Close Reading #1 - "Why the U.S. has a culture of dependency"

     “Why the US has a culture of dependency” talks of how Americans have become more and more dependent on government aided programs. Mathew Spalding’s deliberate choice of diction, syntax, imagery, and detail effectively emphasizes his ideas by 
rhetorically causing the reader to take on his own opinion.

      Spalding’s clever use of syntax in his title “Why the U.S. has a culture of dependency” causes the reader to assume that there is a culture of dependency when in reality it is just an opinion of Spalding’s. If Spalding had worded it “Does the U.S. have a culture of dependency?” then the reader would know that this is an opinion article, but Spalding’s statement title gives it an aura of a report, which would be based on fact rather than on the author’s opinion,to gain the audience’s trust. Spalding also exercises syntax in his favor of his opinion when explaining how citizens create a lot of debt for America. He says, “They will crowd out virtually all other government spending, including national defense.” Spalding’s syntactical choice to position “national defense” at the end of his sentence places more weight and emphasis upon this idea, allowing the reader more time to dwell upon this thought. His intension is to appall readers with the idea that the government spends more on welfare programs than on protecting the country. If Spalding had said, “They will crowd out national defense and all other government spending,” the reader would have passed over the detail on their way to the sentence’s finish and therefore would have not thought much about cutting spending specifically on national defense. Spalding’s careful syntax excludes other opinions  by making his own appear as fact and creates a sense of urgency with regards to certain details.

   
     Within the first paragraph, Spalding alludes to the “Pony Express” when talking how “the days have gone when people would only get mail service from the federal government.” When readers approach this allusion, they think of an outdated mail service that existed during the civil war. By using this historical reference point, Spalding attaches the idea of a culture of independence to the Pony Express, forcing readers to assume that it no longer exists as a relevant part of American culture. In addition, Spalding uses imagery when he says, “Under a culture of dependency, poverty becomes a trap and recipients get stuck.” This tacks a simplistic and very negative image to a very complex problem and disregards any positive results of such programs, causing the reader to equate government welfare programs with a trap. When talking of welfare programs, Spalding refers to them as a “confusing alphabet soup of programs”, this reference to a well known and often used phrase immediately grabs the readers attention and makes them believe that the government is doing a poor job of organizing these programs, when in reality this may not be true. Spalding’s choice of very simple but negative imagery convinces readers of his ideas that many not necessarily be true. 

     
     Spalding consistently uses statistics as details to convey that his ideas are accurate and unquestionably true. For example, in one paragraph Spalding says:

…49% of the population lives in a household…67.3 million        Americans received either Temporary Assistance for Needy Families…responsibility of individuals, neighborhoods, churches and other civil society institutions has an 8% increase from the year before.

With so many numbers in front of them, readers are lead to believe that his opinion must be correct because how can one refute the truth of a statistic? Often, statistics are stretched out of proportion and do not accurately represent the population or the topic at hand, but this is never stated in the opinion article so readers do not have any other information to temper Spalding’s choice in detail.

    

      Even beginning with the very title of his article, Spalding immediately directs the reader’s thoughts towards his own ideas by employing careful diction, subtle syntax, simple images, and many statistics, successfully making he article appear more fact than opinion.

Link to Article: http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/21/opinion/spalding-welfare-state-dependency/index.html

Open Prompt #1

In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast or comparison, the distinctive characteristics and qualities of the main character. For example, the ideas or behavior of a minor character might be used to highlight the weaknesses or strengths of the main character. Choose a novel or play in which a minor character serves as a foil for the main character. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the relation between the minor character and the major character illuminates the meaning of the work.

In one of his most famous plays, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses the witty Mercutio as a foil against the passionate Romeo. Their relationship demonstrates the mutual dependence of reason and passion and the disastrous results when the balance is disrupted.

At the beginning of the play, the reader is introduced to Romeo who is portrayed as a sensitive young man who easily falls in love. This is apparent when Romeo professes that he is madly in love with a young woman by the name of Rosaline and then within the same night falls in love with Juliet at first sight. While it is not unusual for young people to appear passionate and naïve, Romeo’s passion becomes further pronounced when placed in juxtaposition with the cool skepticism of his close friend Mercutio.

Mercutio is introduced into the play as a witty counterpart to Romeo’s romantic nature and tendency to act impulsively.  Mercutio prefers to think of love as a “physical” idea. Mercutio is portrayed as the one who had common sense and level-headedness to show how ignorant and naïve Romeo is when it comes to love.

While Romeo follows his heart without giving thought to the consequences of his actions, Mercutio pokes fun at love, using comedy to caution both Romeo and the audience against taking one’s feelings too seriously.

Shakespeare uses the close friendship between Romeo and Mercutio to symbolize how passion and reason must coexist so as to maintain order and stability in the universe. When reason perishes with Mercutio, a chain of tragic deaths occurs.  Without the voice of reason, the power of Romeo’s love proves blind and disastrous.

Some may argue that Mercutio seems wildly romantic in nature during the Queen Mab speech, however with further inspection it is understood that Mercutio actually has a very realistic view of love. He speaks of dreams as a place where people can achieve their heart’s desire, but he cautions against this as ultimately delusional if one does not perform action in real life. He goes on to chastise Romeo for being so quick to fall in love with Juliet and Rosaline, yet unable to take action to pursue them. He uses the wild romanticism of the Queen Mab speech to disarm the audience, but comes back to criticize Romeo’s passion as immature and ineffectual because it is unaccompanied by physical effort to fulfill his desires.

While the contrast between the natures of the two young men initially provides comic relief, the truth of Mercutio’s cautionary quips and witty words turn into a hard and gritty reality resulting in the deaths of not only the two lovers, but of their two closest friends. 

Response to Material #1

Through the summer and the first week of school, reading critically is the most important tool that I have learnt. While reading Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I realized that “reading” doesn’t just mean looking for prompt but instead you must look for hidden symbols or motifs. While reading Chapter 22: He’s Blind for A Reason, You Know, I had a flashback to my years as a freshman. I remembered reading The Miracle Worker and filling out papers about the plot without realizing any themes. Helen Keller represents the traditional meaning of blindness: lack of intellectual and moral understanding with her temper tantrums and poor social habits, whereas Anne Sullivan represents the irony of a blind person who can truly “see” others like Helen with compassion, unlike most sighted people. The key to AP English is looking for the symbols and thinking critically.

After reading the Rhetorical Situation and Argument PowerPoint, I thought back to my analysis of the “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris. I now realize that David Sedaris considered the rhetorical situation and his audience while making his choices in grammar, syntax, and detail. His purpose was not write a formal college essay that would be used to inform or teach, but instead to write in a humorous and fun way about his experiences in France and learning French. He may have intentionally disregarded the rules of formal essay writing as mentioned in  “The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing” in an effort to write a more casual, but engaging essay. His seemingly random, overly detailed anecdotes about his multi-cultural classmates and hyperbolic description of his intense French teacher contribute to the situation’s humor, and his informal grammar and syntax make the reader feel at ease, almost as if actually hearing Sedaris tell them the story in person over coffee or lunch.

In addition to learning how to read critically and answer essay questions more effectively, I have learned that knowing the names and proper meaning of literary terms is an essential tool in understanding and interpreting literature on a deeper level. It is not enough to know the definitions; I must to be able to use them and pick out when they are used in a work of literature as well as use them in my own writing. I have not mastered this skill yet, but I hope that as we work through the course I will become proficient in identifying and applying these literary terms in our readings and my own essays.

I have learned a significant amount of material in just the first week of school. However, I will need more practice using the rhetorical situation, writing an effective argument, and mastering the AP English vocabulary, and I am excited to do so.