Welcome To Cancerland And Beautiful Brains Summary

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Popular beliefs and opinions of the masses in society often become societal norms. Challenges to these societal norms can cause large-scale societal shifts or transitions. Examples of such occurrences include woman’s suffrage, the occupy movement, and falsified racial stereotyping. However, popular opinions, influenced by media, corporations, and members of the community, are sometimes flawed. “Welcome to Cancerland,” written by Barbara Ehrenreich, and “Beautiful Brains,” written by David Dobbs share a similar purpose of debunking common myths and stereotypes of specific social groups. Ehrenreich’s essay states that corporations and community members are popularizing the celebration of the “breast cancer sisterhood,” while stemming the drive
This can be used as a persuasive technique, because it permits the reader to feel more secure in the words that they’re reading. Ehrenreich’s anecdote is extraordinarily effective, because it transitions the events of a “normal” day into the horrific new lifestyle associated with cancer. She describes the stop to the doctors as a “…drive by mammogram, one stop in a series of mundane missions…” (Ehrenreich 43). Her use of the words “drive by” and “mundane” exemplify the boring and relatively fast task ahead of her, comprised of no surprises and simple routine. When Ehrenreich discovers, however, that she is diagnosed with breast cancer, she refuses to accept that conclusion and examines the slides
Dobbs’ anecdote serves a similar purpose to allow the reader, particularly parents, to relate their teen’s actions to the actions committed by Dobbs’ son. In his anecdote, Dobbs recalls of a story in which his teen son was stopped by a police officer on the highway for driving 113 miles per hour. Dobbs, who wanted “an opportunity to…yell at him,” fell short because of his son’s incredible apologetic attitude and his “irritatingly reasonable” remarks (Dobbs 156). Dobbs’ son recognized the dangers and risks involved with his high-speed adventure yet committed the act anyway. This prompts Dobbs to ask questions that many parents would ask themselves in such a situation; questions like “What is wrong with these kids? Why do they act this way?” (Dobbs 157). By asking these questions, Dobbs represents himself like most parents, establishing his credibility to his parental readers. As a result, the parents would most likely be more interested in reading what Dobbs proposes and be potentially more swayed by his argument. However, Dobbs deviates from the typical parent in this situation in the fact that he refers to science to explain his teen’s action, while normal parents would use their own judgment. While most parents believe that teen brains just aren’t fully developed, Dobbs delves into the scientific reason behind this accusation, citing multiple

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