,

The King and Queen of hearts.

Red for love and hearts for love-

Or is love only when it starts?

 

Do something, please! He’s a Jack of spades,

he doesn’t fit at all.

And little me,

the number three,

can’t do much ‘cause I’m too small.

 

Daddy! Daddy! Pick me up

and set me on your knee,

for I have never ever seen you

lose a game of rummy.

Poem: How it Comes

I hear an army charging

Racing on their horses that tick

Sweeping nations, minds, bodies

Turning every stone

Killing every king

Leaving a brand new scent on the grass

Changing the way the colors feel

Spinning the world in the opposite direction

Having no regard for the past

 

My eyes eat

My ears see

My mouth understands

My hands believe

 

I’m approaching, unafraid, to solve the riddle.

Was I ever to learn

Without the push of change?