TOW #13: "I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr.

     "I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr. is undoubtedly one of the most important speeches in American history. King delivered this speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in the prime of the Civil Rights Movement in order to encourage his audience—every single American—to take a stand against the injustice against colored people. King is a well-known American Civil Rights activist, clergyman, and humanitarian. He effectively achieves his purpose with his use of powerful imagery and allusions.

     King's powerful imagery helps him achieve his purpose because with the imagery comes a sense of disappointment toward American society which underscores how American values really had not come a long way since Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Touching on this issue, King states, "One hundred years later, the life of the negro is sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the negro lives on the lonely island of poverty in the vast ocean of material prosperity" (para. 3). These images portray segregation as manacles and discrimination as chains, further identifying colored people as restricted and powerless against the injustice that conquers them. He additionally describes poverty as an island in an ocean of material prosperity, signaling that there is no way out.

    King alludes to not only historical events but also American patriotic songs. Toward the end of his speech, he emphasizes the irony in the popular song "My Country 'Tis of Thee" by stating that the lyrics cannot really be true until African Americans are "set free." He then brings up the idea of America as one whole united country when he continues the song. He says that freedom should ring from the "prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire" and the "mighty mountains of New York" and the "heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania" but also the "Stone Mountain of Georgia" and the "Lookout Mountain of Tennessee" and from "every hill and molehill of Mississippi."

I Have a Dream

(Picture and speech source: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm)

TOW #12: "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls (Part 1)

     The first half of The Glass Castle consists primarily of Jeannette Walls's travels through the southwestern United States as a child and how it shaped her view on childhood. Growing up without a secure home, Walls found herself in a new town almost every week, which is what makes up the bulk of the book. Through the stories of her journey, Walls appeals to her audience made up of people who grew up with an ordinary childhood and achieves her purpose of effectively illustrating her thoughts as a child growing up with her unstable family in her memoir with the help of vivid imagery.
     Walls begins her memoir with a story about how when she was three years-old, she was once left unattended at the stove when making hot dogs. This detail would appall her readers, since many of them are not used to the idea of a very young girl cooking hot dogs alone. She continued her story by adding that her dress caught on fire and she ended up in the hospital with severe burns. After such a traumatic event, one might believe that the child would grow up to have a fear with fire. This was different in Walls's case: she became fascinated with it. She ponders this fascination when she writes, "I loved the scratching sound of the match against the sandpapery brown strip when I struck it, and the way the flame leaped out of the red-coated tip with a pop and a hiss. I'd feel its heat near my fingertips, then held my breath until the moment when they seemed about to blaze up out of control" (15). Through this use of imagery, Walls effectively conjures up the feelings of excitement and curiosity she felt as a child when playing with fire, therefore achieving her purpose of portraying her thoughts as a child with an unusual home life.
     Walls is credible because The Glass Castle is the story about her own life. Her aforementioned use of imagery also strengthens her credibility because it aids her in depicting the thoughts and ideas that she had as a child. Jeanette Walls achieves her purpose of characterizing herself as a child and therefore describing for her audience an unusual childhood in The Glass Castle with her use of stirring imagery.

TOW #11: "The Scream" by Edvard Munch (Visual Text)

     Norwegian artist Edvard Munch's The Scream is likely one of the most iconic pieces of art in history. With its striking color scheme and macabre depictions, The Scream immediately stood out from the rest of the impressionist works completed in the late 19th century. When Munch was asked to describe the setting of his work he replied, "I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous infinite scream of nature." This makes it clear that Munch's purpose in creating this painting was to not only depict the remarkable sunset he saw that night but to also depict his inner feelings of paranoia, anxiety, and anger.
     Like most other artists, Munch personally struggled with feelings of mental illness; his own sister was in the hospital for instability during the time period of the painting. Some art historians have even noticed the mental hospital included behind the painting's subject, a genderless person staring straight and screaming the "infinite scream of nature" Munch had mentioned hearing. Since it is not clear whether the subject is a man or a woman, historians have concluded that it is actually a portrait of both Munch and his sister.
     Munch's color scheme and imagery completely help his in achieving his purpose. The crimson and scarlet streaks in the sky give the viewer a sense of panic and disorder; Munch's description of "tongues of fire and blood" further gives his audience a sense of violence. His subject's facial expression brings about the feelings of fear and confusion Munch and his sister had suffered with. Since Munch was actually a very popular artist at the time, he created his work knowing that it would be seen by the public. Because of its initially puzzling representation and ominous meaning, The Scream remains to be one of the most enigmatic pieces of artwork to this day.

Fun fact: Two different versions of The Scream have been stolen before by art thefts: one painted version was stolen from the National Gallery, Oslo in 1994, and another painted version was stolen in 2004 from the Munch Museum along with painting Madonna

TOW #10: "Vanishing: The Anxiety of Geography & Genetics" by Leslie Tucker

     Leslie Tucker ponders the structure of modern family life in her essay "Vanishing: The Anxiety of Geography & Genetics." Published on Hippocampus Magazine, an online creative non-fiction magazine, this essay is meant for aspiring creative non-fiction writers. Tucker begins her essay with the memories about Mother's Day in 1976. Three generations of her family celebrated that holiday together: her parents, her children, and she and her husband "sat outdoors around the dinner table and focused on each other's faces" (para. 41). Tucker also emphasizes the lack of technological distractions at that time, describing that Mother's Day as "A time when none of us clutched small devices to distract us from the momentary present, a time when we sat still and paid attention to what was said at the table, even if we were bored" (para. 41). Throughout the essay, Tucker also adds that thee introduction of technology not only removes the intimacy around the dinner table, but also the intimacy around general family relationships. She includes her own example of how her daughters live across the country from her and because of this distance, she feels that she cannot connect with her grandchildren. Although Tucker owns more digital pictures of her grandchildren than her father ever owned of her own children, she felt that it was not the same because "he witnessed the events portrayed in his photos, lived them in real time" (para. 18).
     Tucker, who has been published in many works, including The Baltimore Review and Shenandoah Magazine, effectively accomplishes her purpose of demonstrating the importance of close family life. She accomplishes this purpose through her use of personal anecdotes and imagery. In this essay, she includes stories about her grandson, Gus, and how she feels that she cannot ever get to know him fully because she lives so far away from him. Tucker's vivid imagery describes her setting, and how benign she once felt around her whole family. This benevolent image fully juxtaposes with the emptiness she feels as an adult, far away from her family. In her essay about the difference between old and modern family relationships, Leslie Tucker achieves her purpose of illustrating the importance of family life through her use of personal anecdotes and imagery.

TOW #9: "A Haitian Boy's Needless Death From Diabetes" by Palav Babaria and Aisling O'Riordan

     Last spring, on a stormy, rainy night, twelve year-old Jean Paul was rushed to an emergency room in rural Haiti because of his horrible medical condition. Jean Paul suffered from type 1 diabetes and malnutrition, which eventually led up to diabetes ketoacidosis, which is a diabetic complication where the body cannot use glucose as a fuel source because there is not enough insulin and instead uses fat as energy. In America, this problem could be easily solved with the availability of glucose strips. However, in rural Haiti, Jean Paul's family lacked those resources and only rushed him to the hospital when it was too late. Even the little amount amount of glucose strips the hospital had did not help them; its only glucometer did not match those strips. Palav Babaria and Aisling O'Riordan, the two authors of the op-ed article, are doctors who volunteered at the hospital at which Jean Paul was admitted. They experienced his tragic story first-hand, using words like "sticklike" to describe his wrists (para. 3), and portraying his condition through phrases like "ragged breath" and "racing heart" (para. 9).
     Published on November 14, also known as "World Diabetes Day," this article's main purpose is to bring attention to a huge medical issue—the lack of globally acceptable glucose strips. Most glucose strips are only compatible with a certain glucometer, which was a huge issue in Jean Paul's case because the hospital staff only had ten available strips and were unable to properly ration out the use of those strips. The article was meant for an audience made up of those who are familiar with global medical issues. In addition, since it is specific to the illness of diabetes, it greatly affects those who are or have loved ones that are diagnosed with diabetes. Babaria and O'Riordan are effective in achieving their purpose because they choose Jean Paul, a twelve year old malnourished child from Haiti,  as a subject. If the subject was a grown man from a developed nation like America, the article's audience would be less affected by the message. The authors' aforementioned use of diction plays a big role as well because it emphasizes Jean Paul's horrible state. Lastly, the authors' contemplative and somewhat resentful tone illustrate the absurdity of the issue and how it can easily be solved with the creation of globally compatible glucose strips, closing their article with the sentence, "...we watched as nurses disconnected Jean-Paul from the intravenous tubing that night and carefully pulled a sheet over him so his father could carry his body out of the hospital" (para. 15).

An estimated 300,000 people are affected by diabetes in Haiti. Learn more about the disease's affect on the developing country here: http://www.crudem.org/diabetes-in-haiti/

(Picture source: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/04/ff_haiti/)

IRB Post MP2

     When Jeanette Walls was a child, she traveled over the whole United States to find a place to build the Glass Castle. In this book, titled "The Glass Castle," Walls's parents, Rex and Rose Mary, and her siblings, Brian, Lori, and newborn Lily, all move throughout the nation in various types of cars. Once they find somewhere to live, they only stay there for a few days, only to wake up one morning to get on the road again. She writes a lot about her father, who's big dream is to strike it rich and find gold in the deserts of the mid-west. Walls's father's ambitions shaped much of her childhood, as he was always the person to talk about finding gold and becoming rich. One page 28, she writes "...we had to find gold... so we could build the Glass Castle."
     Jeanette Walls wrote this book to share her story of her difficult childhood with others. Although her parents never to stopped and actually raised their kids, Walls constantly lets her audience know that they really loved her and her siblings. I chose this book for my IRB because I have heard so much about it and how good it is. I also decided that I should read a memoir because I wanted to read a wide variety of non-fiction sub-genres. Through reading this book, I hope to gain knowledge of how memoirs are written and the strategies Walls uses to achieve her purpose.

The Glass Castle

TOW #8: "Dreamland" by David K. Randall (Part 2)

     David K. Randall continues the second half of his book Dreamland by underlining the importance of sleep. His audience, made up of science enthusiasts, can better understand why getting a good nights' sleep is so significant through Randall's frequent use of examples and anecdotes. For example, he starts out his chapter "Sleep on It" by writing about golf legend Jack Nicklaus. Nicklaus had always been an excellent golfer, but at the 1964 U.S. Open, he found himself in a bit of a rut; he found himself tied for twenty-third place. He then spent the next nights wondering how he messed up his swing. One night, however, he dreamt about golfing, and awoke with a major improvement in his technique. Randall relates this story to the brain's ability to solve problems and issues when one is sleeping and includes various other famous examples: Paul McCartney dreaming the melody of the popular song "Yesterday," Samuel Taylor Coleridge's inspiration for his poem "Kubla Khan," and even Stephanie Meyer's idea for her book Twilight. These examples establish a sense of common interest between the reader and the author, so the reader is better able to understand what a good nights' sleep can do for some people.
     Randall, a professor at New York University, a journalist for publications such as the New York Times, New York Magazine, and Forbes, and a novel sleep scientist, effectively demonstrates his purpose through his establishment of credibility and his use of examples and research conducted by professionals. He establishes credibility for the topic of sleep right off the bat with his story about his encounter with sleepwalking. This story immediately connects with his audience and puts him on the same level as them. His use of examples supports his central argument that sleep is essential for not only a person's physical well-being but also their mental and emotional well-being. Dreamland is an insightful and informative book about the mysterious scientific field of sleep.

TOW #7: Banksy Graffiti (Visual Text)

     Banksy is known throughout the world as an anonymous British graffiti artist who frequently paints thought-provoking—and sometimes controversial—images on the sides of buildings in popular urban areas like New York City and London. The interesting thing about Banksy is that he establishes credibility with his secretive persona; he can be anyone, and his graffiti therefore represents the mind of anyone. One recent image that has been painted in New York City is a depiction of a man scrubbing the phrase "What we do in life echoes in Eternity" off of the wall. The irony created by this picture helps Banksy achieve his purpose of illustrating the minds of the common man.
     The phrase "What we do in life echoes in Eternity" represents the American dream: to achieve such great things that the world will remember your name forever. The phrase is written in loose, curly, pink writing, as if goals are easily and readily accomplished. This perfect idea of a dream has been repeated throughout history, yet the man in the picture is ironically scrubbing it away with a sponge. The man represents the present-day portrayal of the American dream: goals cannot simply be managed with ease, but with hard work and patience, everything pays off. If "What we do in life echoes in Eternity" was written in big, thick, black block letters, it would not be as easy to remove as the pink, curly message. Since Banksy's pictures are broadcasted on the streets of crowded cities, his audience is made up of anyone with opinions—working men and women, children, teenagers in the city, and many others. His thoughts connect with the thoughts of his audience because, just like them, he is a regular person with his own perspective on life.

Everlasting Remembrance

Banksy's depiction of a man scrubbing an inspirational phrase off of a building properly portrays the past and present ideas of the American dream

(Picture source: http://www.banksyny.com/)

TOW #6: "Getting In" by Malcom Gladwell

     Author Malcom Gladwell, growing up in Ontario, Canada, never fully understood the elite and exclusive natures commonly paired with American Ivy League schools. Back in Canada, all it took to get into the school you wanted was to rank the schools in your province based on order of preference and then to fill out a two-page form consisting of your activities and interests. There were no SAT scores, recommendations, or college essays to worry about. Gladwell juxtaposes the college admissions in his homeland with those in the United States, highlighting how everything is much more competitive and selective in particularly American Ivy League schools. He focuses primarily on Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, which are some of the most revered and renowned schools in the world. Gladwell tackles this topic with a scientific approach, just like in his books Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.
     This scientific approach facilitated the use of data and statistics to support Gladwell's argument. He starts off his essay writing about the history of Harvard's admissions expectations, stating that in 1905, Harvard would accept virtually any academically gifted high school senior who could afford the school. However, things changed in 1922, when the school's Jewish population made up over 20 percent of the entire freshman class. Harvard's admissions history showed that a high concentration of a certain group in the school meant for a more selective means of choosing what students were accepted and what were not. Gladwell's purpose in writing this essay was to bring attention to the "high class" air to Ivy Leagues and analyze the social sciences behind it. Although this essay is meant for anyone, it could particularly appeal to an audience of high school students because it exploits the false ritz and glamor the world puts on upscale, highly selective schools.

TOW #5: "A Cupboard of My Own" by Catherine O'Flynn

     Catherine O'Flynn's short story, "A Cupboard of My Own" is about a young girl who had always felt as if she was on the other side of everything. In the middle of the story, the narrator even muses, "...Some children grow up feeling themselves to be the center of the universe, but...even in my own house, I was a very tiny, late-arriving drop in the vast ocean of other people’s lives and their shoes. She starts out the story by saying she was an accidental sixth child, and by the time she was 9 years old all of her older siblings lived elsewhere, leaving their childhood memories in the form of toys and stuffed animals behind. The girl is then excited to find a cupboard of her own—somewhere where she can preserve all of the memories she will one day leave behind, the most popular being a rag doll that was given the name "Marsha." To her surprise, she comes home one day to see that her cupboard and all that it held is gone. Catherine O'Flynn wrote this story in order to epitomize the innocence and fragility of childhood.
     O'Flynn establishes credibility in this story because she wrote it about her own childhood, so she can properly identify and illustrate the thoughts that were going through the young girl's head. The nostalgic tone she uses throughout the story supports her purpose; it points out the sense of defeat the narrator had when she realized all of her treasured items were gone. O'Flynn also emphasizes how valuable the toys were to the little girl, who acted like the toys were people: "In years to come I'd sit on my stool in the corner, eat my fish fingers and try to lose myself in Cheeky Weekly, but my thoughts would often turn to Marsha and the others entombed just a few inches behind me. I imagined them lying in the dark, hearing muffled voices from the other side." Anyone who reads The New York Times would be able to come across this story, but O'Flynn's intended audience is any adult who understands and misses the true essence of childhood.

A Doll's Sanctuary

(Picture source/article: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/a-cupboard-of-my-own/?ref=opinion)

TOW #4: "The Key to Smarter Kids: Talk to Them" by Annie Murphy Paul

     Annie Murphy Paul, a journalist, author, and speaker, wrote the editorial "The Key to Smarter Kids" in order to inform her audience about something she is an expert on: how we best learn things, and how we can get others to best learn things. Published in Time Magazine, this article touches on the subject of young kids and how their parents influence not only their social behaviors, but also their mental abilities. Paul's writing seems to target parents of young children because throughout the article, she frequently restates her argument that parent involvement is crucial in a child's educational life.
     When less-affluent parents have children, they tend to focus their conversations with their kids less on schoolwork. Paul supports this fact with information given to her by many psychologists and researchers on the topic. In addition to ethos and logos, Paul also appeals to pathos by writing about kids, since the educational values of children is a concern that many parents have. In addition, she states that parents do not need to buy expensive instructional tools for their children to succeed. In fact, all they need is communication. This opens doors to an even wider audience; it shows that parents who are not willing to spend a lot of money can help their children thrive, too. Paul does achieve her purpose of arguing that parent involvement is crucial in a child's educational life because she supports her argument with lots of information based off of her research. In addition, she is clearly skilled in that area of research because she has written many books on the topic of education in youths, so her writing immediately pulls in her audience.

Communication is a Virtue

(Picture source/article: http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/01/the-key-to-smarter-kids-talk-to-them/)

TOW #3: "Dreamland" by David K. Randall (Part 1)

     Dreamland by David K. Randall is a non-fiction book about the science of sleep, and it was written in order to shed light on the ambiguity of that particular topic. The author immediately establishes ethos when he begins writing the book; he enlightens the reader by recounting his previous issues with sleep. He states that he had sleepwalking issues, and when he went to the doctor, he found himself very unsatisfied with the amount of information he got back about his predicament. Randall also appeals to pathos and logos in the book by informing his readers about the history of sleep. This appeals to logos because he includes factual anecdotes about what different cultures thought of sleep, he goes into detail about what benefits or non-benefits come out of sleeping in certain ways, and so on. He appeals to pathos by constantly tying in that sleeping in a certain way is special to humans; he takes his wide range of an audience and brings them together with this simple idea.
     David K. Randall is a senior reporter for Reuters as well as a professor at New York University. He has also written for the New York Times, New York magazine, Forbes, and the Associated Press. Dreamland is his first published book. Randall seems to have written his book for any science enthusiasts. He brings up that sleep is a science many people do not know much about, so it makes the topic even more intriguing for curious people. His book may also help those involved with the science of sleep better understand issues like his because he brings a personal touch to the information. Randall achieves his purpose of introducing the science of sleep to his readers because he establishes how he himself became interested, he includes factual information, and he involves his audience by choosing a topic that everyone can relate to.

TOW #2: "It Can Wait" Commercial (Visual Text)

   With the introduction of new technologies, texting and driving has recently become a more prominent issue in society. Whenever I watch TV, I always come across very serious commercials regarding the issue. The commercials' goals are to keep their audience from making the same mistakes that others did and to tell them to never text and drive. AT&T, a popular telephone service provider, is the sponsor of these videos, establishing ethos because the company is so well-known. Also, since AT&T is the speaker of these commercials, the people who work in the company know how to appeal to their audience—anyone watching TV—because they know a ton about something everyone values: technology. The particular ad that I want to highlight is one with a man named Chandler speaking about how he was once texting and driving and ended up getting in an accident and killing three children. To make matters worse, the ad states that Chandler's text read, "i love you."
   AT&T's anti-texting and driving commercials are effective because they appeal to their audience's emotions and logic. The fact that the commercial stated that Chandler killed three children makes the audience feel a little of what Chandler was feeling when he did it. Also, they included that he was texting "i love you" to illustrate that he is just a normal person, like everyone else watching the commercial. Another aspect of the commercial that appealed to the audience is that Chandler was talking about the event and giving his own perspective: at the end of the ad he says, "There's never a day that I wake up and I don't think about it."

It Can Wait

Watch the commercial here: http://www.itcanwait.com/videos/wrong-turn/

TOW #1: "Overpopulation Is Not the Problem" by Erle C. Ellis

     “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem” by Erle C. Ellis is a piece of op-ed writing featured in The New York Times. This editorial is about the common mentality that the earth will someday be unable to support all life on it. However, instead of backing up this argument, Ellis uses logos by validating the counterpoint that earth will be able to sustain all life with the help of technologies created by humans. Ellis, an associate professor of geography and environmental systems in Baltimore County and a visiting associate professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, uses ethos to demonstrate his credibility. He mentions in the article that he is trained as a biologist, so he knows the mathematics of population growth. In addition, he has gotten lots of information from his research on the ecology of agriculture in China.

   This op-ed was created in response to the anxiety many scientists have about the future; it takes a frequent worry-causing prediction and fully refutes it. Ellis’s purpose, to give his readers a new perspective on the fate of the future, was achieved because he used rhetorical devices associated with logos and ethos. Logos was used to back up his points and disprove others’ points, and ethos was used in order to establish a sense of shared values between the author and the audience. In this case, the shared values are the destiny of the earth and the life it supports. In addition, ethos was also utilized to show Ellis’s credibility on the subject. This article is meant for any audience interested in the science of the earth. Furthermore, Ellis intended for his audience to be anyone reading The New York Times and wrote his article based on the aforementioned values that are shared between most of the people living on earth.

IRB Post MP1

     Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall is an informational book that delves deep into an area of study many do not know much about—sleep! Randall, a senior reporter at Reuters and an assistant professor at New York University, started researching the science when he realized he had a huge sleepwalking problem. Since there was not much on the subject, he decided to do some fact-finding himself. The book consists of information on the connections made between sleeping and diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and obesity. Dreamland also includes the history, myths, and the answers to questions many might have about the nightly activity of sleeping.
     I chose this book to be my Independent Reading Book because I, like Randall, am very interested in the science of sleep. I would like to learn how past civilizations had treated sleep and if it was as valuable (or invaluable) as it is to people today. In addition, I have wondered many times if I myself have a sleeping issue, since I tend to wake up multiple times in the middle of the night for no reason. I hope to get lots of new information through this book as well as some answers for the questions I have about sleep.

"My Father/My Husband" by David J. Lawless

     "My Father/My Husband" is a story that portrays the daily lives of an elderly couple; the wife in the story suffers from serious medical issues, including Alzheimer's, dementia, and heart failure. Even though living with someone with conditions as major as those is tough, the husband handles everything calmly and carefully, which shows that Lawless's purpose in writing this essay is to depict a story of martial love. This essay is written for any audience who would enjoy a heartwarming anecdote about a man's love for his wife. "My Father/My Husband" was published in PRISM Magazine, a journal created by the Creative Writing Program of the University of British Columbia; author David J. Lawless won the grand prize in a nonfiction contest held by the magazine.
     Lawless used pathetic appeal in order to achieve his purpose. The affectionate tone used in the essay helps the audience understand how much the husband cares about his wife. For example, even when the wife would wake up at 3 a.m. and not recognize him, he would reassure her and take care of her with compassion and love. Another device that the author used is dialogue. The dialogue in the essay made Lawless's audience understand the emotions his characters were feeling. When the wife asks many questions, like, "Are we in Madrid?" and "Why are my paintings on the wall? This is Madrid. I bought these paintings in Madrid," the reader really understands the confusion the wife is feeling as well as the frustration and exasperation the husband must be feeling after going through the question routine every single day. However, Lawless fully achieves his purpose when highlights the love they feel for each other at the end of the story, when the wife says, "You are not my husband. I never had a husband," and the husband replies with, "Yes, I am." The last line of the story reads, "She kisses his cheek and they both smile," showing that she did recognize him as her husband, and that her affection for him overpowers her confusion.

Dementia

The wife in the story is known to suffer from severe Alzheimer's, a form of dementia. Symptoms of Alzheimer's include confusion, aggression, mood swings, and long-term memory loss, which are definitely issues with which the wife dealt with.

(Source: http://www.healingtalks.com/natural-health-2/aging-longevity/fighting-alzheimers-is-possible-counterpoint-inspiration/)

"How Doctors Die" By Ken Murray

       Ken Murray wrote "How Doctors Die" in order contrast the extent to which doctors go to keep their patients alive with the lack of excessive treatment doctors themselves have when they are about to die. This informative essay goes deeply into the paradox of doctors, patients, and the system. For example, he wrote about his friend Charlie, who was an orthopedist who found a lump in his stomach. When he visited a surgeon, he found that he had pancreatic cancer. Instead of investing his time and money on an expensive and tedious treatment, he "went home the next day, closed his practice, and never set foot in a hospital again." He goes on by underlining that doctors are most likely reluctant to use their procedures on themselves because they know the limits of medicine. When bringing up the act of "futile care," which is when doctors do as much as they can to keep a patient alive, he writes, "All of this occurs... at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars a day. What it buys is misery we would not inflict on a terrorist." Murray wrote this essay to show the irony of the fact that doctors do not want to inflict futile care on themselves.
     Murray is a retired clinical assistant professor at the University of Southern California who uses his personal experiences in his writing. This brings out both a pathetic and ethical appeal because it brings his emotions into play and it shows his audience that he knows what he is talking about. He wrote about his cousin, Torch, who had lung cancer that had spread to his brain. When hearing about the aggressive treatment option that would keep him alive for about four more months, Torch "decided against any treatment and simply took pills for brain swelling." He then moved in with Murray and they spent the next eight months doing what he enjoyed before he passed away peacefully in his sleep. This supports Murray's opinion on the contrast between futile care and no treatment because it shows that when people have no treatment, they end up living a longer and happier couple of last days.

No Code

Some serious patients get stamps saying "No Code" or "Do Not Resuscitate" in order to tell physicians to not perform CPR on them. Murray writes, "I have even seen it as a tattoo."

(Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3801624/Gran-has-tattoos-ordering-doctors-not-to-save-her-life.html)

"Objects of Affection" by Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough

     Author Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough starts her essay, "Objects of Affection," by remembering the summers she spent in Kraków, visiting various flea markets and browsing the miscellaneous items she would find there: vintage desks, handmade jewelry, second-hand books, and many other things. She ponders the value of these simple objects, stating, "...in a country that wasn't spared violent entanglements with History... [Those objects] connect us to the past and its messy materiality by making that past more concrete, more tangible." Hryniewicz-Yarbrough goes into deeper detail by recounting her childhood in Poland, "growing up in a communist country beset by shortages of practically everything..." Back then, luxuries were scarce, and people only bought what they needed. She contrasts this environment with modern-day materialism and shows her audience that possessions gain importance when they are put through years of history.
     Hryniewicz-Yarbrough translates many pieces of Polish poetry that have been published in works like The New Yorker. She has also translated full length novels and even published her own works in various publications. Her past accounts have put a pathetic appeal in her essay; she relates the worth of possessions to the passing of her grandmother. When looking at her grandmother's past possessions, she only keeps a paperweight and a few photographs. She writes, "Was the paperweight really an object that was full of memories for me? Not really... it wasn't like those things that overwhelm us with nostalgia when we hold them or look at them." This experience highlights her point that items attain value when they are filled with memories.
    Meant for an audience who are interested in nostalgic, personal stories, "Objects of Affection" meets its purpose because there are many emotion-filled examples of the sentimentality of valuables. In addition to her grandmother's items, Hryniewicz-Yarbrough also writes about a short story called "The Man with the Package." The story tells of a Jew who walks to his death with his valuables: a pair of boots, a spoon, and a knife. Since these items seem trivial, Hryniewicz-Yarbrough's students found the Jew's behavior odd. She finishes her essay by writing, "They hadn't yet learned that objects help us exorcise some of our fears...they give us a semblance of permanence and grant a stay against chaos, darkness, oblivion."

Mute Witnesses

Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough writes about the times she spent at the flea markets in Kraków. Since these objects hail from a country with such a rich history, it is as if they are mute witnesses to human life.

(Source: http://file-magazine.com/citylikeyou/flea-market)

"The Good Short Life" by Dudley Clendinen

     In 2010, Dudley Clendinen was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, a disease which causes motor neurons to slowly die out in the brain and spinal chord. Clendinen wrote this essay when he was sixty-six, and knew that his life will end quickly. When thinking about his end, he wrote about his mother, who spent her last days living dependently and looked at her only son "as she might have at a passing cloud." With these thoughts, Clendinen decided that he did not want to go that way. He wrote this essay in order to show his readers that life is better short and sweet rather than long and painful.
     Clendinen was a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida and also worked with various other famous newspapers, including The New York Times. His pieces usually touched on aspects of his life: being gay, being an alcoholic, and discovering the meaning of life while diagnosed with a terminal illness. These personal touches bring pathetic appeal to his essay; he writes a great deal about his daughter, Whitney, whom he concludes has a harder time dealing with his disease than he does himself. His tone is accepting, as if he has come to terms with his fate. He writes, "We obsess in this country... About how to live. But we don't talk about how to die. We act as if facing death weren't one of life's greatest, most absorbing thrills and challenges." This essay is written for those who need a new perspective on life, since lately, most people are striving to live longer. Clendinen, on the other hand, realizes, "I don't worry about fatty foods... I don't worry about having enough money to grow old... I want to take the sting out of it, to make it easier to talk about death."
     Clendinen achieved his purpose by reminding his audience to make the most out of both life and death. He connects his ending life to the song "Dance Me to the End of Love" by Leonard Cohen, writing, "When the music stops... I'll know that Life is over." He also points out the irony in his writing: "This is not about one particular disease or even about Death. It's about Life, when you know there's not much left... It's liberating." He restates that his disease makes him think about his death, making him less jaded; he wants to make the most out of his short life.

Farewell

Lou Gehrig joined the New York Yankees in 1923 and had a fantastic career until he fell below .300 in 1938 for the first time in thirteen years. This made it clear there was something wrong. He retired on July 4, 1939 and died almost two years later. In his farewell speech, he concluded saying, "I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."
(Source: http://espn.go.com/mlb/photos/gallery/_/id/8337212/image/4/lou-gehrig-farewell-game-choice)

"Duh, Bor-ing" by Joseph Epstein

     Joseph Epstein's essay, "Duh, Bor-ing," delves deep into the indescribable phenomenon that many humans suffer through daily: boredom. Boredom, being a vague, shadowy topic, is said to be "part of the human condition, always has been, and if we are lucky, always will be." Although many people do not see this secondary emotion as lucky or exciting, this essay highlights the importance and role of boredom in human society. This essay is written for a more mature audience because it deals with a difficult topic and consists of some complex vocabulary; it is written in a sense that the writer himself was one day bored and decided to research the feeling. Epstein's purpose in writing this essay is to inform readers that boredom is something that plagues everyone, no matter who they are.  "Duh, Bor-ing" is an informational essay meant for anyone who finds themselves infested with the "disease with no known cure" and wonders why they feel so bored.
     Epstein is a writer, editor, and former lecturer at Northwestern University. He also has many achievements, including being awarded a National Humanities Medal in 2003. Logical appeal is shown in his essay because he did lots of research on the topic of boredom: he constantly cites works, like Boredom: A Lively History by Peter Toohey and A Philosophy of Boredom by Lars Svendsen. The information from these works are aided by a plethora of allusions to elements of literature from classic poetry to modern-day novels. In addition, he writes about different kinds of boredom, the causes of boredom, and the remedies of boredom.
     Epstein did accomplish his purpose because he shed light on the normality and necessity of boredom, stating, "boredom can also in itself function as a stimulant; boredom...can, in this view, presumably lead to freshened thought and creativity." With his use logical appeal, Epstein managed to convince his readers that they can harness their boredom and create something with it, rather than whining and moping about it. His well-supported information and opinions guide the reader to a new viewpoint, showing them that boredom is not all that bad.

"A Crossroad of Time and Desire"

Neuroscientists believe that boredom is encountered in a part of the brain called the "insula," also called the insular cortex. The insula is found in the cerebral cortex, a portion of the brain that is associated with consciousness, emotions, and homeostasis. Arthur D. Craid, a neurologist, considers the insula to stand "a crossroad of time and desire."

(Image source: http://www.hearthealthywomen.org/tests-diagnosis/index-tests/mri-a-mra.html)