TOW #4 - IRB Analysis

For this marking period I have been reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This book is a memoir so it is Walls own story told by herself. The story addresses the unusual life she had growing up and how it shaped her into the person she is now. The beginning half of the book revolves around her and her families travels from desert town to desert town never living in one place for very long. She describes the different things she encounters in each place for example all of the bugs, lizards and cats that would come and go from her "home" in Battle Mountain. Also the people she met and what her experiences were like with them. This personal retellings in a way make the story harder to believe. What I mean by this is that some of the situations that Walls has been in, especially in the early sections of the book where she was under the age of 10, are hard for one to wrap their mind around. The backwards way in which her parents raise her and her siblings and the way that they are educated is very against what is accepted in this current day which is why it comes off as a piece of fiction although it is known that it is indeed true. Considering that this story is a retelling of all of the events that happened throughout her life, mostly in terms of her family life, I think that this book was written for herself. I think that after all of the hardships she's faced and the chaotic lifestyle in which she has lived she needed a sense of closure and writing her story for the world to be able to read may have been therapeutic for her. She also may have written it for her siblings and perhaps even her parents. Throughout the story she is very respectful towards her parents although they aren't, the best adult figures in history, so i don't think she wrote the book to shove her anger in their faces but I think she wanted to make them aware of how far she has come and how that is partially from their doings. Another part of this story that makes it almost hard to fathom is the fact of how blunt it is. Walls doesn't try to sugar coat the stories of her encounters. Yes she is very descriptive and really lays out the scene for the reader through her use of imagery, but none of this description is to distract the reader from the truth of her stories. She is very open and upfront about all that happened to her and it makes the reader feel as if they could be there themselves but the emotions that are portrayed make the reader glad that they aren't. The first half of the book really captured me because it started with the retelling of a more recent event in her life. Where she is well off on her own and happens to see her mother going through the trash. Despite everything else that has happened so far in this book that tale sticks with me the most because her mother remains the same but a clear growth on Walls part is evident. This as a starting point is a very strong hook and creates an endpoint for the rest of the book. The reader must first encounter Walls' struggles to understand why she felt the way she did in the beginning of the book and this was a very effective technique.

TOW #3 - Starting Out With Nothing (visual text)

The image pictured is a cartoon created by Jeff Parker and is a commentary on the ridiculous amount of school loans people are weighed down by even years after they have been out of college. Jeff Parker is an established writer and comic book artist. His works have been included in several well established comic books including many of the Marvel comics. This image by him depicts a middle aged man carrying a huge load on his back and coming home to live with his parents. His father comments something on the lines of kids these days are so lazy and can't even get their lives together whereas I (the father) had to start from nothing. The son replies in a way that says he wishes he had started with nothing. This is a humorous depiction of a real life occurrence. With the extensive cost of college tuition these days it isn't uncommon for a former student to be paying off their loans for several decades after they graduate. The reason that this visual text is effective is because of the fact that it accurately depicts modern American society. Many post college citizens do struggle with money after they have graduated and not everyone is fortunate enough to get a job straight out of college so things such as what is depicted in this comic, do really happen. The image is directed at those who suffer from this overload of loans and is done so humorously to bring light to a rather negative topic. Visual texts often have a harder time of conveying their messages because the creator cannot always be certain how the message of their image will be received. But the author uses humor so that a viewer can look at the image and think "hey, that's funny because its true and actually relates to me". To add to this humor Parker also uses hyperbole. Of course not all post college students end up back at home drowning in debts, but creating this image as a humorous exaggeration of the topic, brings it to light that college debts can be overbearing and a huge issue. The exaggeration helps the author get his point across that this is unfortunately true and that we don't all have the fortune of millions of dollars to give back to the bank for our loans.

http://debrasanborn.com/2012/01/16/starting-out-with-nothing/

IRB Intro - The Glass Castle by: Jeanette Walls

For my Independent Reading Book this cycle I will be reading The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. This book is a memoir of the author's troubling life. Walls' parents are both eccentric characters that led to the making and breaking of her life. They lived a nomadic life with no real cares or worries. Her parents were both too concerned with themselves to properly take care of four children. Once money ran low and both of her parents sobriety became a big issue Walls was faced with the difficulty of leaving home at a young age. Her and her siblings had fended for themselves for far too long and had to pick up and leave such a horrible family situation. This book is the story of her life and struggle given how her parents were and how it shaped her life. This book was recommended to me from people who only had exceptional things to say about it. I enjoy memoirs and peoples personal retellings so when I heard about this story I thought that it was one that I would enjoy. I also like books that deal with struggle and hardship. Especially when it is a true story and a real account of the struggles someone has faced I enjoy reading that. I hope to get a sense of emotional commonality to this book by reading it but also to gain a little more experience in reading memoirs.

http://www.americanplacetheatre.org/roster/show/the-glass-castle

TOW# 2 - How To Say Nothing in 500 Words

How To Say Nothing in 500 Words by Paul Roberts is a humorous commentary on getting to the point but not being bland.  Roberts gives the hypothetical scenario of a college student being asked to write a 500 word essay and how this student may struggle in doing so because when a quantitative value is put on a piece of writing it seems endless. Roberts goes on to show how plain and simple this college student may write the piece and it would simply earn this student a poor grade. From here he goes on to explain how to avoid doing the obvious and thus getting the bad grades. Paul Roberts is just the person to be instructing on such a topic due to the fact that he has a career in writing books on English. Someone teaching someone else about words clearly knows a lot about them themselves. The author presents such information in a way that is directed at students who are given concise writing assignments. He exploits the several different ways one may g about writing these pieces and how the way in which you write it may land you in a place you don't want to be. He explains that these word constraining assignments tend to be bland topics but it is up to the writer to be able to develop a unique spin on such a common subject. By putting this information in the context of college writing it makes the audience clear and the message evident. Besides this level of commonality, Roberts also uses humor as an effective rhetorical device. He includes humorous examples and makes a joke out of these common mistakes so that one can easily point out their mistakes. He also uses hypothetical situations so that a reader can imagine themselves in the context and then learn from it. The purpose of this piece is to make students, or anyone who finds this applicable, more aware of what they are writing and how they are doing so. He mentions the types of words one should use but that they should be aware of connotations these words may have. He also explains that going for the long, wordy explanation isn't always best. Roberts wants to make writers aware of the way they go about writing and how in reality it may be ineffective. Personally I believe that the author effectively went about making his point. He hooked the audience with the previously mentioned rhetorical devices and then displayed his information in a direct manor. He is one who can be said to practice what he preaches because he got to the point of his essay but didn't over analyze it or spice it up too much.

TOW #1 - When Whites Just Don't Get It, Part 2

When Whites Just Don't Get It, Part 2 is an editorial piece written by Nicholas Kristof. Kristof is a New York Times columnist whose work appears twice a week in the paper. He has won several Pulitzer Prizes for his writing which focuses on societal issues around the world. In this particular piece he commentates on the issue of racism in America. He talks about the crude assumptions made by white Americans regarding those who are colored. Stereotypes such as they are criminals, they have no self worth, they don't try in school therefore their lives go nowhere etc. But Kristof hits these comments head on with statistics and factual evidence that these are simply as I said before, stereotypes. He explains that the stereotypical struggle that black Americans tend to face sprouts from prejudice and cruelty that was evident since the beginning of time. This text is directed at white America to show them that their assumptions are incorrect and cruel. Considering that Kristof is a white American he clearly isn't siding with his own race. He is playing an impartial role to inform those who are at fault of what they are doing wrong. He does this effectively by using comments made by his readers to prove his point. Most of his readers comment in defense of white Americans making it clear where they come from. Kristof takes this to his advantage by proving them wrong with facts. He uses statistics, numbers, and real world examples to prove his point that white Americans are so caught up with in their own ethnocentric minds that they become unaware of the stereotypical remarks they make and the effects these accusations have on others. Kristof effectively proves his point that we all need to be cautious of the accusations we make in terms of others. We tend to make preconceived assumptions out of ignorance rather than making factual statements. Kristof wants white Americans to be aware of their faults and make sure that they take responsibility for themselves instead of putting all blame on a race that has never ceased to be persecuted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-when-whites-just-dont-get-it-part-2.html?ref=opinion