In contemporary society the attacks on itself are everywhere. The internet is a collection of articles poking fun at the trends of society, and more specifically, the actions of the youth. Shortcuts are used by the students of modernized societies, and a vile habit of complacency is shown in the article “Girl Moved To Tears by Of Mice and Men Cliffs Notes”, a satirical composition of mock journalism, that illustrates the apathy and laziness of a student. The article in The Onion utilizes incisive adverbs, litotes and understatement, and selection of detail to showcase the laziness of a student using the Cliffs notes. The adverbs in the article help to create the sarcastic atmosphere present throughout. The fourth line highlights how Grace Weaver “sobbed openly…” and by including the adverb “openly”, a connotation of extreme emotion over a summary highlights the satirical quality. The fourteenth line also uses the adverb “beautifully” in the statement “beautifully captured through the simple, ranch-hand slang words like ‘mentally handicapped’ and ‘retarded’”, and inclusion of said ad...
“The Onion Field” directed by Harold Becker is a true story, set in the 1960’s, about two men named Greg Powell (James Woods) and Jimmy Smith (Franklyn Seales) who meet through a mutual friend. The two men become close and soon become business partners. They go around together robbing places such as stores to get money. On one excursion to gain some money, they are stopped by two Los Angeles Department police officers named Karl Hettinger (John Savage) and Ian Campbell (Ted Danson). When Campbell asks Powell to step out of the car, he grabs him and puts a gun to his back, pushing him around to the other side of the car. Powell forces the other officer, Hettinger, to hand over his gun to Smith. Without a choice he does so. Powell and Smith take the officers prisoner and drive them out to a middle of nowhere onion field in Bakersfield, California. Powell ends up shooting Campbell once in the mouth, but not before mentioning the Lindbergh Law. He later shoots him four more times while Smith shoots at Hettinger who has escaped. After Smith escapes with the car, Powell is arrested and blames the shooting on Smith. Over several years an investigation and trial goes on to find out the true events of that night. Both men are sentenced to the gas chamber and wait for their time in prison. In the meantime, Hettinger is suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as depression and keeps having nightmares about what occurred that night. He loses his jobs and begins stealing as a coping mechanism. After some time, Powell and Smith get a re-trial and are sentenced to life. After the trial, Hettinger is offered a job in Bakersfield, near the onion field. He and his family move out there. Eventually he learns to deal with the...
Satirical writing allows the author to express his or her opinion about a problem in society. A writing must follow three rules in order for it to be classified as satirical. First, a continuous focus on one’s subject’s faults. Secondly, instead of telling the reader directly, information must be given indirectly. Thirdly, the writing must have a variety of satirical techniques in general (Festa). With these simple guidelines, an author can demonstrate his beliefs of what he thinks needs to be changed in society.
Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
With the announcement of the new iPhone 7, and the continued release of new features and accessories, technological involvement in everyday lives is only increasing, and parents are still stuck in the past with their technological restrictions. In the news articles Blame Society, Not the Screen Time by Danah Boyd and Don’t Limit Your Teen’s Screen Time by Chris Bergman, both authors express their thoughts on this generation’s teenager’s use of technology and why guardians should allow their kids to utilize the internet. The authors use rhetorical appeals to persuade and convince their audiences technology and internet is a safe place for teenagers to find their interests and be themselves. Whereas Bergman does a better job appealing logically to the audience through pointing out parents’ hypocrisy, Boyd effectively balances ethos and pathos by gaining credibility of being a researcher in the topic of screen time and excelling in connecting with her audience
In all these deluge of grim report of the state of the youth, a look in history
Literary devices play a vital role in Wicker’s poems “Ars Poetica in the Mode of J-Live” and “The Chronic” by uniting two poems together through the critique of pop culture, which would under other circumstances, have little to nothing in common. The reader can use literary devices as a means of representing the critique on pop culture to infer that Anna is a mild character by reason of the poem referencing birds while the mother is intense talking about smoking from a bong. Both poems raise the question of literary devices being useful in critiquing pop culture and creating similarities that bring them together. At first glance, the poems may seem like they do not have anything in common, but upon closer inspection, the reader can see the
The author implements usage of ethos throughout his editorial column in the New York Times in order to persuade the readers of his argument. To start off with, Kristof has a very credible background to back him up. It includes the likes of graduating from Harvard and being a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. He has also written as a columnist for the New York Times since 2001, meaning he is established and meant to be trusted by daily readers. This trustworthy background of the author is important because he is showing the audience that he is a credible source and is worth listening to. Statistics play a keen role in helping persuade the audience because it shows reliable information that reader trust and that he is not bias. Kristof states,
SUBJECT: In an article, for Taki’s Magazine Gavin McInnes holds nothing back, as he offers his harsh critique on what is wrong with youth today.
Finally, one is left to wonder if traditionally accepted methods of short story writing have evolved once more. If, as indicated at the beginning of this writing, the job of the author is to reflect the values and norms of the society in which he or she lives, one might find it reasonable to consider that the American Short Story may just find itself at the cutting edge of today’s electronic medium. Blogging, Face book, and other such online communications certainly lend themselves to the emergence of an evolved short story which is reflective of this dramatic change in our world and it seems logical that the short story will follow where the world leads as it continues to reflect the world around us
In Steven Pinker’s article, “Mind Over Mass Media”, he argues that every advance in media technology has sparked accusations of declining intelligence and morality. Pinker believes that these “moral panics often fail basic reality checks” by pointing out that if technology were as bad as critics painted it to be, it would be impossible for society to be at its current level of progress. Instead, Pinker concludes that “far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only thing(s) that are keeping us smart” by helping us leverage large amounts of information.
Goldwasser continues by saying that teenagers are joined together through social media and would voluntary write about themselves rather than having to write a paper for school. Out of all the teenagers in the Common Core survey ninety-seven percent knew that Martin Luther King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech and eight in ten knew what the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” is about. She explains how this is knowledge is a good thing and needs to be encouraged, and that internet is turning teenagers into “honest documentarians” which scares adults because teenagers know things adults do not. Goldwasser goes on to explain how teenagers are becoming endorsers with this technology, allowing them to have a say in the latest trends, politics, ect. In fact teenagers have accentually made MySpace worth $580 million and “Juno” and Oscar winner.” Common Cores survey also found that one in four teens did not know Adolf Hitler’s role in history, but Goldwasser does not blame internet for this lack of knowledge she blames the parents saying that if only they had introduced the topic to them via internet they
An analysis of the article, "Girl Moved to Tears By 'Of Mice and Men' Cliff Notes" uses a satirical outlook on the laziness of people in today’s society. Through this article, the face value appears to be stating how compelling Cliff Notes can be, but through blatant satirical statements, irony, and humor, it shows how indolent humans are as a society. The use of irony in the article induces a shock-value from the audience in order to bring to attention the lethargic nature of people.
In the essay, “Studies Explore Whether the Internet Makes Better Writers” Josh Keller comments on the education of students by exploring positive and negative effects of Internet experiences with writing. Keller is a reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education which is a job information source for college and university associates. Keller’s examination of internet use reflects students, teachers of English, scholars, and adults of education. Some scholars agree colleges should bring lessons from writing in classrooms, and likewise feel the writing is more connected with the audience. However, others suggest tweets and blog post administers dissatisfactory writing traditions. Some of the reasons
This Washington Post article is an interesting read, especially because I only hear of glycemic index (GI) in relations to diabetics or pre-diabetic individuals. This article is relevant because we live in a diet obsessed society that focuses heavily on diet fads, what X celebrity is doing to lose her baby weight, or the ongoing debate of the successes or failures of a low carb/low fat diet. Many times diets do not work, especially not in the long term. Dieters are guilty of adopting tools that work for certain individuals and implementing these tools on themselves; expecting to see the same results. This is problematic because it sends the message that there is a “right” and a “wrong” way of eating. Viewing foods and diets as being either “good” or “bad” is limiting and causes hopelessness when one fails to follow the “correct” way of eating. Also, individuals, especially the youth, who have trouble loosing and keeping weight off, will internalize their failure, resulting in negative self-talk, eating disorders, and/or depression.
In the September 20, 2003 edition of The New York Times, Kate Zernike examines certain negative aspects of easy information´s access by Internet. In the article “Students Shall Not Download, Yeah, Sure”, Zerkine focuses mainly on content plagiarism and free download of music and movies through the interpretations of series of interviews´ extracts to youth people, college students, and university authorities about the Internet phenomenon.