TOW #7 - Boston Massacre (visual text)

This image was created right after the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere. The Boston Massacre resulted in the deaths of 5 colonial civilians that were shot at by British redcoats. Paul Revere the creator of this image was an engraver and a very prevalent character of the American Revolution. He was the man who warned the colonists that the redcoats were coming after the first battle of the revolution. In this image Revere is  trying to recreate the scene of the Boston Massacre. He is doing so in a very dramatized way. Many things are incorrect about the image but Revere uses this medium as a form of propaganda to get Americans even more riled up about revolution and even angrier towards the British. Through his art work he uses hyperbole and plays with his audiences emotions. First of all the event took place at night but Revere makes it look as if the killing happened in broad day light. This change of scenery changes the context and the emotions conveyed. Violent behavior tends to break out at night and considering in reality the colonists involved had spent the night at the bar getting drunk and riled up, changing the scene to daylight ignores this whole truth and subtracts out a major contributing factor. Also he makes the colonists appear innocent and shows the redcoats cynically killing the colonists in a way that seems to be without cause. Revere was aware of the true context of the event but he was serving a greater purpose. He wanted colonists far from the Boston scene to have a cruel idea of the redcoats so that it would increase their want to fight. America was just delving into the idea of revolution and this is one of the events that kicked it off. Revere was a patriot during the time and he wanted to do his part by convincing the colonists that they could no longer rely on Britain. This image shows the redcoats being killers to achieve just that.

http://www.earlyamerica.com/image/review/winter96/massacre.jpg

TOW #6 - Just Gonna Be Me (nonfiction text)

This week for my TOW I chose to read a poem. I found a nonfiction poem by a writer named Phoebs Lyle. It lists her as a writer, actor, singer, director and artist. This gives a sense of credibility in the medium for which she is writing. She is clearly well established as a person of artistic talent and writing is one of her modes.
     The poem is about her preparing to preform on stage and that for once she is not afraid because she has people who support her. Considering the context of the poem I believe that she is writing for those who have held her back before. There is a sense of confidence and accomplishment that radiates from this poem. She repeats the idea that she is ready to go out and be true to herself. Also there is a stanza that repeats several times throughout the poem and one line that stands out to make me believe she is writing to those who have held her back is "I'm just gonna be me, I've got everything, You'll get what you need, and see" (Lyle). This is a line of confidence that shows that those who have put her down before will pay the price for their mistreatment but for now she is well on her way for the better. But because she is so confident it appears to me that she is also writing this to herself. It is as if it is a reminder that she is strong, and independent and has the ability to pursue her dreams without needing to worry about the opinions of others.
     The fact that this material is written in the form of a poem makes the meaning that much stronger. Poems are filled with emotion and have a specific structure that plays into the meaning of the text. This poem specifically is broken down into 7 stanzas and as I mentioned before there is a particular stanza that repeats several times. This is the strongest stanza as well because it is the one where she is saying she is happy to be herself and isn't going to let anyone hold her back. The fact that this is repeated really drives the message home that she is proud of herself and really wants to convey that.
    In my opinion the poem wasn't necessarily a very good one quite honestly. It lacked originality and depth. It repeated similar basic phrases and didn't show much depth of thought nor word choice. The message was straight forward and definitely powerful so that was a positive attribute but overall I was not very impressed.

http://allpoetry.com/poem/11451267-Just-gonna-be-me-by-Phoebs-Lyle

TOW #5 - Life Can Be Funny (nonfiction text)

Life Can Be Funny is a short article featured on Teen Ink. Teen Ink is a series including a magazine, website and book which all include articles written by teens and submitted for publishing. This specific article was written by someone named Jennifer C. She writes about the ironic ways in which life always ceases to amaze us. How all bad things happen all at once or never at all. Jennifer creates a whole list of possible "teenage girl" scenarios and how they are "funny" but not really. Although she isn't an established author but rather just a teen posting for the pleasure of other teens, I believe this gives her credibility. She is preaching to a teenage audience and being one herself makes what she is saying believable. Teenagers tend to float to their like peers and being in the developmental stage of hating their parents or just wanting to "be themselves" of course they are going to listen to another teen. Through this automatic credibility amongst other teens her message is easily received. The message she is trying to get across is that yes life sometimes sucks but all the silly misfortunes that we are all faced with are something you sometimes just have to laugh off. Also that no one is alone in the chaos of life. She uses many allusions to ordinary teenage life to drive her message home.  For example she talks about the typical scenario of your crush liking someone else and how you always undoubtedly end up embarrassing yourself in front of them. The awkward encounters between those who one may be attracted to are a true teenage struggle so she is really preaching to the choir with with this one and gets people to hop on to her bandwagon. Through these allusions she also establishes pathos. She connects to her readers emotions by commentating on a topic that they can relate to. To strengthen this connection she plays around with humor and emotions of a typical teenager.

http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/all/article/9112/Life-Can-Be-Funny/