Rhetorical Analysis Reflection

My rhetorical analysis paper was over the essay "On Dumpster Diving" by Lars Eighner. In my paper I talked about how he used logos, pathos, and ethos to express how he lived from a Dempsey Dumpster. He used logos to show us what was safe and unsafe to eat, ethos to express his feelings about other scroungers, and pathos for things he learned about humans through what they consider trash. My paper was ok but had a lot of errors. My thesis lacked clarity and I had quite a few punctuation and grammar mistakes. The grammar mistakes could have been fixed before I turned in my paper if I evaluated it a little more carefully and having someone else read the whole thing before I turn it in. My ideas also did not flow perfectly with the main point. This could have been avoided again by a better evaluation and by taking my ideas a step further than just what is on the surface. My main focus for the rest of my papers is to make sure my silly grammar mistakes are caught before the final draft and have others read my paper to make sure my ideas are clear and precise with the main point. I also think I should have picked a better way to write my last paragraph about how Eighner used pathos for the things he learned through the trash. Even though he talked about it, I did not have enough to write about to make it a well structured paragraph and that could have been avoided by finding something he talked a little more about, like the food situation and the other scroungers. Another kind of big problem I had was sentence structure. My sentences made sense by themselves but did not complement each other when I put them together in a paragraph.

Even though I had some flaws, since I am only human, my paper also had some good points. Throughout my whole paper I engaged the audience the whole time, and I also used good examples from the book and cited them as well. I felt like I could relate to him more since I am from Texas and I have heard of his story before. University of Texas is only three hours away from my house and we have swim meets there every march and July, also a lot of my friends go there and their parents and grand parents went there as well. I have heard of his story from one of my dad's friends even though it obviously was not as real as when you read it from Eighner first hand. I felt like a had a better understanding going into this paper since I already knew what I was reading.

Overall I think my paper was good, but can always be better. I need to focus more on grammar mistakes that should not have happened, and putting sentences together better to make my point clear. I also need to make sure that even though I used good examples and kept the audiences attention, I can not forget that in my next paper.

Plato and Ferire

In Ferire's "Banking Concept of Education" he presents the idea of learning being a two way street. Not only are the students learning from their teacher, but in reverse the teacher is learning from the students as well. He looks at students as not being inferior to the teacher on some kind learning level, and the teacher not being as superior as some were taught. In this type of setting where infact the teacher is superior and knows all, the student, inferior, gets information by memorizing it not actually learning it. Its one thing to memorize information to pass the test, but there is a whole nother level beyond that, actually learning it and understanding the concept. Ferire wants the students to be able to learn the way that is best for them and be prepared for real world ecperiences. He wants them to be well rounded, not just memorizing machines.

In Plato's "Allagory of the Cave", he states that people can be ignorant in learning by only seeing one side and not getting the whole picture. People should be open to new information rather than critisize them when they state something that people have never seen before. For example when the prisoners are in the cave they hear echos and see shadows leading them to believe that the shadows are some creature and the echos are its noises. When one prisoner is released into the light to see that it is not true, the shadows are from people and the voices are echos, the other prisoners say hes mad because his eyes are adjusting to the light from outside to coming back into the cave so he must have not seen correctly. This Plato says is the iggnorance. We learn through reasoning and asking questions not just believeing one side to every story.

Both of theses stories clearly state that we all learn from eachother. Teachers learn from students just as well as students learn from teachers. People need to think open mindedly or experience things for themselves, your not going to learn everything from seeing one side, or from memorization. Being ignorant to information just because its new is no way to go through life, question it untill you get your satisfaction in an answer.

Sythesis Unemployment

Sythesis, as stated in our book, is just a "combination of two tings that presents them anew". They are not quite compare and contrast but come close. In sythesis you are forced to have the ability to make "leaps from differences/similarities to critical claims in both texts".



In "Roger & Me", Micheal Moore expresses how devistating unemployment was in his home town Flint, Michigan, through a documentary. Most unemployment occurs because the company does not have sufficient amount of money to pay all of the workers, and still maintain their output, as we can see in the film "Roger & Me". The author of the article "Model of Keynesian Depression, Involuntary Unemployment" states that "reducing supple eliminates the excess supply of commodities by throwing the burden of excess supply back on the labor market. Thus output and employment give way before proces do". This is why, firtst off, that so many people got laid off from General Moters, and second why it took so long for the town of Flint to get itself back on the map after the closing of GM. Once the people are laid off they are in such demand for money to get out of unemployment, but their expectations are too high when they try to get back into the force, they ultimatly fail agian. "One major problem is the level of money income is too low to provide for full employment".

Companies are too consumed with maintaining their output at a high level and make more money than having to spend in employee wages. This is ultimatly why General Motors started laying off workers in "Roger & Me". Its a shame, but it is the harsh reality.

Unemployment

In the article posted above, "Model of a Keynesian depression, Involuntary Unemployment", talks about how we can look at the relationship between people getting paid the wage they are supposed to get, and the wages they are getting from the company, as equilibrium. If both money and wages go down at the same time they are still in equilibrium, but this is obviously not the case since unemployment does exist in our world. The author states that the company cannot afford to lower prices by 10% and still be able to produce outcome, this is why people are laid off. The company or firm does not have a sufficient amount of money to pay for all the workers, and still maintain their output. "Reducing supply eliminates the excess supply of commodities by throwing the burden of excess supply back on the labor market. Thus, output and employment give way before prices do". People are in such a demand for money to get out of unemployment, but their expectations are too high when they try to get back into the work force, and they ultimately fail again. If, with the system in this state, money wages do not give way and the money supply is not increased, the economy will remain at this level of unemployment indefinitely. One major problem though is the level of money income is too low to provide for full employment. I believe this relates to "Roger & Me" because the companies are too consumed with the output their company is providing, and they would rather keep that level high and make more than having to spend it on employees. This is why they start laying people off and closing companies. It is a shame, but it is the harsh reality. Companies have to look out for their profit, no matter what it takes.

http://wf2la3.webfeat.org/

Wolfgang's Use of Pathos

In the cartoon Woflgang uses pathos obvioulsy through pictures the most, but also through very few words. It starts off as what seems to be a old man who has just past and his soul is trying to find its way to "heaven". You see first it visits what looks like him reading to someone else. As the ghost of the old man moves on he travels through the town and it seems to be different parts of his life, only backwards. He finally sees him as a boy and the boy tells him that hes on the road to being dead, and there is no such thing as heaven, "everything just goes black", is how they explain it. When the old man gets mad that hes not going to heaven, which he considered the "pay-off", the angel on his left says that living life in dignity is the reward and the devil explains living life in shame is a punishment. Not only does Woflgang use funny illustrations as pathos, but also some words to describe what I guess he feels is life after death.

The Southland

"The Southland", written by Henry Miller, was written for people to see there is more than one way to look at the South. He sees the South as being able to raise again from what they were, "A new South is being born. The old South was ploughed under. But the ashes are still warm". He uses extrodinary imagery when he talks of the battle between the North and South, "I have stood on many battle fields...but when I stand beside the graves of the dead in our own South the horror of war assails me with desolating poignancy". Not only does it appear that he is for the South or possibly a southerner, but he questions why the war was even fought, and how the South is being posiened by the North. He talks of the North and South history and compares it to other nations parts of histoy, such as Rome and China. In the story Miller relies mostly on pathos for the imagery of the South and how he compares it, and ethos for how he relates the South to other nations through history .