nTi’Ana Woods Gary Pegoda ENGL1301 12/16/2014 Essay #1 In the essays “Just Walk on By” and “Blobs” they both give examples of how people react to certain situations or things. For instance, Patricia Brady tells us the affects that the “blobs” had on the community while Brent Staples uses stories and descriptions in “Just Walk on By”. Even though both authors intent to use examples was to persuade their audience, they did so in different ways. In the beginning of Staples’ essay we learned that he was a broad, six foot tall, young man. We also learned that on many occasions he was judged by his outside appearance. He also told us what he did to cope and help to ease his problems. For instance, he would “whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi” (Staples 30) to make him seem less threatening to people as he came in contact with him. In Brady’s essay we learned the positive effects that the “blobs” on the beach had on the community. No one knew what they were, but for some odd reason everyone seemed to love them, and they all seemed to miss them when they were gone. …show more content…
Brady had a positive essay and she only gave one example. She told us how even though no one knew what the blobs were, they all seemed to like them. “No one knew what the blobs were, but one thing was certain: Everyone liked them” (Brady 126). When the “blobs” first appeared in Gloucester they made the front page of the paper. Even when everyone found out the scientific name of the invertebrates they still had refused to recognize them as anything else, but “blobs”. They seemed to bring everyone together when people saw them at the beach. They had a positive effect on everyone who came in contact with them. Everyone wanted to look and poke at them. Some people where even brave enough to pick them up and hold
In the essay “Just Walk on By” by Brent Staples he uses compelling anecdotes of experiences in his life in order to create an emotional appeal that makes us empathize with the endangered black man. Staples opens up the essay with an experience of his. He says “My first victim was a woman- white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties.” He then goes on to explain when he was walking at night in Chicago that same young woman ran away from him.
In “the Patented Gate and the Mean Hamburger,” Robert Penn Warren’s two main characters, Mr. Jeff York and his wife, portray the stereotype of a Midwestern, MidAmerican, less than affluent farmer and his wife during the 1930’s. However, both Mr. and Mrs. York have characteristics that deviate from their main stereotypes. Standing on the corner, York has a gaunt, cadaverous visage. He has a tired look on his face that, in one way or another, parallels to his washed out, tired, blue jean overalls. One could easily come to understand that he has worked hard his whole life, and despite his appearance, his pale, blue-grey eyes reveal life and love for his wife and children.
The main idea of this entry is about the stereotypes that come along with racism. Also, Brent Staples wants his readers to realize how much colored people sacrifice from their normality in order to fit in with society, in hopes of not being attacked or offended. The author proves this in his entry by mentioning ‘innocent’ behaviors, such as singing Beethoven, that he did in public in order to relief those surrounding him from danger. Moreover, the author compared hikers to the country’s bears in order to provide readers with a valid connection between black and colored people. In addition to that, Brent Staples uses flashback as one of his techniques when sharing with us his encounters with white people, this gives readers an idea of how
The essay by James Baldwin recounts his stay in a small Swiss town where no black man had ever visited. The people in the town were captivated by his skin color because they have never seen a black person before. Baldwin visited this town few times and the town’s people even though they knew his name they were still fascinated by the color of his skin. The people didn’t see him as a real person and the children in town run after him shouting names and even though their cries were innocent the words effected Baldwin. In the essay he shows the different ways we effect and reflect each other’s identity.
An important part of an exemplification essay is using correct essay structure and examples. The examples may be used to help the writer explain, clarify, and support their arguments or points (Kirszner 207). Examples could also be used to add interesting topics in the authors paper, making the paper enjoyable (Kirszner 208). Using correct writing structure in the exemplification essay is also important (Kirszner 211-212). Both Brent Staples’s memoir “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space” and Maia Szalavitz’s article “Ten Ways We Get the Odds Wrong” use exemplification with similarities and differences in the way they use their examples as a way to explain their main points, the way it affects how interesting
Brief Summary Staples speaks of his experiences being a six foot tall, young, African American male in a city filled with poverty and crime. He had never truly been exposed to the stereotypes and discrimination in his younger days, of course he knew of it, but he never truly experienced it. When he was twenty-two years old, he was out walking at night due to a bad case of insomnia. Apparently, he was following a little too uncomfortably close to a white woman and she felt endangered. She began to run from him in a defense mechanism, opening his eyes to the discrimination he was born into.
Prospective JD candidate Jane Black analyzes the issue of elder abuse in her article “The Not-So-Golden Years: Power Of Attorney, Elder Abuse, And Why Our Laws Are Failing A Vulnerable Population” (particularly the financial aspect) and creates a solution to the glaring issues that plague the system meant to protect the elderly. Black uses three main points to produce an accurate look at the issues at hand. First, elderly people are particularly vulnerable to abuse making them easy targets. Second, the laws that are meant to keep the elderly safe are weak, thus enabling more abuse. Third, by creating stronger laws and programs, elder abuse can be curbed very easily.
Brent Staples, in the article “Just Walk On By” claims that there is a growing amount of a racist stereotype that whites, specifically white woman, have against black males. Staples supports his claims by using his own past experience evoking certain emotions of the audience. The author purpose is to retell his experiences of racism and to educate white people about what it is to be a white man, in order to really make them see how they are misjudged just by the occasion based on appearances. The author writes in a fairly calm tone towards his audience in this case, of whites of all social classes, specifically women. Staples use of pathos, diction, and ethos to effectively join his ideas to the thoughts and attitudes of his audience in his collective article.
As Daniel H. Pink, an author of literature regarding work, management, and behavioral science states, “Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes.” Empathy is the exact emotion that Just Walk on By by Brent Staples instills into readers. Brent Staples successfully achieves this effect by meticulously constructing a complex persona with anecdotes and a specific point of view and by conveying emotions to his audience through expressive imagery and striking diction. Staples reaches the readers by establishing a shy persona that could do absolutely do no harm.
Lacy M. Johnson and Amy Tan came from two entirely different backgrounds. Johnson came from a rural poor family and Tan coming from a Chinese family living in America. Johnson wrote the short story “White Trash Primer” which is from the book “Trespasses: A Memoir” and Tan’s “Two Kinds” is an excerpt from her book “The Joy Luck Club”. Even though these two authors are entirely different they share similar qualities in their writing skills, message and how they both were outcasts.
In his essay “Black Men and Public Spaces,” Brent Staples explains that people often find him intimidating because he is tall and black. Staples shares his account of a number of personal encounters, arguing that in each situation, he was misinterpreted as being dangerous because of his daunting physical appearance. Staples asserts that as a result of this misinterpretation, he was continually mistreated. Staples begins his article by describing the events leading up to his life-changing realization that he has inherited “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways (183).” When he was twenty-two years old, Staples found himself one evening, walking behind a well-dressed white woman on a deserted street in a rather wealthy neighborhood.
Going back to the anecdotes he used, they serve a very strong purpose in appealing to the audience. Every anecdote he list all depict something unfair happening to him or another person, for example he goes into a jewelry shop and the proprietor brought a dog to intimidate him which creates a sense of outrage and motivation in the audience. In a sense, because he appealed to their anger, he can convince them that his theme is valid and call them to action more effectively. His appeal to emotion occurs through his anecdotes too; furthermore, he said that he had to bury his relatives and friends creating sympathy and pity. This small part was off the topic of his central theme, but it nonetheless lightens the audience to take him easier, indirectly strengthening his message.
The ‘White Elephant’ When Facing an Abortion A white elephant can be defined as an interesting christmas surprise or an albino white elephant, a prized possession in Asia. Authors and readers from all over the nation have struggled with the true meaning behind Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, and are concerned with the fate of the girl’s pregnancy and the couples’ relationship. According to Stanley Renner, author at Illinois State University, Jig’s smile showed a “decisive change in mood that simply does not square with how she would feel if she were really facing an abortion” (Renner pg. 35). In a rather contradicting aspect, author Timothy O’Brien of the United States Naval Academy proposes that perhaps the girl decides to
People live, they age, and then they die. Somewhere, in the middle, adults question all the choices they’ve made, all the heart breaks, and endless memories that are embedded in their minds. God made us to live and to die, but when E.B White faces death he turns to the memories of when he was a little boy. Dual existence, internal conflict, and the experience of nature are social attitudes revealed toward loss of identity, fear, and vulnerability in “Once more to the Lake”. E.B
In fiction, the narrator controls how the audience connects to and perceives the various characters in a story. A good author can manipulate the narration to connect the audience to certain characters and deepen the reader’s understanding of their conflicts. In “Previous Condition” and “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin illustrates themes of loneliness and isolation in the pursuit of finding a space that feels like home. Although this theme is clear in both stories, Baldwin is able to portray it very differently in each story through the relationship he allows the reader to the characters struggling with these feelings. While “Previous Condition” provides a more intimate relationship to the narrator, “Sonny’s Blues” is able to deliver an additional level of understanding by telling the story through Sonny’s brother, therefore disconnecting the reader in a way that forces him or her to share the characters’ feelings of isolation and confusion.