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.

TOW#7 Redskins Controversy Article

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-carpowich/solution-to-redskins-name_b_5897468.html

Recently there ha been much controversy about the name of the Washington D.C. Redskins, a NFL football team. The team’s name has been questioned because of it’s insensitive portrayal of the American Indians. The author of this article, Mark Carpowich, hopes to bring some compromise to this discrepancy. Carpowich uses anecdotes to propose a solution to this problem that the readers agree with and an allusion to a negative event to refute any arguments that could be made by the team’s owner trying to keep the name. Carpowich titles his article, “Solution to Redskins Name Controversy May Be on the 'Playground'” and in his text he talks about a recent document that surfaced that could offer closure to this problem called Playground of the Native Son. This is a film by Cilia Xavier, which tells the story of the underdog Hominy Indians who formed a football team, which beat the New York Giants in 1927. Carpowich’s solution is to rename the team after the Hominy Indian team, not only would the owner be able to keep the name, but also get free publicity from an upcoming movie on the event. In doing this he makes the audience agree with his viewpoint by appealing to logos by presenting the advantages of changing the team’s name. After Carpowich presents his solution, he refutes any counter argument that could be made by the Redskin’s owner by alluding to the case of Donald Sterling. Donald Sterling was the owner of a popular basketball team, the Los Angeles Clippers, who was videotaped calling members of his team racial slurs and was banned for life by the NBA. By alluding to this story, Carpowich presents an extreme that this controversy could be elevated to if the owner doesn’t find a compromise.

TOW #6 Political Cartoon

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/~/media/Images/KHN%20Features/2014/January/6%2010/Back%20In%20The%20Game%20512.png

This is a political cartoon that is dealing with the many delays and problems Obamacare faced in the early fazes of its implication. In emphasizing President Obama’s features, personifying Obamacare as a turtle, and juxtaposing the two images this cartoon hopes to poke fun at Obamacare and convince the reader that it is ineffective and make a statement about the president. This cartoon extenuates the president’s features; it makes his ears, which are received by the public as abnormally large, lips and nose abnormally large, and his head much smaller in comparison. While this cartoon hopes to make the president look ridiculous, it makes itself seem very racist by bringing out stereotypically large features among the black community and very degrading by making his head small which makes it look unintelligent. The cartoon also juxtaposes the turtle and Obama, to make Obama look ridiculous. The cartoon also chose to present Obamacare as a turtle flipped on it’s back; turtles are slow and lethargic animals and when flipped on their backs are immobilized and have no way to flip back over. By choosing to represent Obamacare as this, the cartoon states that Obamacare was slow at the start, but not that it has encountered these problem it has “flipped on it’s back” and will not be able to progress from this point. President Obama and this turtle are put side by side to compare them and to make a statement about the president’s policies. The cartoon hopes to make a fool out of Obama by showing him backing something so ridiculous as this turtle. It also seeks to compare the president to this turtle so say that Obama is not going to change anything and will just continue to lie on his back like the turtle. This cartoon, while witty and slightly amusing, comes off as stupid and a bit racist.

TOW #5 Hong Kong Protests Article analysis

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/hong-kong-protests-shrink-leader-oks-talks-25935866?page=2

This article is reporting on the pro-democracy protests going on in Hong Kong China. The protesting youths hope to reverse the government’s decision to have all of the candidates, for the upcoming election in 2017, be approved by an appointed committee. Many other, visibly older, Hong Kong citizens have been trying to force the protesters off the streets, often using force, with little or no police retaliation or intervention. This article is structured to demonstrate the drastic differences between the two groups, pro-democracy and anti-democracy, and present some valid arguments and criticisms about both sides to give the reader a sense of how difficult the situation is. After the writer’s synopsis of the issue, they introduce both sides and what they are fighting for, and throughout the body of the article they alternate what side of the situation they present. The authors use any testimonies from residents of Hong Kong to give the readers an idea of how this event impacted the locals and their daily lives. The contrast in this article speaks to many of the areas of contrast in the actual event. The first is the obvious difference in opinion and political view point; the democrats want an election where they have a voice and they shape the government, and the anti-democrats want the order that the old system has provided. It also highlights the difference in age; the democrats are primarily younger voting age adults whereas the anti-democrats are mostly older. There is also a difference in tactics, the anti-democrats are very violent towards the peaceful protests of the democrats, often dragging the protesters and then beating them. This article brings in the ideas that the public is different from the protesters; while some of the public may support what the protesters stand for, the protests themselves interfere with their daily lives.