TOW #13: "The More You Connect, the Less You Connect"

"The More You Connect, the Less You Connect" by the Huffington Post

Included in a Huffington post article entitled “Is Your Phone Seeing a Lot More of You than Your Child?” this picture speaks volumes about how technology is effecting families poorly. While the father is looking at his phone, he is being completely blocked off from his child on the other side. To many young parents, this is a message that needs to be listened to because they are not aware of the effects some of their actions have on their children. Smartphones and other portable screens can be taken anywhere so a person is constantly connected, something that young adults have gotten used to over the past decade or so. But now that this generation is beginning to have families to take care of, they need to change their habits in order to be good parents. This picture employs hyperbole in making the phone much larger than it really is. By exaggerating the size, it can be more clearly seen how phones create a physical barrier between a user and those around them. The hyperbole and symbol of the phone acting as a wall captures how much technology separates people even if they are sitting right next to each other. Other details included in the picture also illustrate how big the problem is. The child’s side of the table is a bit darker because the back side of the phone blocks some of the light, leaving him alone in a small space. The father’s expression is a happy one, showing that he is completely ignorant of the fact that he is blocking out his own son and fails to notice how being on his phone is a problem. The placement of the phone, at the center of the picture, helps draw an invisible line down the middle to emphasize how separate the two family members are. The creator of this image did an amazing job summing up the negative effects of technology in a single image. By using eye catching symbolism, this photo sends a message that is hard to forget and may make some parents rethink the way they act around their children. 

TOW #12: IRB "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" (part 1)

Maya Angelou, in her famous book "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", tells the story of her childhood full of hardships. Her and her brother, Bailey, are sent from their parents in California when Maya was just three years old. She grows up in Stamps, Arkansas with Bailey, her grandmother, whom she eventually calls “Mama”, and her physically disabled uncle. Maya spends much of her childhood working in her grandmother’s general store. Out of nowhere when Maya is around eight years old, her and Bailey are suddenly visited by their father who takes them to St. Louis to live with their mother. There, Maya is molested and raped by her mother’s boyfriends and returns to Stamps after she refuses to talk to anyone in St. Louis except Bailey. Published in 1970, Angelou’s story explains the hardships of African American’s earlier in the century. Adults who are uninformed about the kind of lives some African Americans had to lead during the times of segregation would benefit most from this book, which puts the everyday lives of these oppressed people into perspective. When talking about being sent to town by her grandmother for an errand, Maya remembers “There was joy going to town with money in our pockets and time on our hands. But the pleasure fled when we reached the white part of town… we had to cross the pond and adventure the railroad tracks. We were explorers walking without weapon into man-eating animals’ territory” (Angelou 25). Her inclusion of vivid imagery describing her journey and use of metaphor to compare white people to “man-eating animals” conveys to the reader how separated races were during segregation, and the fear that African Americans felt for whites. This kind of language ad description is continued throughout the book that outlines Angelou’s life. By telling her own story, Angelou tells the stories of countless other African Americans living in the segregated South. She is able to reach her audience and instill profound understanding within them, not only telling what happened but explaining indirectly what kind of effect it had on her. 

TOW #11: "Night"

                In his short essay “Night”, Tony Judt reveals great insights into his life as a person who suffers from ALS. The disease has slowly taken away feeling in his limbs until Judt became a quadriplegic, unable to move almost everything but his head. This has affected every part of Judt’s life, even parts that most of us would not even think of because we take so many of our daily activities for granted. In sharing how Judt spends his time and copes with his immobility, Judt speaks to those who have never had that kind of experience and cannot possibly understand what having such a disease is like. Many people have loved ones who suffer for illnesses like ALS. They see their family or friends suffering and slowly losing control over their body, and do not understand what to do or how to help. In order to explain to the general population what he and others experience, Judt mainly uses anecdotes. He talks about his night habits, saying “am then covered, my hands placed outside the blanket to afford me the illusion of mobility but wrapped nonetheless since—like the rest of me—they now suffer from a permanent sensation of cold. I am offered a final scratch on any of a dozen itchy spots from hairline to toe; the Bi-Pap breathing device in my nose is adjusted to a necessarily uncomfortable level of tightness to ensure that it does not slip in the night; my glasses are removed…and there I lie: trussed, myopic, and motionless like a modern-day mummy, alone in my corporeal prison, accompanied for the rest of the night only by my thoughts”. This short description reveals volumes about his like, also including vivid metaphors and imagery to display how truly uncomfortable and unnatural it is for those who suffer from ALS to withstand daily tasks. Even simple things, like shifting positions in the middle of the night, are impossible for people like Judt. He is forced to endure being uncomfortable for hours on end with being able to do anything about it, making his audience realize how much they take normal mobility for granted. 

TOW #10: "A rose place in a bullet hold through a window in Paris"

     Placed in bullet hole through the window of a Paris restaurant attacked during the November 13th terror attacks, the card tied to the rose asks "In the name of what?". The French people have been wounded beyond comprehension, losing over 100 of their citizens to suicide bombings and shootings in just one terrible day. The world has reacted by partaking in the “Pray for Paris” movement through social media, demonstrations, speeches from political leaders, along with shining red, white, and blue tribute lights, but no one is quite sure what to do about the horrific incident. Why did this happen? Why would people do this? In the name of what? Pascal Rossignol captured the essence of these questions in his photograph published in an ABC article. The note, written in average handwriting on a simple piece of paper, utilizes a rhetorical question while evoking pathos. People want answers for why the lives of their innocent fellow citizens where shattered like the cracked window. In addition, the strong metaphor of the rose amongst the tragic destruction spreads a strong message. Despite the ugly scar of terrorism now looming over France and other parts of the world, people will continue to have hope, fight against violence, and live beautiful lives despite the actions of crazed extremists. One does not have to speak French to understand this metaphor, which is why Rossignol addresses his message to the entire world. He intends to make people aware of the tragedy in France, the damage, the loss. But Rossignol also wishes to spread the unbreakable spirit of the French people and other peoples who have suffered similar attacks. The image calls for an end to the meaningless violence while also shouting that, despite the horrors people are facing because of terrorism, they will not let themselves be so consumed by fear that they cannot see the beauty in things anymore. With this simplistic yet powerfully striking photograph, Pascal Rossignol was able to perfectly capture the effects of the Paris attacks. 

TOW #9: "Local Teen Quits Club That Would’ve Been Tiebreaker In Admission To Dream School"

     An article published by The Onion September 22 of this year, "Local Teen Quits Club That Would’ve Been Tiebreaker In Admission To Dream School", the satirical news source mocks the college admission process high school students applying to college much go through. Nationally renowned for their wit and biting parodies of more serious issues, the article reveals how students are expected to have overwhelmingly busy schedules or else they will not be able to get into the school of their choice. The pressures modern day high school students feel are displayed in a bitterly humorous way, appealing to young adults who have or are going through the process, as well as informing older readers of the impossible standards todays student have to work for. The article employs mock seriousness saying, “local student Matt Reynolds, 17, reportedly decided this week to quit a club that would have set his application apart from others and secured his admission to his dream college”, while including an outrageous hyperbole worded as an understatement. The irony only grows throughout the piece, asserting later that the student’s “note to the club’s faculty advisor saying that he would no longer be attending meetings had, in essence, made the admissions officers’ rejection decision for them”. Such sarcasm emphasizes how ridiculous admissions expectations are, and how kids have to kill themselves with insane schedules to even have a chance at their dream schools. A direct quote for the student, Matt Reynolds, is included saying, “I guess I’d rather spend some time hanging out with my friends before I head off to [an undesirable second-choice] college” once again employing satire to show how high school youths have no time to have a healthy social life. It is sad how students lose the last few years of their childhood between school, homework, and a plethora of extracurricular needed to get in to good colleges. This article points out the negative impact it has on the lives of young people, as well as how ridiculous the standards are. The Onion was truly able to capture the flaws in the college application system. 

IRB Intro Post #2 - "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"

Written in 1969, a time of great advances in the African American civil right movement, Maya Angelou's renowned autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" rocked the nation. It tells her childhood, and all the struggles Angelou had to overcome at a young age to become the successful individual she is today. Themes of racial persecution, self esteem, coming of age, and feminism play huge roles in this profound journey. A book that sheds light on the issues individuals held back by racism and stereotypes have to overcome, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" exemplifies the fighting spirit of American underdogs.

TOW #8: IRB "Blink" (part 2)

The second half of Blink, by Malcom Gladwell, was just as interesting and elaborately detailed as the first. Gladwell is able to fuse his fact attaining skills learned from being a journalist with his clear and exciting writing style to produce a piece that serves as a real eye opener to his audience. Curious minds can gain so much from this book, which uses incredible studies along with other facts, examples, and situations to explain the human mind. Now that technology has opened up so many avenues to knowledge, scientists are able to uncover many things that mankind could never imagine being able to understand. Gladwell, through the medium of Blink, takes all of this groundbreaking information and connects the dots so that anyone with a desire to learn about something so amazing can attain a firm grasp on the intricate subject. The aspect of Gladwell’s book is his employment of layman’s terms rather than using advanced scientific jargon that would go over the heads of the vast majority of his audience. When explaining different terms, Gladwell thoroughly breaks things down so true understanding can flow easily along with his book. When explaining how snap judgements can lead people to the wrong conclusions, Gladwell employed a famous event, “the Diallo shooting”, and explains how it relates to the point. He says, “The Diallo shooting, in other words, falls into a kind of gray area, the middle ground between deliberate and accidental. Mind-reading failures are sometimes like that. They aren’t always as obvious and spectacular as other breakdowns in rapid cognition. They are subtle and complex and surprisingly common, and what happened on Wheeler Avenue is a powerful example of how mind reading works – and how it sometimes goes terribly awry” (Gladwell 197). Bedsides his use of simple, colloquial language that clearly communicates his conclusions, Gladwell also includes oxymorons such as “deliberate and accidental” to represent how complex the idea is. In his attempt to share his theories and the great thought of others in a way that a common person could comprehend, Gladwell’s well known book Blink flawlessly achieved its purpose. 

TOW #7: The Bedrooms of Children Around the World

Featured in an article in the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail, photographer James Mollison found a unique way to capture the lives of children around the world by taking pictures of their bedrooms. A director of many Australian art galleries, Mollison utilized his artistic expertise to take astonishing photos that send a very deep message about how child rights and equality differ greatly in different countries. His message is addressed to those living in first world nations, like England and America, who are used to living a very high quality of life and rarely think of those who are not as fortunate as them. Mollison mixes photos from such privileged nations with photos of extreme poverty in Asian, South American, African, and Middle Eastern countries to show to viewers in an unforgettable way how fellow humans on the same planet live such different lives. By employing such powerful juxtaposition, the inequalities between the haves and the have nots of the world become abundantly. The images are simple, yet reveal so much about the lives of the children. Girls and Japan and America are spoiled by their parents, given whatever comforts they want, while girls in third world nations live away from their families as domestic servants to survive. Their rooms symbolize the kind of lives they have from the moment they are born; lives full of comfort and riches or lives of struggle and poverty. Image after image provokes a question in the views; why do some children have so much yet others have so little? Is the disparity between quality of life fair? The answers to these questions are very clear – it is not fair. Mollison’s use of symbolism and juxtaposition is simple yet very moving. Lack of words does not make the message any less strong, as the pictures represent one of the best arguments for human rights I have ever seen. Mollison’s goal to educate those from privileged backgrounds of what other people have to live through was very well achieved through this collection of photographs that went viral. In just a few snapshots of rooms, Mollison showcases the world’s struggle. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2595808/Sleeping-rubbish-surrounded-guns-poster-Chairman-Mao-Photographs-world-children-slumber.html 

TOW #6: The Fourth State of Matter

“The Fourth State of Matter”, written by Jo Ann Beard, is a narrative about the author’s life. Beard gives a detailed account of her everyday habits at home and at her job, as well as descriptions of her interactions with friends a co-workers. She creates a snapshot of her life and how, one day, all she knew was shattered. An editor of a physics journal at the University of Iowa, Beard left her office hours before some of her co-workers were shot by a disgruntled graduate student, Gang Lu. “The Fourth State of Matter” was published in The New York Times a short time later, winning the Whiting award for its excellence. The essay is Beard’s way of contemplating her loss of her co-workers, especially her good friend, Christoph Goertz. It resonates with anyone dealing or how has experienced the loss of a loved one, appealing to mature audiences who have an understanding and connection to life and death. Beard expresses her unimaginable emotions through the use of symbolism. Her collie, which she never names in her essay, symbolizes her inability to let go because her love is so great. The collie is very old and can barely walk anymore, so her owner must carry her outside to use the bathroom at night. After Beard had already taken the dog out once, she “climbed back under my covers already but her leg’s stuck underneath her, we can’t get comfortable. I fix the leg, she rolls over and sleeps. Two hours later I wake up and she’s gazing at me in the darkness. The face of love. She wants to go out again. I give her a boost, balance her on her legs” (Beard 1). Although the author knows in hear head that she should let the dog be put to sleep, she cannot bring herself to euthanize her beloved pet. In the same way, it is excruciating for her to let her killed friends go. Beard’s essay beautifully captures her experience of loss, and speaks volumes to her message that life makes everyone let things they love go. 

TOW #5: "The Force That Drives the Flower"

In her analysis of life and death titled “The Force That Drives the Flower”, Annie Dillard adds a unique perspective to a very ancient and abstract question. She views life from the eyes of different species, and then ties back the similarities and differences to human life. Her piece includes many fascinating facts about how organisms live only to reproduce, explaining the nature of life and death through real world examples. As a Pulitzer Prize winner and English professor at Wesleyan University, Dillard is a very gifted writer and researcher. This piece would fascinate anyone interested in science, in addition to readers with philosophical minds. Dillard very effectively uses symbolism to express her ideas, and this helps the audience connect deeply to what she is saying. When explaining the life as the individual verses the group, Dillard says, “Instead of one goldfish swimming in its intricate bowl, I see tons and tons of goldfish laying and eating billions and billions of eggs. The point of all the eggs is of course to make goldfish one by one—nature loves the idea of the individual, if not the individual himself—and the point of a goldfish is pizazz. This is familiar ground. I merely failed to acknowledge that it is death that is spinning the globe” (Dillard 3). The idea of many goldfish in a bowl helps to personify a topic that is very hard to grasp, while at the same time offering an incredibly unique view. She also alludes to other scientists and great thinkers from different time periods. Dillard concludes her essay by writing, “The world came into being with the signing of the contract. A scientist calls it the Second Law of Thermodynamics. A poet says, "The force that through the green fuse drives the flower/ Drives my green age." This is what we know. The rest is gravy” (Dillard 3). By including the words of others in her essay, Dillard explains her ideas in many different ways to allow understanding. This well put together piece enabled Dillard to achieve her purpose of analyzing the complexity of life.

TOW #4: IRB "Blink" (part one)

A book orchestrated to examine and explain the nuances of human thought, Blink, by Malcom Gladwell, is a very intriguing read. By blending elements of statistics, experiments, narratives, and studies, Blink provides a wide range of facts in order to help the audience understand why the mind processes information certain ways. Malcom Gladwell is a very well-known author who has written four other best-selling books and worked as a journalist for many years. Written for anyone who is interested in how their mind works, Gladwell’s book is very intellectually satisfying. The research happening in neurological and behavior sciences has advanced greatly throughout the past couple decades, leading to many fascinating breakthroughs that defy previously conceived ideas on the workings of the brain. By using anecdotes describing various examples, Gladwell is able to help his audience understand the purpose and points of his book. In his introduction, Gladwell begins his book with a story of how a museum discovered a statue they bought was a fraud after all of their scientific tests told them otherwise. He explains, “When Frederico Zeri and Evelyn Harrison and Thomas Hoving and Georgios Dontas – and all the others – looked at the kouros and felt an “intuitive repulsion,” they were absolutely right. In the first two seconds of looking – in a single glance – they were able to understand more about the essence of the statue than the team at the Getty was able to understand after fourteen months. Blink is about a book about those first two seconds” (Gladwell 8). By using dialogue from experts and citing specific examples, Gladwell not only makes his book more interesting but also greatly increases the story’s logos. Gladwell also uses varying sentence structure, utilizing syntax to his advantage to emphasis his important points. In the above quote, the last sentence stands out because it is very short in relation to the sentences preceding it. This allows it to become a bold statement; a very clear and clever way of defining the thesis. Gladwell provides his audience with compelling evidence and conclusions in a way that is logical as well as cohesive. 

TOW #3: "Tuesday, And After"

                Featured in The New Yorker just two weeks after the 9/11 attacks, “Tuesday, and After” was written by The New Yorker staff, including contributions from John Updike, Jonathan Franzen, Denis Johnson, Roger Angell, Aharon Appelfeld, Rebecca Mead, Susan Sontag, Amitav Ghosh, and Donald Antrim. In the piece, the various author’s shared their own experience of the attack, and their observations on how the country should move on from that terrible day. At the time, all of America was teeming with questions and looking to someone for an answer. People were afraid and they didn’t know what permanent effects 9/11 would have on their lives and their country’s future. In an attempt to answer these questions and pose a few of their own, the author’s recount the event with intensely vivid imagery.  One contributor, John Updike, recounts the event by saying, “It seemed, at that first glance, more curious than horrendous: smoke speckled with bits of paper curled into the cloudless sky, and strange inky rivulets ran down the giant structure’s vertically corrugated surface […] As we watched the second tower burst into ballooning flame […] persisted the notion that, as on television, this was not quite real; it could be fixed; the technocracy the towers symbolized would find a way to put out the fire and reverse the damage” (Updike). By including such powerful metaphors and painstaking description, the authors are able to bring to life exactly what happened, and, in doing so, are able to sway the reader using ethos and pathos to listen to their opinion. Another author, Johnathan Franzen, used juxtaposition in his writing to give America some perspective on the terrorists who led the attack. He states, “Perhaps some of these glad artists were hiding in ruined Afghanistan, where the average life expectancy is barely forty. In that world you can’t walk through a bazaar without seeing men and children who are missing limbs” (Franzen). His inclusion of two different worlds in his explanation of what happened help to make sense of the event. As a piece intended both to comfort the American people as well as prompt them to think towards the future, “Tuesday, and After” was a very well written piece that the nation needed to read. 

TOW #2: Visual Text - Syrian Refugees

"African asylum seekers packed into a boat" by Massimo Sestini, The Guardian. 25 June 2014. Web.

In a stunning picture capturing a birds-eye view of a boat filled with Syrian refugees, photographer Massimo Sestini is able to convey more than words ever could. Fleeing from a nation in chaos, many thousands of Syrian refugees are desperately piling in boats and setting out across the ocean to seek asylum in Europe. Sestini, an award winning photographer whose pictures have been featured in many Italian magazines, held onto the outside of a helicopter to take the photograph. She did so in order to send a message; escaping Syrians are in desperate need of help. During a time where some countries will not allow refugees past their borders, this picture is intended to sway them into giving aid. Those capable of provided assistance, such as other European countries, the European Union as a whole, and/or the United Nations, should be assisting these people. The image serves to both inform the general public, as well as to prompt them to allow refugees into their countries and do all they can to assist them. Sestini uses a fascinating metaphor to drive her point home, capturing a boat as lost and hopeless at sea as all the Syrian refugees are lost in the world. They have no home to go back to, and can only helplessly drift with what family they have left. Many in the picture are looking up and even holding their hands up to the sky as if asking it for help, allowing these details to communicate the clear message that the world has the obligation to step in and help them. The boat is filled to the brim, illustrating how big the problem is and showing just how many people have been effected by the disasters in Syria. All alone in the ocean with no sign of supplies, the picture’s details leads to a very strong sway of pathos and also includes some logos proving how bad the issue is. Sestini was very successful in showing the world the struggles that Syrian refugees are facing and that they deserve help to get through these tough times. 

TOW #1: "What Are Master-pieces"

Through her trademark unusual style Gertrude Stein, in her unconventional essay What Are Masterpieces and Why Are There So Few of Them, attempts to explain her own thoughts on what constitutes a masterpiece. A well-known figure in American literature and often called a pioneer of modernist literature, Stein presents a throughout analysis of how great works are made. Stein addresses ideas to an intellectual and philosophically curious audience, perhaps to those who strive to create masterpieces of their own or readers inspired by great pieces. During the time the essay was published in 1935, America was still slumped in the Great Depression, causing many, like Stein, to lose hope that more masterpieces would be able to be produced. Stein uses her controversial writing style to add intrigue to her agreement, giving her ideas a unique flow. Her use of colloquial language and astonishing lack of use of normal grammar gives the essay a feel quite similar to a babbling brook. In abandoning the rules for typical prose and purposely leaving a certain amount of ambiguity in her writing, Stein is able to lead the reader to the conclusion, “And so there we are and there is so much more to say but anyway I do not say that there is no doubt that masterpieces are masterpieces in that way and there are very few of them” (Stein 138). In addition to laughing in the face of generic conventions, Stein illustrates her point by including unusual metaphors. She explains our perceived identity of ourselves by saying, “I am I because my little dog knows me but, creatively speaking the little dog knowing that you are you and your recognizing that he knows, that is what destroys creation” (Stein 132). The use of figurative language and run on sentences keeps the audience on their toes and gives a deeply passionate tone to the text. Stein uses her essay as a way to explain to the world what a masterpiece is, what it is not, and why it is so rare. By repeating ideas of identity, memory, time, and human nature, Stein defends her thesis that a masterpiece includes none of these qualities and that is why there are so few. 

IRB Intro Post #1

Blink, by best selling author Malcom Gladwell, is a book explaining how humans make subconscious snap decisions. Supporting his ground breaking ideas with facts on the function of the brain, Gladwell explores "the power of thinking without thinking". He strives to answer where our 'gut feelings' come from, and how our first instincts are often so accurate. A mixture of fascinating facts and interesting examples, Blink presents many revolutionary ideas.

"How It Feels to Be Colored Me"

“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Zora Neale Hurston, 1928

 
Growing up in the early twentieth century as a ‘colored’ girl, Zora Neale Hurston describes in her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” how her race has affected her life. Hurston grew up in the notoriously racist south, but at first had no exposure to any discrimination due to living in an all black area. After moving to a much larger, more mixed community in Jacksonville Florida, Hurston truly feels ‘colored’ for the first time. She remembers,“ It seemed that I had suffered a sea of change. I was not Zora of Orange County anymore, I was now a little colored girl” (Hurston 115). This awakening, however, did not discourage Hurston from being any less than she knew she could be. She clearly proclaims, “I am not tragically colored... I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature has somehow given them a low-down dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it” (Hurston 115). The strong language she employs and straight to the point punctuation style she uses emphasises the power of her statement: she is not ashamed of her color and will not let it, or the way others feel about it, change the way she lives her life. Hurston’s strong convictions speak to anyone who feels society judges them, either by their appearance or their beliefs. To those who still dwell on slavery and refuse to look beyond the struggles of their ancestors Hurston says, “Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you” (Hurston 115). She uses curt sentences and vivid metaphors to urge the reader to move on, as she has, and look at what life has given you rather than what it has not. Through the use of strong wording, deliberate syntax, and stirring metaphors, Hurston’s passionate essay effortlessly communicates her message to not let anything define who you are.

"Zora Neale Hurston" by Leed's Post Cards

"Once More to the Lake"

"Once More to the Lake" E.B. White, 1941

A bittersweet mix of old memories and new experiences, E.B. White recalls the time he took his son back to the lake where he spent his summers as a child. In “Once More to the Lake”, White is able to compose a story that crosses the barriers of time by betraying a rural setting through the eyes of a child, much like his famous book Charlotte's Web. When White returns to his childhood haunt as an adult, it is his wish to share all the joy he had at the lake with his son. He sees so much of himself in his son that while they are fishing, he remembers “I felt dizzy and didn’t know which rod I was at the end of” (White 181). Despite being absent from the lake for many years, White immediately feels right at home and remembers everything about the place as if he only left yesterday. This gives a mystical, nostalgic feel to the short tale, sending the message that some things will always have a place in your heart and in your memory: time makes no difference in the feelings one harbors for something special. For any adult who longs for their childhood happiness, they can still get back that feeling by revisiting their memories. The reader can feel the author’s love for the lake as well as the beauty of the nature there through White’s use of imagery. He describes the lake as a “constant and trustworthy body of water. In the shallows, the dark, water-soaked sticks and twigs, smooth and old, were undulating in clusters on the bottom against the clean ribbed sand... There had been no years” (White 181). By going into such deep description, the scene becomes deeply significant in communicating the message that the narrator wants to go back in time. Such language allows the reader to feel the pull and comforting familiarity of past memories, and will surely remind them of their own dreams of long ago.

"Silhouette of Father and Five-Year-Old Son Fishing" by Kevin Beebe

"The Handicapped"

"The Handicapped" Randolph Bourne, 1911

 
  Randolph Bourne, born in 1886, was disfigured at birth and became further disabled after tuberculosis of the spine left his back twisted and stunted at a young age. His struggles to live with what life threw at him are documented in his essay “The Handicapped”. It is the story of how he fought his own insecurities as well as the prejudices of others to find happiness, becoming a man who has “come to count his deformity even as a blessing” (Bourne 68) because of the world view it gave him. Once Bourne found his true purpose in promoting his “belief in social progress as the first right and permanent interest for every truehearted man or woman” (Bourne 64), he wrote this essay to share his revelation with others. Bourne promotes the “ideal of character militant rather than long-suffering” so that those who find themselves disadvantaged in life due to circumstances out of their control can have hope. His loud and clear message proclaims that people can better their lives by consciously  choosing the way they think about themselves as well as their situation. To illustrate his rather complex philosophical points, Bourne employs rhetoric in the form of figurative language. He explains, “I want to give to the young men whom I see - who, with fine intellect and high principles, lack just that light of the future on their faces that would give them purpose and meaning in life -- to them I want to give some touch of this philosophy -- that will energize their lives, and save them from the disheartening effects of that poisonous council of timidity and distrust of human ideals which pours out in steady stream from reactionary press and pulpit” (Bourne 64), using metaphor and imagery to paint a picture of understanding for the reader. In honestly expressing how his own demons haunted him and how he overcame, Bourne’s essay causes the reader to turn inward to their own lives to see how they can achieve the sense of purpose that so powerfully drives him.

"Barriers Falling" by Bigstock