TOW #27- Hypocrites by George Saunders (written text)

In George Saunders’ essay, “Hypocrites,” Saunders attempts to portray the hypocritical nature of mankind particularly through his personal experiences and irony. Saunders starts out the essay with a particular instance of when he saw Father X and Sister Y breaking the rules of the church. This shocking, yet incredibly interesting, anecdote helps draw the reader in to the essay, as well as to help remain as a basis upon which many of the other important, ironic points of the essay can be drawn upon. For example, Saunders ends with a shocking anecdote about how he was fired from being a reader of the Bible for his church because Father X did not approve of his long-ish hair. The irony in this was that long hair was a far less punishable crime than Father X’s religious crime with Sister Y. However, Father X was condemning Saunders so ruthlessly (Saunders was not even giving the warning to cut his hair) for such a miniscule, subjective detail, while Father X was getting away with a much greater crime. This double standard within the church helped to nicely summarize Saunders’ point that humans are hypocritical. In doing this, Saunders is able to analyze well the humanness of all people and that despite whatever power people may have, all people have their flaws. This epiphany helped Saunders to better understand the human race, and he was able to feel better connected to Jesus. Saunders is able to portray this epiphany throughout his essay by using the example of Father X and Sister Y, and then, after analyzing this encounter, mentioning how he was fired from his reading job for hair that was too long. By doing this, Saunders is able to effectively accomplish his purpose of explaining the nature of mankind through the use of personal anecdotes and irony.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/09/hypocrites?printable=true&currentPage=all

TOW #26- Reveal Your Inner Athlete by Rademar (visual text)

This advertisement for Rademar sports store is most effective because of it’s shocking initial appearance. For example, if you were to come across this advertisement in the real world, at first glance, it appears as though the person is pulling the skin off of their foot in order to reveal the normal insides of a person (like blood, muscles, etc.), which can be displayed through the red color of the shoe. This plays on humans’ natural instincts of curiosity to further investigate situations that disturb them. After the viewer looks closer into the picture (despite any initial shock, grossness, or fright), they see that the “insides” of the person are actually just an athletic shoe, and the bandaid on the leg says, “Reveal your inner athlete” in an attempt to encourage more people to exercise, even if they believe that they are not athletic. However, the size of the font is not very effective for the advertisement. Even though the main attention-grabbing part of the advertisement is the foot with the skin and shoe, it is very difficult to find out what the advertisement is actually advertising unless you look very close in the lower right hand corner, when you see that this advertisement is for an athletic store. However, the initial response to this advertisement is that it is for encouraging people to buy the certain brand of sneakers, perhaps because they work naturally like the inside of your foot, yet upon closer inspection, you can see that it is advertising that you find your inner athlete, and if you look even closer, you can find the name of the store that produced this advertisement. This advertisement would be very effective for something like advertising a certain brand of sneakers, however, it is not very effective for advertising the sports store. If the store were to continue using this advertisement, they should at least increase the size of the font in order to more clearly portray what they are advertising.

TOW #25- After Life by Joan Didion (written text)

Joan Didion’s heartwrenching essay, “After Life,” clearly portrays her experience of life after her husband died. Cleverly titled “After Life,” Didion’s play on words contributes to her explanation of her own experiences of life without her husband, while at the same time demonstrating the idea of death (which is usually the connotation of “afterlife” spelled as one word). Didion’s essay is organized into five parts, like mini chapters. This helps to break up the essay and keep it engaging, as opposed to creating a ranting-like organization that seems to simply drone on. Didion’s hook is also very effective. She begins with a short poem-like collection of words that she had originally written after her husband’s death. What made these words significant was that Didion had previously been a writer (and her husband had been a writer as well) and these were the first words she had written after his death. These words follow a simple sentence structure, and although they are also simple words, when strung together, they have a deep meaning that connects to every possible audience member (because life can change at an instant for anybody). This deep meaning draws the audience in because they want to read an explanation of what these words mean and why she wrote them. The audience is the general public, however, geared more specifically towards adults who more frequently face similar instances of experiencing great losses in an instant, although it can be written for anybody since anybody can be affected by an instantaneous loss.  Additionally, Didion alludes to the events of 9/11, among other events, in an attempt to portray how losses like she faced are instantaneous and occur at the most “ordinary” of moments. The purpose of Didion’s essay is to explain a time in her life where she experienced this instantaneous loss, and through a well-organized essay and a compelling story of her experiences, Didion is able to connect to others who may have experienced a similar loss, or prepare others who are yet to experience a loss.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/magazine/25didion.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0