Response to Swift

Response to Swift

Dr. Jonathan Swift, author unknown

Let me start with this – I was absolutely repulsed!  I was angered!  I found it almost impossible to continue reading after the first couple of paragraphs.  The only reason I did is because it is required for this English class.

In, A Modest Proposal, Swift identifies various socioeconomic problems, the main one being starvation of the poorest of people in 18^th century Ireland.  Swift looks for a plausible way to “fix” the problem.  His proposed solution is “a slap in the face” to the very embodiment of those who have created and caused these multiple closely linked problems.  In so much as his thought process in telling us his reasoning behind his suggestion to “fix” the problem as he sees it is logically appealing, however, I did not find it in any way to be either ethically or emotionally appealing. 

Swift makes fun of the English who have forcefully taken over his own beloved country of Ireland.  He exposes the hypocrisy or irony of the atrocities that the English are forcing on the Irish day in and day out through the detailing of his solution or remedy for all of the problems that were currently facing the Kingdom of Ireland.

 It seems to me that he is telling the new leaders of his great country – You have created this, you constantly complain about it but you won’t do anything about it, you won’t fix it – so here it is – I offer you a remedy for everything wrong in the land that you fought so hard to take control of.  His solution is certainly not serious, but nevertheless most difficult for me to read.

Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis

adidas Commercial 2012 "all in" 

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This commercial says a lot without any words actually spoken.  The background music is upbeat and strong.  Because there are no words it makes you want to watch and see what is on the screen.  You see people; young and old, male and female, individually and in groups; running.  Everyone you see is running.  Not just here in the U.S., but all over the world.  Everyone is running and having fun.  It has a very strong emotional appeal.  It makes you believe that you could be a runner too.  It therefore has a logical appeal; after all, if you could run then you would be healthier.  With the "all in" logo that includes all of us.  It makes me think that even this old lady could run if I only had a pair of adidas!

What I am Working on This Week

Well, let's see . . . If I only drank beer, I would probably be crying in it.  So, read my story and have a good laugh - cause I probably would if this was you and not me. :)  So, I read our assignments for last week and got started on reading the story of Bartleby, annotating it all the way through.  Then I did my Blog post, and continued with commenting on a couple others' blog posts  as assigned.  Finally I said to myself that I have to get this essay done! It's due tomorrow.  So, I started writing, it got late and I went to bed.  Got up the next day and eventually got back to my essay - Got it all written, complete except for the MLA part.  Earlier in the week I went to the Purdue OWL website and printed off the MLA Formatting and Style Guide.  I started looking through it finding the information I needed on formatting and works cited for a short story, etc.  Went back to my paper got it all set up according to the information I read - It was complete! Whew!!! Just in the nick of time (its like 6:00pm on Sunday evening)!  I go to week 3 assignment page and cannot find where to submit this paper, I went back to the syllabus, I searched for a safe assign link, I was making myself CRAZY!  So I called the TELS 24 hour phone number for assistance.  Now mind you it is Superbowl Sunday - while this is not important to me, it probably was to the guy who got interrupted and had to help me.  Sorry guy.  I can't figure it out, He's looking everywhere and can't figure it out - for some reason I decided to look at the following week's (Week 4) assignment page - and there it is!  The link I need to upload my essay is staring at me in the face - and I realize how stupid I was  - assuming that since the assignment was assigned in week 3 does not mean that it is due in the same week.  So I hesitated for a minute and said 'What the heck - it is done - go ahead and upload it'.  So I did.  Now that I have watched the 2 videos for this week - I wish I had waited to submit my essay (I looked and apparently I can not resubmit it), I would make a few small changes according to our instructors videos.  Apparently there are a few differences in what our instructor tells us in the video and the information in the Purdue OWL  MLA guide.  Hopefully it is not enough of a difference  for me to loose too many points when it is graded.  Are you laughing yet?  You should be!

So, that was actually last week - this week I just watched the videos, now I have written my blog.  I guess I have to wait an comment on a few of your blogs now.  I will fill the time with working on my 5 other classes though.  So I won't be bored!  Hahaha

Hope everyone has a great week!

Blog Post #3  Close reading of Bartleby

This image is available from the New York Public Library's Digital Library under the digital ID 1686930, author unidentified

In this story by Herman Melville he states “. . . , I had two persons as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy.  First, Turkey; second, Nippers; third, Ginger Nut.  These may seem names, the like of which are not usually found in the Directory.  In truth they were nicknames, mutually conferred upon each other by my three clerks, and were deemed expressive of their respective persons or characters” (Melville, par 6).  I find it rather strange at best that in this story of “Bartleby, the Scrivener:  A Story of Wall Street”; the elderly lawyer finds it rather impossible to describe Bartleby in the same way he does his other employees.  He goes on in great detail for the next several paragraphs describing what he perceives to be their personalities, their looks, their attributes, their downfalls, their traits and on and on.  He is even pretty descriptive regarding himself as someone who believes that “the easiest way of life is the best”, and “an eminently safe man”; a person with “prudence” and “method” (Melville, par 3).  He talks about the simplicity of his office space including great detail in the views or lack thereof, the arrangement of the furniture and the locations of his clerks.  He is very descriptive in his details and paints a picture – you can (in your mind’s eye) picture all four of them quietly working away in this Wall Street office space.  However when it comes to Bartleby he doesn’t have much to say.  “Bartleby was one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable, except from the original sources, and in his case those are very small.  What my own astonished eyes saw of Bartleby, that is all I know of him, except, indeed, one vague report which will appear in the sequel” (Melville, par 1).  He continues later with “. . . pallidly neat, pitiable respectable, incurably forlorn” (Melville, par 15).  And then with “. . . a man of so singularly sedate an aspect” (Melville, par 16).  During my first read of this story in my annotations I listed “a figment of his imagination?” in the margin of the second paragraph.  One has to wonder why he is so descriptive of everything else in this story except of Bartleby.