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Essay on urban legends
Essays about urban legends
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Behrens, Laurence, and Leonard J. Rosen, editors. Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Pearson, 2016. Brunvand, Jan Harold. “The Runaway Grandmother.” Behrens and Rosen, pp. 504-10. Brunvand collected many short stories that revolved around a deceased grandmother, but each story varied in location, origin, timing, and purpose. People manipulated the context of the story to completely change the moral of the story to either amuse, frighten, or inform their audience. He talks about how a rumor can equally be manipulated as an urban legend would. I would use this source to explain what rumors say about the general public. I would also explain how some rumors can be traced and how people tend to believe them even though the evidence suggest …show more content…
Fred used songs and album covers as evidence to help support his claim. People believed the rumor because the “clues” he discovered were addicting and people wanted to piece the puzzle together. In the end, right before Fred had an interview on live television, he admitted the rumor was just a huge hoax. I can use this source to help answer what rumors suggest about us and why we always seek the truth. Even though the fame was unintentional, I can use this source, to explain how a rumor can be used for personal …show more content…
Knapp believed that human emotion and rumors go hand in hand due to fears, hatred, and desires. These classifications are then followed by rules of what makes a great rumor. This source will further help me explain why rumors spread and why people believe them. I can also explain how some human characteristics vary between individuals and attract different crowds with different rumors. Mikkelson, David. “KFC Mutant Chickens.” Snopes, 03 Mar. 2014, www.snopes.com/food/tainted/kfc.asp. Accessed 13 Mar. 2017. Rumors can target anyone and anything, including franchise restaurants, like KFC. Mikkelson explains how KFC was targeted for not using “real chickens” but the rumor is shut down by facts and statistics. In the end, the rumor is analyzed and countered, to prove the rumor was false. I will use this source to explain how we can stop and neutralize rumors with facts. Rodriguez, Gregory. “Truth Is in the Ear of the Beholder.” Behrens and Rosen, pp. 484-85. Rodriguez believes that people hear what they want to hear. He thinks listeners are biased and will side with their predisposed belief system. He also claims that rumors are formed by our desires. I will use this source to help explain why people believe rumors even though the evidence suggests the rumor is false. I will also analyze how rumors confirm what people already expect to be
It is apparent that both authors provide insights into aiding the reader in making a conclusive determination, however, as mentioned; the reader may be misled by the author’s personal perceptive. Although much factual “doctrines” are exclusively used to provide a certain perceptive, both authors give their account as best as possible, however, neither side can conclusively claim their perceptive as ligament claims.
Robert Knapp has come up with some ways to identify different types of rumors in his writing called A Psychology of Rumor. Knapp says, “In practice it has been found that the emotional needs most frequently served by rumors are wish, fear, and hostility” (496). Knapp uses the name Pipe-dream and Wish Rumor to describe the rumors that contain wishful thinking. He also uses the name Bogie Rumor when describing a rumor that comes from the fear and anxiety of the people. Knapp lastly uses The Wedge-driving Aggression Rumor when describing a rumor that is made out of aggression or hatred. One of these names will be chosen to categorize the reading called Paul is Dead by Alan Glen. The name that will categorize the rumor is the Bogie Rumor.
(1) Kelly, Thomas (2005). “The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement.” Oxford Studies in Epistemology. Eds. Tamar Szabo Gendler and John Hawthorne. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pg.1 – 36.
Fromm, Erich. "The Individual in the Chains of Illusion." World of Ideas 8e I-claim. Boston: Bedford/st Martins, 2009. 325-35. Print.
The grandmother is the central character in the story "A good man is hard to find," by Flannery O'Connor. The grandmother is a manipulative, deceitful, and self-serving woman who lives in the past. She doesn't value her life as it is, but glorifies what it was like long ago when she saw life through rose-colored glasses. She is pre-scented by O'Connor as being a prim and proper lady dressed in a suit, hat, and white cotton gloves. This woman will do whatever it takes to get what she wants and she doesn't let anyone else's feelings stand in her way. She tries to justify her demands by convincing herself and her family that her way is not only the best way, but the only way. The grandmother is determined to change her family's vacation destination as she tries to manipulate her son into going to Tennessee instead of Florida. The grandmother says that "she couldn't answer to her conscience if she took the children in a direction where there was a convict on the loose." The children, they tell her "stay at home if you don't want to go." The grandmother then decides that she will have to go along after all, but she is already working on her own agenda. The grandmother is very deceitful, and she manages to sneak the cat in the car with her. She decides that she would like to visit an old plantation and begins her pursuit of convincing Bailey to agree to it. She describes the old house for the children adding mysterious details to pique their curiosity. "There was a secret panel in this house," she states cunningly knowing it is a lie. The grandmother always stretches the truth as much as possible. She not only lies to her family, but to herself as well. The grandmother doesn't live in the present, but in the past. She dresses in a suit to go on vacation. She states, "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." She constantly tries to tell everyone what they should or should not do. She informs the children that they do not have good manners and that "children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else." when she was a child.
American Philosophical Quarterly 21, no. 3 (1984): 227-36.
What are the 4 common myths cited by Boutot & Hume (2012)? State in your own words one way you might explain one of these myths to a parent or teacher. Make sure you also explain how the myth is inaccurate.
" Strong readers often read critically, weighing, for example, an author claims and interpretations against evidence-evidence provided by the author in the text, evidence drawn from other sources, or the evidence that is assumed to be part of a reader's own knowledge and experience."(p.12)
Falsehood could be a useful evil in politic, because, apparently, by means of falsehood, the risk of social turmoil could be efficiently minimized or even eliminated. Thus, the ultimate good of the whole,
philosaphy. ED.J.Baird Callicott and robert Fdrodeman usa, 2009, 458-463. opposing view points in context. web.12 feb.2014
Johnston, Mark. 1995. "Self Deception and the Nature of the Mind", in C. MacDonald and G. MacDonald (eds) Philosophy of Psychology. Debates on Psychological Explanation: 433-460. Basil Blackwell.
Pojman, Louis P., and Michael C. Rea. "The Argument from Religious Experience." In Philosophy of religion: an anthology. 6th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2012. 120-126.
The film thoroughly discussed (for the most part) what high school is truly like especially when it comes to rumors being spread. The movie showed what rumors can do to a person and gave a strong message that you should always tell the truth. Also, the thought are lies that help others considered good or bad? As we learned from this movie, the truth always comes out. With that being said, a lie may better your reputation or increase your popularity but have you ever thought that that specific lie may hurt someone else? Easy A discussed three major conflicts that include the spread of rumors, the consequences of lying and how exonerating the truth isn’t always
"A leader with no followers is a guy taking a walk". Good leaders whether it be opinion or political, rarely if ever walk by themselves. The information theydisseminate more often than not leaves them with a hoard of followers that conform to their ideas or cause. The circulated information is known as propaganda. The Webster dictionary defines propaganda as, "ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further ones cause or to damage an opposing cause". Propaganda has been around for a long time; the earliest use of the word was in connection with religious missionary activity in the 16th century (Hardwood). Contemporary propaganda for the most part is information or disinformation, spread by leaders through their mouth pieces such as spokespeople or public relations firms. Contemporary propaganda is frequently created with stereotypes that can be easily understood, in order to reach the greatest number of people. Stereotypes and propaganda are like peanut butter and jam, when put together stereotypes function very well in propaganda. This essay will look at the relationship between stereotypes and propaganda, how stereotypes function in propaganda and how well they function in propaganda tactics. In other words, this essay will look at how stereotypes function in propaganda.
What makes a good rumor is that the rumor may not exceed the complexity greater than the memory span of the group that it’s being spread to. Short, simple and salient typically makes a successful rumor. Names, numbers, and places are typ...