Carl Sandburg’s Chicago and Rachel Carson’s A Fable for Tomorrow are literatures that both reflect upon two different type of cities, yet their illustration of their city is entirely different. The authors used imagery different tones, and rhetorical appeals to portray their ideas. Chicago is optimistic and celebratory, viewing the city of Chicago as exciting. On the other hand, A Fable for Tomorrow renders a devastating picture of the land, through bleak imagery, of a small town that does not exist but has thousands of counterparts in America. While both authors reflected their passage upon two different type of cities, they had different approaches and opinions about their cities. Carson shows the negativity towards the effects of pesticide …show more content…
Sandburg keeps the tone optimistic and shows more positive aspects to Chicago than Carson’s town. Sandburg’s poem is about the hidden strengths that lie in the city, which includes the industries, railroad system, and most importantly, their confidence. Even though Sandburg portrays the negatives and positives, he sees all of them as an opportunity to grow. An example of having a negative quality seen by Sandburg as exciting is when he explains “Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness.” Sandburg’s poem is filled with imagery, as almost every other line shows what aspects of Chicago make it great. For example, Sandburg uses cacophony to explain that the city is, “Bareheaded’, Shoveling, Wrecking, Planning, Building, breaking, rebuilding.” Sandburg tries to capture the idea that Chicago is a superior city compared to other towns, especially the type of towns that Carson is …show more content…
For example, Sandburg expresses that Chicago is filled with gun crimes by writing the stanza, “And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.” The gun crimes, or any other crimes, contribute to the negative aspects of Chicago. Carson’s essay has much more negativity than positive elements. Carson implemented more gloomy, dark tones that help show the devastation of the town. The dark tone could be interpreted as pathos because the author tries to make the audience feel ill to persuade them to stop giving harm to the environment. Another example of the dark tone would be when Carson said, “Even the streams were now lifeless. Anglers no longer visited them, for all the fish had died.” Carson uses words like ‘lifeless’ and ‘died’ to contribute to the gloomy, dark tone which, overall, took upon the negative aspects of the
Something that sticks with the reader is found in the prologue of The Great Inversion. That something is Ehrenhalt’s writing about Chicago and the events of the winter of 1979. What is written is the account of a 22inch snow fall that hit Chicago in 1979 that has a profound effect on government. The snow fall of that was of disastrous quantity and in turn the city’s transportation system failed many of the residents of Chicago’s urban area, and succeeded the rich suburban population. The urban population of mostly black and Hispanics placed blame on the mayor and he lost the democratic primary. Today Chicago is different; the rich majority is living in the city while the poor minority is living outside of the city limits. We are given the 1979 picture of Chicago and its inhabitants and the stark con...
Several works we have read thus far have criticized the prosperity of American suburbia. Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, and an excerpt from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "A Coney Island of the Mind" all pass judgement on the denizens of the middle-class and the materialism in which they surround themselves. However, each work does not make the same analysis, as the stories are told from different viewpoints.
Elijah Anderson, a modern day sociologist, takes us on a walk down Germantown Avenue. Germantown Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the City of Philadelphia, which connects to inner city Philadelphia to some of the surrounding high-wealth suburbs. Philadelphia has a rich and long history, not all of which is good. Many people when speaking of Philadelphia comment on their diverse neighborhoods, much like little towns. Unfortunately, while some of these neighborhoods are good, some are just life threatening dangerous. Anderson through his writing is able to articulate a visual distinction as he walks down Germantown Avenue.
Pathos – I think it is quite easy to see how Carson uses pathos in her book. Half of the excerpt we received seems to be dedicated to this topic. The first chapter is charged with emotions and communal values as Carson builds a kind of utopian nature scene and then destroys it right before the reader’s eyes. I think this dramatization communicates the powerful message intended, but it does make me wonder how different the feeling of this chapter would be if she used a real world example. Perhaps the pathos would have been stronger because it would let the reader connect to real people and a concrete place. Perhaps the pathos would be weaker because it would not allow Carson to describe all the disastrous effects that she wanted to in such a vivid way. Perhaps the strength of this chapter depends on the reader’s preference.
Chicago, one of the most popular cities in America. Visits from families all around the country, what makes this place so great? Is it the skyscrapers that protrude the sky? Or is it the weather people loved? Does Chicago being the second most favored city in America show that this town has some greatness? In the nonfiction novel The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson uses imagery, tone, and figurative language to portray the dreamlike qualities of Chicago and the beauty that lies within this city.
In this passage “The Street” by Ann Petry, Lutie Johnson’s relationship with her urban setting is expressed using figurative language. Lutie allows us to walk with her and experience one cold November night near the streets of seventh and eighth avenue. The relationship between Lutie Johnson and the urban setting is established using personification, imagery, and characterization.
“It got to be easy to look at New Yorkers as animals, especially looking down from some place like a balcony at Grand Central at the rush hour Friday afternoon.” (Tom Wolfe). “O Rotten Gotham” argues that New Yorkers are in a state of behavioral sink. It would not be long before a “population collapse” or a “massive die off”.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the race to modernity begins. Rapid changes start to happen in Chicago and also throughout the United States of America. Although Erik Larson’s novel, The Devil in the White City, takes place in Chicago, the events taking place there will reflect the progress towards modernization of the entire country. Cities throughout the United States are growing in proportion to the growing cities. Chicago is only one of the multiple cities in America that goes through major construction and population growth but this city provides a great example of how modernity affects cities and how they function. With the ongoing renovations of the city, Chicago seems to be a city splitting in two. Chicago will have a sophisticated
...ortation of plants, fruits, vegetables, and animals. Indiscriminate pesticide use kills the good with the bad. Long term and wide spread pesticide use poisons underground water sources, which, in turn, poison plants, animals, and humans. And, finally, by our uninformed actions, new super races of pests continue to evolve and create even greater dangers than the original.
In ‘ Chicago’, Sandburg describes Chicago as a young man. His reference for the age of Chicago was the major cities at the time, London, Paris, and Tokyo, which coincidentally have all been around for a long time. Sandburg’s metaphorical comparison of Chicago and a young man, shows how Chicago, a city of millions, can still have the same characteristics of an immature young man. While, both Chicago and a young man are beautiful and full of life, both also have many flaws.
In Jane Jacobs’s acclaimed The Life and Death of Great American Cities, she intricately articulates urban blight and the ills of metropolitan society by addressing several binaries throughout the course of the text. One of the more culturally significant binaries that Jacobs relies on in her narrative is the effectively paradoxical relationship between diversity and homogeneity in urban environments at the time. In particular, beginning in Chapter 12 throughout Chapter 13, Jacobs is concerned greatly with debunking widely held misconceptions about urban diversity.
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring revolutionized the American point of view concerning the environment. It rejected the notion that pesticides and chemicals are the right choice for “controlling” various animals that are seen as an inconvenience. Carson writes about the dangers of pesticides, not only to nature but man himself.
While this is the case, Cope et al. also suggests that prolonged exposure to pesticides such as is the case with workers “may cause” nervous system damage, liver damage, cancer, genetic damage, and birth defects. However this source does acknowledge that the possibility that pesticides will individually cause this is difficult to determine amongst factors such as variations in lifestyles, diet, and genetic makeup. This source appears unbiased because it is made to warn farmers and pesticide users of their potential risks and how to minimize exposure by using tobacco crops as an example. However, it is worth mentioning that this source fails to show the potential benefits of crop protection products as mentioned in Aktar et al..
When Willy and Linda purchased their home in Brooklyn, it seemed far removed from the city. Willy was young and strong and he believed he had a future full of success. He and his sons cut the tree limbs that threatened his home and put up a hammock that he would enjoy with his children. The green fields filled his home with wonderful aromas. Over the years, while Willy was struggling to pay for his home, the city grew and eventually surrounded the house.
I remember when I first thought about the power one person could have to create change. I was a teenager growing up in the South when I read Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring”. This beautifully written book is a powerful indictment of the widespread use of pesticides. Rachel Carson criticized the chemical companies for claiming that pesticides were safe despite mounting evidence to the contrary. And she criticized public officials who accepted the chemical industry’s claims.