IRB Intro Post #2 - Open

For my second non-fiction book, I am going to read Open by Andre Agassi. This auto-biography was written by Agassi to share his difficult life and how he overcame life set-backs and hardships. Andre Agassi is an inspirational tennis player who won several grand slams throughout his career. Even as a little kid, Agassi despised tennis, he continuously grew annoyed when he had to pick up a racquet every day of his life. As he grew older, however, he became dedicated to tennis and strived to become the champion he became when he turned pro at the young age of sixteen. Agassi proves that hard work and dedication will create the desired outcome in any person’s life. 

TOW #9 - The Results of the 2016 Presidential Election

In this political cartoon in the New York Times by Moir, Hillary Clinton is shown to be clearly winning the race against Donald Trump until she sees the FBI and Russia are helping Trump finish the race to become the next president. This political cartoon pictures the devastation Clinton felt when Trump’s presidential election began to take the lead on November 8^th, 2016. The road in this political cartoon is extremely rough and represents the entire conflict that occurred between these two candidates during the election. Moir is an Australian cartoonist who regularly creates cartoons for New York Times Syndicate on international events. The audience is for people in America who believed that Donald Trump was going to lose and show them that he has many people who are supporting his run for president. The purpose of this political cartoon was to represent the rapid change of the election and show the audience that Hillary Clinton was in the lead until Donald Trump rapidly changed the results of the election with his supporters. The Russian president, who preferred Trump to become president, and the FBI, who reopened Clinton’s private e-mails directly before the election, are on the back of this bicycle to represent how Donald Trump was able to effectively use events that occurred before the election to successfully become the next president. The rhetorical devices used in this political cartoon are imagery and juxtaposition to effectively prove the purpose of this political cartoon. The vivid imagery in this cartoon represents the two presidential candidates wearing the American flag, the FBI agent wearing all black, and the Russian flag being worn on the person on the back of Trump’s bicycle. The juxtaposition in this cartoon is expressed through Hillary Clinton alone on her bike compared to Donald Trump who had an enormous amount of help from the FBI and Russia’s support to easily begin to win the presidential election of 2016. I believe that Moir successfully achieved his purpose because this image obviously shows how Trump was able to change the election’s results and win the race to become the next president of the United States.

 

TOW #8 - The Glass Castle

In Jeannette Walls’s memoir, The Glass Castle, Walls adequately shares her life experiences to her audience. After graduating from Barnard, Walls moves into a new home with her boyfriend Eric and finally accepts her parents’ decision to live in an abandoned building. Walls’s parents are satisfied with their lifestyle, and Walls recognizes they have finally found a home with similar people. Walls’s sister, stabs her mother after being kicked out of her parents’ home. The entire family attends the hearing and argues the cause of Maureen’s mental state. This argument created a further drift between the family relationship. After a long period of time, Jeannette Walls’s father passes away due to a heart attack. Their last conversation made Walls realize her father truly loved her no matter what happened throughout their lives. Five years after her father dies, she left Eric and married John who encouraged her to reconnect with her family for thanksgiving. During this dinner, it is evident that the family still holds anger towards the parents but Jeannette Walls convinces her siblings to leave their anger behind and focus on a better future. Jeanette Walls graduated from Barnard in 1984 and worked for the New York magazine and MSNBC. Walls also uses her life experiences to create credibility. Walls’s audience is anyone who grew up with a difficult childhood. Walls wants to express to her audience that there can be better opportunities for people even if it seems impossible at the time. The rhetorical device used through Walls’s memoir are juxtaposition and symbolism. The juxtaposition is used when Walls described how her parents were living in an abandoned building but lived with all of their belongings compared to Walls’s life in a home filled with all of Eric’s belongings. The most important symbolism in the memoir is The Glass Castle. It symbolizes Walls’s ideal house as she grew up in a damaged family. I believe that Walls effectively achieved her purpose because she is able to prove to her audience that even living with a difficult childhood, a person can live a successful life.

TOW #7 - “Italian Village Devastated by Sunday’s Earthquake: ‘We’ve Returned to the Stone Age’"'

Castelluccio Di Norcia, Italy, is a village on the central Italian mountain that was impacted the most by a horrific earthquake that occurred in Italy on Sunday October 10, 2016. In Time, Matteo Witt and Carlo Piovana wrote an article, “Italian Village Devastated by Sunday’s Earthquake: ‘We’ve Returned to the Stone Age’” to inform their readers about the devastating damages that resulted due to the earthquake. Witt and Piovana are both writers for the Associated Press. There was an earthquake in Italy during August of this year that left 300 dead and about 15,000 of the citizen’s north of Rome being provided with shelter. Thirteen citizens refuse to leave their homes, most of them farmers, because they do not want to leave their animals or their livelihood behind. These people believe that leaving their homes would cause them to “truly have nothing left to come back for” (Witt and Piovana). The citizens of northern Italy were advised to move into housing that would be safer such as camper vans or containers, a better protected house.  People have described northern Italy after the earthquake as returning to the stone age or experiencing the apocalypse. Due to the destruction caused by the earthquake, it was almost impossible to get to Castelluccio without a helicopter. Medical supplies such as water and food were transported to Castelluccio three days after the earthquake occurred due to the inability to safely arrive to Castelluccio. In this article Witt and Piovana use exposition and strong diction to express the terrible effects the earthquake left on northern Italy. The exposition in the article is to explain the aftermath of the earthquake and show how people and homes were affected. The strong diction is used to express to the readers how atrocious the earthquake was in Italy. The author’s purpose in this article is to inform the readers to completely comprehend the earthquake’s effect in northern Italy. The readers of this article wanted to become better informed about the aftermath of the earthquake. I believe that these authors’ successfully accomplished their purpose because they efficiently informed their readers the effects of the earthquake in northern Italy.

http://time.com/4554305/earthquake-italy-norcia/?xid=homepage

TOW #6 - Political Cartoon of Trump's Wall

In a political cartoon in The New York Times by Ninan, Donald Trump is building his ideal wall that he plans on making between the United States of America and Mexico. In this political cartoon Trump states, “Yes, I want a wall. But not Made in China” (Ninan). Trump, who believes that America will become a better country without allowing immigrants into America, wants to create this wall if he successfully becomes president. These immigrants are presumably creating the danger in America and Trump thinks that building a wall will help decrease the rate of violence in America. Also, Trump wants this wall to be built by Americans and not from China even though his brands are made in China. The rhetorical devices in this political cartoon are imagery and satire. The vivid imagery in this political cartoon helps the audience view the Chinese men working hard on the wall as Trump, with a frustrated expression, complains that the Chinese are building the wall. The satire in the political cartoon shows the creator’s views on Trumps plan on building a wall. The author criticizes Trump by giving him an impolite facial expression and a rude manner towards the Chinese workers. The author shows how trump’s ideas relate to the Wall of China, by including this wall in the cartoon, as he wants to keep other countries, such as Mexico, out of America. The audience of this political cartoon is American citizens. The people who live in America are facing a difficult election with two presidents that are disliked by many people in America. The author is trying to persuade the people who either are for Trump or are undecided, to vote for Hillary Clinton because the ideas of Trump are very unoriginal and will not help America become a stronger country. This is also the author’s purpose because the author does not want Trump to be elected the next president and by creating this political cartoon, the author is able to express and show what they think of Trump. I think that the author successfully proved their purpose because with their use of rhetorical devices, they prove that Trump should not be elected the next president.

https://www.nytsyn.com/cartoons/cartoons?channel_id=127#1452836

TOW #5 - China Drops One-Child Policy, but ‘Exhausted’ Tiger Moms Say One is Plenty

The one-child policy, introduced in 1979, began in China to reduce the country’s population. However, over time this harsh policy slowed down and allowed its citizens to have two children instead of only being allowed to have one child. The one-child policy was abandoned in the beginning of 2016 when China’s economy and population began to decrease. In order for China to improve their economic problems, they had to introduce the two-child policy to their citizens. Due to China’s culture and society, many Chinese citizens did not want another child. These citizens wanted to be in control of their own lives and worked hard for their one child to succeed in life. They believed having another child would make their life even more challenging. As many Chinese citizens moved to expensive cities, the birthrate of children continued to reduce. The author’s Simon Denyer, The Washington Post’s bureau chief in China, and Congcong Zhang, writer for The Washington Post, wrote this article “China drops one-child policy, but ‘exhausted’ tiger moms say one is plenty” to share to the world China’s new child policy. “The people born in Mao’s era are growing old, and there will be far fewer people of working age to bear the economic burden” (Denyer and Zhang). The Chinese government needs more people in their country to improve China’s economy and by removing the one-child policy, the Chinese citizens are allowed to have two children instead of only being able to have one child. Even after the one-child policy was recalled, the Chinese citizens failed to have more than one child. These citizens believe they should have the choice of having more than one child and do not want the government to be making these decisions. The authors included the rhetorical devices, diction and tone, to effectively prove the purpose of the article. The author’s serious tone and formal diction provide the audience with the new policy that occurred in China. I believe that the author’s achieved their purpose in writing this article because they successfully provide information to the world about the new policy that was created in China.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-drops-one-child-policy-but-exhausted-tiger-moms-say-one-is-plenty/2016/10/14/336f1890-8ae7-11e6-8a68-b4ce96c78e04_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_chinababies-0510am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

TOW #4 - The Glass Castle

In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Walls shares her emotional life story to the world. In the section I read in the memoir, Jeannette and her siblings have moved away from their parents to New York City and obtained jobs to become independent and responsible. Due to Walls’s unstable parents, Jeannette, Brian, and Lori Walls maintained financial stability to be able to support their youngest sibling Maureen Walls, without the help of their parents. As Jeannette continues to study at Barnard University, her parents arrive to try to become closer to the rest of the family. After struggling to be accepted in their children’s apartments, they end up living on the streets but after they help Jeannette Walls out with her college tuition, Walls begins to except her parents living situation. Jeannette Walls is a writer for MSNBC and this memoir, The Glass Castle, received the award for the 2005 Elle Readers’ Prize and the 2006 American Library Association Award. Walls’s purpose for writing this memoir was to share her life experiences with her audience and express that even after experiencing a difficult childhood, the person can improve their lifestyle for a better future. Walls’s audience is anyone who overcame a terrible childhood and achieved a better life for themselves. Walls uses imagery and tone to achieve her purpose of writing this memoir.  “Occasionally, on those nights when we were all reading together, a train would thunder by, shaking the house and rattling the windows. The noise was thunderous, but after we’d been there for a while, we didn’t even hear it” (Walls 57). Walls’s use of imagery helps her share her emotion and feelings during her childhood through vivid description like during one of her experiences in a noisy home. In this memoir, Through the use of imagery and clear tone, Walls successfully shares her purpose of writing this memoir to the audience. I believe that Wells effectively shared her purpose because she proves that even with a difficult past, there are many opportunities to overcome the past and achieve a better future.

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print.