TOW #11 magazine ad

This advertisement for some form of laundry product from a magazine contains a message that is apparent even at a moment’s glance. The ad uses a simplistic layout to attract the eyes of the readers of the magazine and incongruity to add a humorous element to it. The layout of this ad is very easy to look at and interpret. The two wrestlers dressed in solid colors take up most of the picture and the background is blurred to keep the focus on the two men. This kind of set up attracts the eyes of magazine readers who are skimming through and easily conveys the ad’s message to it’s observers at a moment’s glance. This simple ad mainly employs the use of incongruity. This article takes wrestling, a very intense and violent sport, and put’s a smile on the face of one of the wrestlers when a wrestler should usually look like they are struggling. Because of hoe bizarre this scene looks, it creates incongruity and satire. This incongruity also shows the power of the product. The uniform that the red wrestler is wearing is obviously dirty with sweat stains all over it, but when the blue wrestler smells it he still smiles. This shows that the product is so powerful that even through sweat cloths still smell pleasant. This ad effectively conveys a message with as little interpretation as possible. The simplicity of it suits its placement in a magazine where people just gloss over advertisements.

TOW #10 Article Analysis

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30076629

            This article is reporting in the recent execution of a Syrian aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig. A recent video released by Syrian militants showed a man with a hood over his head being killed, further investigation confirmed that this man was indeed Kassig. This article while reporting on appeals to pathos to turn the readers against the Syrian militants and convince the reader’s that the militant’s motives are pure evil. This article provides several images of Kassig and his family. These photos are interspersed throughout the article to elicit an emotional response from the readers. The photos of Kassig’s parents are meant to make the reader believe that these militants are malicious and mean to tear families apart. The author also includes words from Kassig’s parents. Some of these are meant to make the reader feel pity for his parents. His parent’s talk about his legacy saying, "Today we grieve together, yet we also recall that the indomitable spirit of goodness and perseverance that burned so brightly in Abdul-Rahman Kassig," These quotes appeal to pathos and make the readers feel bad for their loss. Their other testimonies are meant to show resilience, his parent’s are quoted saying, "We are incredibly proud of our son for living his life according to his humanitarian calling," they said, "We will work every day to keep his legacy alive as best we can,” these quotes are meant to think that no matter the adversity, it will be overcome with hope. This article quotes President Obama when he says that it was an, “act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity". The fact that this came from the president of the United States gives the speaker automatic ethos, and appeals to pathos to make the reader think that it is an act of pure evil.

IRB intro #2

This marking period I am reading "The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff. I have never read a philosophy before and this seems to be a fairly popular one. I hope to get an insight on what this genre is like and how Hoff interprets one of the most famous children's stories of all time.

TOW #9 Review of Interstellar and Big Hero 6

http://online.wsj.com/articles/big-hero-6-shoots-past-interstellar-in-opening-weekend-1415566784

This article is mostly a review of the new movie Interstellar but also a comparison of its success to Disney’s Big Hero 6. Disney’s new animated film, Big Hero 6, did much better than Interstellar, a thriller directed by Christopher Nolan. In this article, written by Ben Fritz, Fritz hopes to comment on how much more successful Big Hero 6 has been than Interstellar while also staying neutral. This article first use of rhetorical device is in the title where the article takes advantage of denotation. The header to this review is, “’Big Hero 6’ Shoots Past ‘Interstellar’, at first glance it appears that Fritz is just stating the obvious, that Disney’s movie has made more money than Nolan’s, but when read closer it seems that the author is using the literal meaning of interstellar. By saying that Big Hero 6 shot past interstellar, means that it did better than the best than it could do and that it was a great movie. Ben Fritz also uses expert testimonies to boast the success of Big Hero 6 without a bias. Fritz quotes Paramount’s “president of world-wide distribution and marketing” Megan Colligan who says that, “With [‘Interstellar’], every single weekend is like opening it again.” One would think that this is a compliment to the success of Interstellar, but in actuality it is again promoting Big Hero 6. Because Disney’s movie shot “past ‘Interstellar’” this statements seems to say that it did amazingly, even better than Nolan’s film. This article, while it presents its facts to be neutral, is really a presentation of Disney’s Big Hero 6 success over Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and a promotion of the film to the public.

TOW #8 IRB

Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a reflection on her upbringing in the segregated town of Stamps Arkansas. Somehow through her childhood of being made a fool by both her race and others, Angelou rose to success and became one of the most influential and well-known writers of all time. Throughout her book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou juxtaposes her pandemic and educated language with the colloquial language of the people that she grew up with to contrast her past from her present and show how far she has come from her past of pain. Throughout her story, this contrast of diction is evident, but when Angelou describes her years helping at “the Store”. In this specific example, Angelou is helping a customer fill her sac with flour, “When I was absolutely accurate our appreciative costumers used to admire: ‘Sister Henderson’s sure got some smart grandchildrens.’ If I was off in the Store’s favor, the eagle-eyed women would say, “Put some more in that sac, child. Don’t you try to make your profit offa me.’ Then I would quietly but persistently punish myself.” (Angelou 15) While there are many more examples of this throughout the book, this demonstrated Angelou’s juxtaposition well. When she uses words like, “appreciative” or “persistently” and the people around her aren’t even using proper grammar it puts a distance between her and those other people. This distance shows how far removed Angelou is from that society and how she is above these people in a way. It also gives the reader an idea about how hard Angelou had to work to come from her uneducated and impoverished society to becoming one of the greatest writers of out time. This story is not only just a retelling of Maya Angelou’s childhood, but a success story that informs the reader of just how many hurdles she had to jump over to get to where she is today.