The Rules is quite possibly one of the greatest marketing ploys to have ever been created and has developed into in its own words "a creature unlike any other." By successfully exploiting the classic notion of "happily ever after," Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider have created a mega brand that has sold millions of dollars of nonsensical teachings to unsuspecting women for more than a decade. I call these teachings nonsensical not because they aren't effective, but because of, among other things, Fein and Schneider's lack of authority, a number of glaring contradictions, inappropriate use of cause and effect, and an overall lack of evidence to support their arguments.
The Rules ultimately tries to provide women with guidelines for getting Prince Charming and other helpful hints for dating. Fein and Schneider construct what many women may see as a convincing argument by relying on a number of fairy tale motifs that encourage women to in a sense become a princess who should be catered to in almost every aspect of a relationship. The Rules is a best-seller not likely because it is well written, but because it has a well targeted audience which is capable of moving large groups of other women to bookstores. These women aren't necessarily desperate, but may believe that marriage should be one of the most important things on their minds. The Rules provides an organized solution to the woes of finding the right guy. Its "solutions," however, are at times extremely demanding and often implausible.
Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider attempt to establish themselves as experts on the subject of dating and marriage early in the book, but what makes these women the authorities on what The Rules are, and how they work? They used them and are married. At least that is the only reason that the text provides. The implication made by Fein and Schneider that they are somehow more knowledgeable about getting the guy and success in marriage than people who have been married decades longer than them or even professionals is, at times, just laughable. The attitude conveyed in much of the support for their arguments seems to simply say "JUST TRUST US!" complete with bold type-face and an exclamation point. This is something that many modern women would look at as just downright silly, but there is a group of women in this world who may be susceptible to believing that "fairy tales do come true.
Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart, Jordan Weisman, and Cathy Briggs is a break-out Young Adult first published September 12, 2006. A following of about 1000 members online of all ages and genders, it sold 6,000 copies in a meer 3 months of being published, and number 7 on the New York Times Best Seller list. And those are just the book's stats. Cathy herself is a very popular character with 1,200 friends on Myspace, 22 followers on Flickr, and 1,863 friends on Facebook. An impressive feat, considering she's a fictional character. After reading the book myself, I completely understand what all the hype is about. Cathy's book is a fully engrossing novel that blurs the lines between Young Adult genres and can definitely keep even the most hard-hearted of book critics distracted from their daily duties such as sleeping, eating, working, and the likes.
According to Brenda Allen in the chapter “Power Matters,” she mentions that there dominant ideologies of identity that “reflect perspectives and experiences of ruling groups, whose members construct and circulate beliefs that will most benefit them.” We live in a country where there are dominant ideologies of organizational hierarchy, which “arranges job positions in a stratified structure, with power flowing from the top down.” This exemplifies the ideology of domination, which is a belief system in America that the “superior should rule over the inferior” (32). This ideology is so embedded into our system that most people believe it is natural. The American society we live in values patriarchy, white supremacy, heteronormativity, and a specific culture of wealth and poverty; any identity that falls outside of these dominant ideologies is marginalized and placed in the lower strata of social power.
that he is a young boy, as he seems surprised by the fact that he is
In Fish written by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen we find a woman who moved to Seattle from Southern California with her husband her two children. This woman Mary Jane Ramirez had everything going for her she was a happy person who had a happy life her family their relationship couldn't get any better. They both had good jobs, jobs that they enjoyed. Then one day, twelve months after they had moved to Seattle Dan her husband was rushed to the hospital with a burst aneurysm he then died. After that incident everything changed for Mary Jane especially when she took an offer to work on the third floor for First Guarantee Financial.
Throughout the course of our lives we will experience the deterioration of a loved one due to illness or aging. This may cause us to make a choice of how and where we choose our loved one to die. Authors, Carolyn Jaffe and Carol H. Ehrlich, in their book All Kinds of Love, illustrate how the relationships between doctors, patients', family, friends, hospice volunteers, and hospice nurses all play an important role during he patients last days as they try to reach a "good death". In the book's foreword, Rabbi Earl A. Grollman comments on Jaffe's history of nursing experience and states "Her stories bring alive the concerns, the surprises, the victories, the disappointments, the mistakes, the uncertainties, the joys, and the pain that are part of one's dying" (1, p. v).
One of the central themes in writing of the second generation Asian Americans is the search of identity and individual acceptance in American society. In the last few decades, many Asian Americans have entered a time of increased awareness of their racial and cultural identity built on their need to establish their unique American identity. In the book The Joy Luck Club, which revolves around four mother-daughter Asian American families whose mothers migrated from China to America and raised their daughters as Americans, we see the cultural struggle and differences by looking at their marriages, suffering and sacrifice, and their use of language in the novel.
Growing up with different social circumstances, attending social mixers was an enlightening experience and once she made the move to Memphis, she gained a continual stream of suitors that accompanied her to such events. New opportunities emerged for Ida, giving her a sense of what life was like being a bachelorette in a land among woman seeking to marry. As an attractive, un-married woman in her mid twenties with an active social life she often generated suspicion and talk. Although Ida struck flings with many persistent suitors, her feelings have never been entirely clear in whom she ever truly loved. It was evident that she was not romanticized by the concept of marriage like many women were at the time.
In "The Rules of the Game," a short story about a young Chinese-American girl, Waverly Jong, embarks journey to become a chess master. Waverly's mother believes she is a key component during this journey. Even though the mother actually has no true role in Waverly's adventure, she continues to believe it is her as the one who is succeeding. This belief is a necessity for Waverly's mother because she has nothing for herself. Waverly's mother has to live through her daughter because of her own lack of success.
Henry David Thoreau famously said that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” When we compare and contrast these two stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby,” by Kate Chapin, we learn that this sentiment may be especially true for women. Kate Chapin uses “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby” to bravely explore the social inequalities of women in terms of marriage and divorce. The combination of these two stories point out that despite the presence of love, not all marriages are happy and not all divorces are sad. In “Desiree’s Baby,” Desiree has married for love and wishes to stay married and through no fault of her own, she is forced to divorce. In contrast “The Story of an Hour” is about Louise, who has married out of social obligation and wishes to divorce, but is forced to stay married. Both women are forced to follow paths not of their own choosing and submit to the rules set down by a male dominated society. In spite of society’s tendency to romanticize marriage, many women find marriage to be a limiting burden; for others, marriage may be the only chance at life.
It is said that guidelines are good to have, but it is not pointed out that they can be restricting. In other words, guidelines can help an individual know exactly what to do in a situation but can be detrimental to another individual because their natural ability to think outside of those guidelines is painfully stifled to appease societal standards. This statement is supported by the author Michael Kimmel of “Bros Before Hos” and the author Junot Diaz of “Drown”. The lens text “Bros Before Hos” lays out a helpful framework for understanding how, in particular, men must feel having to ostracize feelings and thoughts to stay within set guidelines that society expected for them to follow in the target text “Drown”. Indeed, in the target text,
Alexander Stowe is a twin, his brother is Aaron Stowe. Alex is an Unwanted, Aaron is a Wanted, and their parents are Necessaries. Alex is creative in a world where you can’t even see the entire sky, and military is the dream job for everyone and anyone. He should have been eliminated, just like all the unwanteds should have been. He instead comes upon Artimè, where he trains as a magical warrior- after a while. When he was still in basic training, and his friends were not, he got upset, he wants to be the leader, the one everyone looks up to.
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
"You're a human being, not an animal. You have the right to be loved" (262). "Son of the Revolution" by Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro was a book that showed how inhumane many of the aspects of Chinese life were during the Cultural Revolution. The book followed Liang Heng through many of his childhood memories to his departure from China in his twenties. The book applied a real face to the important movements during the Cultural Revolution, the effects that "the cult of Mao" had on society and Heng, and the way the period affected Heng's personal family life.
Mahin, Michael J. The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper: "An Intertextual Comparison of the "Conventional" Connotations of Marriage and Propriety." Domestic Goddesses (1999). Web. 29 June 2015.
In William Zinnser’s essay “Simplicity” he states that “clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” He believes that people speak more complexly then they have to and that the key to good writing and speaking is simplicity. In his argument he goes on to say that often writers are not careful enough. They know what they are trying to say but do not know how to put it down on paper. They assume that the reader will understand what they are thinking even though their writing is not obvious to others. He does make several suggestions for improvement. Very easily one could make their writing easier to understand by simple corrections.