Unit 5 Post #3

The Cold War was a state of political hostility mainly between the United States (and other democratic nations) and the United Soviet Socialist Republic (and the other communist nations it had control over like Cuba and North Korea). The Cold War brought the US and the USSR into a game of nuclear chicken, and the world watched with bated breath, wondering which country would be the first to push the button. The Atomic Cafe was a documentary created in 1982, right after the violent Vietnam War and traumatizing Watergate Scandal. Covering the span of the era of nuclear warfare, The Atomic Cafe is a compilation of archival footage from the 1940s to early 1960s showing the misinformation the American government gave its citizens about nuclear weapons.
     One of the claims that the filmmakers make in The Atomic Cafe is that in times of crisis, it is the role of the government to unite the people. Most of the footage came from propaganda and army recruitment videos, including the "Duck and Cover" video, which came from the Federal Civil Defense Administration. Although we know that ducking under a desk isn't going to help save you from an atomic bomb, the government attempted to make its citizens feel better, safer, and more confident, instead of living in constant fear of a nuclear attack. As you can see, the video itself is ridiculous, because covering the back of your neck won't protect you from a nuclear explosion, it was necessary for the government to create a video to help children understand.
The government has an obligation to protect its people in times of warfare and help them prepare for foreign attacks, a point that the filmmakers made in The Atomic Cafe. I hope the "Duck & Cover" jingle gets stuck in your head for a very long time- it is in mine.

Unit 5 Post #2: The Atomic Cafe

The Atomic Cafe, a documentary film produced in 1982 by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, and Pierce Rafferty, displays life in mid-twentieth century America. Beginning with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end war with Japan during WWII, the documentary covers the beginning of the nuclear era from the 1940s to the early 1960s, a time filled with anxiety, paranoia, and uncertainty. The entire film consists of archival footage including presidential speeches, military training films, newsreels, pop songs of the time, and American propaganda film. The documentary depicts the end of American innocence as the United States entered a new age of atomic warfare and fear that the Soviet Union would soon destroy the war. The film is also riddled with dark humor, which helps to show the absurdity of the nuclear propaganda films of the 1950s. For example, in a clip from a civil defense film, the narrator says, "Man will eventually evolve into a race of bald-headed people. Just imagine yourself with no hair! They'll call you old skin-head, old chrome-dome! The treatment, if you insist, would be a toupee. But it's only temporary, for your hair would come back: same color, same cowlick." An entertaining film, The Atomic Cafe showcases a time when nuclear warfare affected not only the military, but the American family as well, completely changing American society.
     The entire documentary consists of achieved footage taken from various sources from the 1940s to the early 1960s. The footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan as well as from Bikini Island helps to show the audience the destructive nature of the atomic bomb. The final scene of the film was part of a propaganda video that showed an atomic bomb exploding and destroying planes, cities, forests, etc. The family that was in their air-raid shelter got up (unharmed) at the end of the explosion and the father said, "All in all, I think we've been pretty lucky." This footage shows how hopeful America is for a brighter and better future. The soundtrack consists of pop songs from the '40s and '50s, which are a great accompaniment for the documentary, because many of the songs written during the Cold War were political. Whereas some where anti-war/bomb and others were pro-war/bomb, it gives the viewer another opinion of the Cold War. The film also uses pathos when it covers the Rosenberg Trial and execution. The Rosenbergs, accused of giving nuclear secrets to the Soviets, were given the electric chair, but Ethel Rosenberg didn't immediately die. The humane method turned into an inhumane murder of a person that may or may not have committed any crime. This was effective in showing the Second Great Red Scare in America and how it blinded the government's eye towards civil liberties. Surprisingly, McCarthyism was barely covered in the documentary, which was interesting, considering that it was a large social effect of the growing Red Scare. The Atomic Cafe very effectively used rhetorical devices to display effect the Atomic Bomb had on the Cold War.

       The Atomic Cafe. Dir. Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, and Pierce Rafferty. Libra Films, 1982. DVD.

Unit 5 Post #1

My posts have significantly improved since the beginning of the year. My very first post,  In Standoff, Latest Sign of Unions Under Siege, wasn't very good, mainly because I wasn't really sure what I was doing. Instead of writing a cohesive argument, it was very choppy, because I treated the guidelines like a check-list. Instead of writing a smooth post including a summary, analysis of rhetorical devices, etc. the post was more like a sentence or two about one point before moving onto the next point without a transition. It was also really short, because I thought that I needed to strictly adhere to the 200-250 word limit.
     I have gotten very good at analyzing paintings, as seen in The Scream Re-Write. In this post especially, I understood how the colors and lines helped the painter to achieve his purpose of conveying human emotion. The genderless face in the foreground of the painting helped to keep the viewers eyes from getting lost in the swirling background. However, I still need to work on analyzing written rhetoric. For example, in my post Health Insurance In America, I had difficulty understanding the author's purpose and how he used rhetoric to get his point across (although to be honest, I didn't really understand the point of the article in the first place, because it was from some fancy economist magazine).
     The purpose of the TOW assignments is to help us analyze a variety of texts, both written and visual, to make us better writers as well as readers. I think that I would have benefitted from this assignment more is if we got a little bit more time to work on them during school. Sometimes I waited until the last minute to do my TOWs, and they were not as good as I could have made them. If we had a little bit more time to work on them during class, I feel like they could have been a little bit more sophisticated. Also, it would have been very helpful to get some specific feedback on our posts, this way I would know exactly what I needed to work on to make my posts better.

Rachel's Moving Journey

Riding The Bus With My Sister is a memoir by Rachel Simons where she tells the story of how she braved the Pennsylvania city bus system for a year with her sister. Beth, who has a mental handicap, has a boyfriend, a way of life, and a loving community on the bus whereas her sister, a writer and college professor, uses her incredibly busy life to camouflage her emotional isolation and has much to learn about her sister's extraordinary world.
     One of the most interesting concepts of this book was the idea of "People's First Language," which is a form of linguistic prescriptivism in English aimed to avoid perceived and subconscious dehumanization when discussing people with mental or physical disabilities, an aspect of disability etiquette. Basically, the idea is to put the person first: for example you would refer to someone as a "person with a disability" as opposed to a "disabled person." It puts a little more humanity into the disability.
     The memoir was very moving, and it was delightful to see Rachel and Beth becoming closer as sisters, because prior to this year, the two had grown further apart as each of them developed their own identities and lives. A film adaptation was created in 2005, which I have yet to see. Although some aspects of the movie deviate from real life, Rachel Simons believes it to be "Poignant, moving and a powerful film."

The Great Depression: An Artist's Interpretation

The Great Depression, the longest and most terrible period of economic instability in American history, began in October 1929 and finally ended in November 1929 as the United States entered World War II.  The American farmers, plagued by the Dust Bowl, were among those most affected by these hard times, and their plight is illustrated in Grant Wood's iconic painting, "American Gothic."

     Although the name is not commonly known, almost everyone can identify the stereotypical painting of the farmer holding the pitchfork and his grim-faced wife. This painting, a result of a 1930s movement known as Regionalism, attempted to depict rural American life. One of the most profound aspects of this painting is Grant's attention to detail. The deeply etched wrinkles on the man and woman's face stand out as well as the intricate dot pattern on the woman's traditional 1930s-style dress. 

     There is also a sharp contrast between the faces of the farmer and his wife. During the Great Depression, it was not uncommon for farms to fail and for farmers to be evicted from their property, or to leave and try for a better life out west in California, like in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The man has a much more confident expression on his face, like he has absolutely no inclination to leave his beloved farm, whereas the woman has a much more sombre expression, like she has given up hope and is worried about the future. One of the great things about this painting is that Grand Wood left it open for a wide variety of interpretations, and it will always be a treasured American classic. 

I Have A Dream

We have currently been studying oral rhetoric in AP English and the Civil Rights Movement in AP US History, so I thought that I would combine the two subjects and analyze Dr. King's famous I Have A Dream speech.
     On August 28th, 1963 during the famous March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his speech to the large crowd assembled by the Lincoln Memorial. He argues that although Abraham Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation one hundred years ago, black Americans are far from being free, and although they are no longer slaves, America still has yet to keep its promise and they demand justice. Dr. King wants significant changes and refuse to let their oppressors to quit procrastinating, and he urges blacks to continue to fight for freedom and equality.
     Dr. King uses many rhetorical devices to help get his point across. The most prominent is his use of anaphora, or repeating words at the beginning of neighboring clauses. Dr. King repeats the phrase "I have a dream" in eight successive sentences, and this emphasis through repetition makes this phrase much more memorable, and, by extension, make Dr. King's speech much more memorable. Dr. King also uses metaphors to highlight contrasting concepts. For example, he says, "joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity," and contrasts segregation with racial justice.
     You can see Dr. King's I Have A Dream speech below:

Starry Night

Surprisingly, Vincent van Gogh only sold one painting during his life; however, Starry Night has become one of the most iconic works of art of the nineteenth century. Van Gogh painted Starry Night in an Asylum at Saint-Remy in 1889. Art is something that means different things to different people, but this painting has many universal symbols in it.
     The viewer is immediately drawn to the swirling night sky, and although some of the features are exaggerated, a starry night sky is something that everyone can identify with. The painter's use of curving lines moves the viewer's eyes along the painting keeping the viewer captivated.
     The cool dark colors in the night sky as well as in the peaceful village below have a calming effect on the viewer. Near the center of town there is a large church steeple sticking up from the town as if casting a sense of religious stability.
     Lastly, there is the large, unavoidable black structure on the left side of the painting. Although I am unsure as to what the structure is (it could be a mountain, or a fortress) the structure is indeed gigantic compared to the rest of the buildings in the painting. Its curving lines mirror that of the sky creating dramatic depth in the painting.
     Although no one will ever know what Vincent Van Gogh had in mind when painting Starry Night, after all wasn't exactly sound of mind at this point in his life, this painting will continue to mystify and amaze future viewers.

Health Insurance in America

Will "Obamacare" cause employers to drop workers' health coverage? According to The Insured and the Unsure, an article in The Economist, it certainly seems that way. Unfortunately, I fell into the latter category, and knowing absolutely nothing about how health insurance works or the economy or federal legislation, and after reading this article, I still don't really have a good idea. The author's purpose was to explain how "Obamacare" might hurt or help employers/employees, but he didn't really do a good job of explaining it in a way that could make sense to everyone.
     Based on my understanding, there are pros and cons to the idea of universal healthcare. For starters, there is health insurance for everyone, meaning no matter the socioeconomic background, a person cannot be denied healthcare. Also, if one were to lose their job, BAM their health insurance could be taken as well, but not if there was universal healthcare. However, one of the cons to universal healthcare is that it would be controlled by the government, and with the bloated bureaucracies in control, it would only be a matter of time until the funds set aside for insurance were bankrupt. Can we really say for certain that our government can be trusted to handle such an important social program? History would answer "no," as we see with the failed Freedman's Bureau and the funds going to support Native American reservations.
     One thing that the author did well in this argument was to avoid biases. Instead of completely bashing "Obamacare" or promoting it, the author was able to maintain a neutral stance on such a touchy issue.

How Much Do YOU Know?

How much do you know about your personal finances? In the March 2013 edition of the Reader's Digest, a popular literary magazine in the United States, comedian Heather McDonald learned that the answer was not much. In the article Suze Orman Thinks I'm a Slacker, written by the traumatized comedian, McDonald learns about the importance of knowing one's assets. Financial guru Suze Orman gave financial advice to the writers at Chelsea Lately, where McDonald works, and learned that McDonald knew practically nothing about anything. After a stern talking to, she decided that it was time to have a chat with her husband about their financial affairs.
     A rhetorical device used in this article many times is hyperboles, which were used for comedic effect. For example, she writes, "[Suze Orman] 'I can't tell you how many women have rolled over in the middle of the night to feel their husband's icy-cold deceased body lying next to them, and they don't even know where the key to the safety-deposit box is." Although this is indeed an overstatement, it gets the point across that a woman cannot depend on her husband to handle their assets, because he might suddenly die.
     The author's purpose in writing this article is to stress the importance of women understanding their own money situation. Like Suze Orman said, your husband isn't going to be around forever, and if he were to suddenly drop dead and you knew nothing about insurance policies, mortgage rates, or current debts, your husband can't exactly take care of it when he is six feet under. I think that Heather McDonald is able to achieve her purpose in the text by relating her own wake-up call for the readers. Although women have come a long way in the workplace and in the home, there still is a lot that they need to learn in order to no longer be dependent on men.

No More Snail Mail?

Although officially founded on July 1st, 1971, the United States Postal Service can trace its roots back to 1775, when Benjamin Franklin was appointed the Postmaster General by the Second Continental Congress. In the days of E-mail, phone calls, and instant messaging, letter carrying business is now slowly becoming obsolete. Traditionally, because of the Christian Sabbath, the post office is closed on Sunday, but now with fewer and fewer people actually using the post office, the United States Postal Service has decided to close on Sundays as well, a decision that has been met with much controversy. Mailmen have been an important part of our daily lives for decades, so should their hours be cut back even more?

The author of this political cartoon is Walt Handelsman of the Chicago Tribune Media Services. His main commentary is his disappointment in that people no longer use letters to communicate with one another and that a sighting of one has become rarer than a unicorn. The author is able to achieve his purpose of chastising the USPS for cutting their delivery services from six to five days. His intended audience is the general public, because he wants to make them realize just how important the postal service is, and the United States cannot afford to have it slowly disappear.

As an interesting side note, the first postal service in America arose in February 1692, originally funded by grant money from King William and Queen Mary.

And The Oscar Goes To...

     This year's coveted Movie of the Year Award at the Oscar's is going to be a difficult choice to make. Having seen three of the nominations: Les Miserables, Lincoln, and Zero Dark Thirty, it can be agreed that all of the nominees are most deserving of that tiny statue. I just saw Zero Dark Thirty on Saturday, and was completely blown away by it, so I was interested to know what others thought of the movie. A review that I found quite fitting came from CinemaBlend.com, which features reviews, trailers, and photos of almost every contemporary and classic film. 

     It was only a matter of time until someone decided to make a movie about the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, but that does not come until the very end of the 160 minute movie. The first two hours tell a shockingly different story, beginning with the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, and it was very interesting to see how this ten year manhunt for a single person unfolded. 

     Almost as incredible was the main character portrayed by Jessica Chastain. "In the middle of such a complicated story, Zero Dark Thirty, presents such a complex character in Maya (Chastain) ... who sidesteps every imaginable possible cliche. Everything about her ... speaks to her unusal position as a woman in the Middle East, but that contrast never becomes text, just another fascinating layer in a story with no simple conclusions." I agree with the article about the way Maya was portrayed: it was extremely important for the character to be written and acted well. The use of contrast in this movie allowed the viewer to realize just how different it is for women not only in the CIA, but in the Middle East as well. Maya wore a headscarf as well as many other things in order to talk to the prisoners of war. The power struggle between her and many of the male CIA officers was evident. 

     The scenes of torture, which was needed to extract crucial information, were very powerful and deeply employed pathos. Waterboarding, food deprivation, beatings, etc. were used in this movie (including video from actual interrogations) shone a spotlight on a subject we like to keep hush-hush. Initially, you think "Wow, I can't believe we are doing this to other people." But then you start to think, "I guess comparatively, this isn't too bad as long as we can stop people from blowing up buses and hotels." 

     "Zero Dark Thirty exudes a constant, quiet confidence telling a story with an ending we all know and making it feel thrilling, suspenseful, and completely vital." The visual statements made in the movie are profound and make you wonder if the ends really do justify the means. I highly suggest, as well as those at CinemaBlend.com, that you see this movie. 

The Scream Re-Write

     The Scream is an extremely well-known painting by the late nineteenth and early twentieth century impressionist artist Edvard Munch, a popular Norwegian painter and printmaker.
     Munch was greatly influenced by the era of German Expressionism (early twentieth century), which was why he used psychological themes to base many of his paintings on. The viewer can see this influence in The Scream and can tell that the purpose of this painting was to convey the human emotions of anguish and melancholy. This can be shown in the face that is contorted by the scream. I think the author is able to convey his purpose because the viewer can see the obvious pain in the main subject's pale, genderless face. This face has a huge impact on the viewer, and the first time I saw it, my eye was immediately drawn to it, and the person in the foreground keeps the viewer from being lost in the scenery background.
     Surprisingly, visual rhetoric can be just as strong as rhetoric used in writing and speeches.One particular rhetorical device that stood out to me was the painting's use of opposites. This can be seen in the use of hot colors in the sky, such as the reds, yellows, and oranges, and how they strongly contrast with the cool colors, the greens, and blues, and purples, of the water. Munch used this to create tension in the painting, seeing as the subject is standing by a quite chaotic environment.
     Most artists do not paint for an audience, but rather for themselves. It is believed that Munch suffered from depression, so it is possible that he used the painting as an emotional outlet. However, part of what makes this painting such a classic is that most viewers find this painting to be an appropriate and accurate representation of a feeling that we have felt at one time or another in our lives. The Scream is highly referenced in pop culture. For example, in the scary movie saga Scream, the masked murderer has a mask greatly resembling that of the contorted face.
     The Scream is part of a larger collection by Edvard Munch called The Frieze of Life. The inspiration for this masterpiece came from the mental institution where his sister was kept, and it is said that you could actually hear the screams of the mental patients from the institution. Scary stuff.

La Joconde

     One of the most well known pieces of art world-wide is the Mona Lisa, arguably Leonardo da Vinci's most iconic painting. This portrait of a woman, believed to be Lisa Gherardini (Francesco de Giocondo's wife) was painted between 1503 and 1506, and is currently on display in Paris, France's most frequented art museum, the Louvre. The title of this painting is derived from the Italian word mona (the contraction of madonna) meaning "my lady," and is a polite form of addressing a woman, like the English word "Miss." 

     The Mona Lisa is universally famous for the subject's expression and its almost piercing gaze. Da Vinci effectively uses contrast in this painting, because Lisa's hair and clothing are dark, whereas her face is a much lighter color, drawing the viewer directly to the "Lisa's" face. The Mona Lisa was one of the first paintings to have an aerial perspective, or the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as it is viewed. "Lisa" is painted in a seated position with a vast landscape as a backdrop used as a calming touch for the viewer.

     The Mona Lisa is a much loved painting, especially by da Vinci himself, so much that he carried it around everywhere he went. It is currently on display on the second floor of the Denon Wing of the Louvre Museum. 

NHL Lockout Follow Up

Hockey fans everywhere rejoice as their favorite sport on skates tentatively returns. In the article, Tentative deal in place to end NHL lockout, in the sports section of FoxNews.com, it seems that the National Hockey League and the Players' Association may have reached an agreement regarding the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement. The compromise came after a sixteen hour negotiating session, and a ten year labor package will soon be finalized and then introduced. If approved, ice hockey training camps will reopen hopefully in the middle of next week.
     The context of this article is the NHL lockout that has been in place since mid-September, greatly affecting hockey fans everywhere including Canada.
     Although it has been two weeks since my last TOW, my spider-senses are not picking up on any rhetorical devices. I think it is safe to say that FoxNews.com does not have the best written articles.
     This article comes from a moderately credible source. Although FoxNews.com is usually quite factual, there was no author associated with this article, so you cannot be certain who wrote it.
     The intended audience for Tentative deal in place to end NHL lockout are ice hockey fans that are eagerly awaiting the return of the NHL. The author's purpose in writing this article is to keep readers updated on the lockout. This can be seen when the author wrote, "The breakthrough came after a 16-hor marathon negotiating session that lasted all day Saturday and into Sunday morning at the Sofitel Hotel. The NHL announced the agreement in principle shortly after 5 a.m. ET Sunday."