Closed Reading

Romney’s class warfare

By Eugene Robinson  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-romneys-class-warfare/2012/09/20/98327b4c-0359-11e2-8102-ebee9c66e190_story.html 

          Recently Mitt Romney was caught by a hidden camera making a controversial speech at a fundraiser about how he was going to win the presidential election.  He mentioned that 47 percent of Americans don’t pay income tax and they are going to vote for obama regardless of how he campaigns.  In this editorial in the Washington Post, opinion writer Eugene Robinson takes a clear stance against Mitt Romney’s political ideology in his “47 percent” speech at a fundraiser.  Eugene shows the stereotypical liberal thought that republicans are all wealthy and only care about themselves.  Eugene uses diction, details, and figurative language to show his opinions about Romney’s speech and republicans in general. 

          He described the differences between the conservatives as, “the smug-and-rich against the down-on-their-luck, the wealthy tax avoiders against those too poor to owe income tax”.  Rich and wealthy are words that do not have a negative annotation but clearly in this text they carry a negative connotation and are used to describe the ignorant and selfish people who don’t care about the underprivileged.  He once again shared his thoughts of Romney’s view on the parties saying the political parties are the “wealthy Republicans vs. the unwashed hordes”.  Calling the underprivileged (referring to as Democrats in this editorial) “hordes” dehumanizes the people and further emphasizes Eugene Robinson’s thoughts that Romney does not care about the wellbeing of that “47 percent” that he talked about.

          Robinson uses great details to persuade the readers.  Details such as the “$50,000-a-plate fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla.” showed that when Romney was speaking at the fundraiser he was speaking to wealthy elite.  Not many people can afford to eat a dinner for that price.  This detail is also used to show Robinson’s view of people that Romney’s supporters: the rich.

          Eugene Robinson persuaded the readers through his great use of figurative language.  He described Romney’s fundraiser saying it was, “In an elegant dining room where the self-satisfaction was thick enough to cut with a knife”.  Robinson made it seems as if the smugness or self-satisfaction was a tangible object.  This helped persuade once again the kind of people that the writer thinks support Mitt Romney.  Robinson said, “The truth is that Romney is mixing apples, oranges and bananas. The three groups he mentions — those who support the president, those who receive payments from entitlement programs and those who are not required to pay federal income tax — are not the same people.”  This colorful analogy comparing these three groups of people to different types of fruits is used to show that these groups are not the same.  This analogy makes Eugene’s idea very easy to understand as fruit is a very simple concept that most people have a grasp on. 

  This editorial about Romney’s “47 percent” speech used diction, imagery, and detail to enhance Robinson’s point.  These literary devices made the editorial more interesting and easier to understand.  This made the editorial a very persuasive article as Robinson’s opinions were translated clearly through the text.  

Open Prompt

2009, Form B. Many works of literature deal with political or social issues. Choose a novel or play that focuses on a political or social issue. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the author uses literary elements to explore this issue and explain how the issue contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. 

     George Orwells's Animal Farm is a book with clearly political motives.  The story was written during the prime of Stalinist Russia.  The novel is about a group of animals on a farm and their struggles but the message seems to be much more meaningful.  

     In the novel a group of animals overthrow the unkind, often-drunk farmer and the pigs fill the role as the heads of the farm.  The animal uprising against the farmer is very similar to the Bolshevik Revolution in which the Russian government was overthrown by the Bolshevik political group now called the Russian Communist Party.   The brutal dominance and position of authority the pigs held after the farmer was killed mirrors that of soviet communism under Stalin.

     These pigs completely dominate the farm and are a symbol of complete authority just as Stalin was in Soviet Russia.  Things at the farm under the pigs rule end up being even worse than they were before as a horse is worked to death.  This is similar to the way things were in Soviet Russia under Stalin.  Stalin killed millions of people directly and millions of others indirectly through his repression.  Under Stalin many people were worked to death, and many others were so poor that they starved to death.     

     This novel clearly speaks out against the way Stalin was running his country and communism in general.  I think a message of the book is that absolute power is bad regardless.  The animals were suffering under the farmer and they were suffering under the pigs as well because in both systems of rule the animals (other than the pigs) had no say in the governing of the farm.  I think that the author is trying to convey the idea that communism will never work and that the people need to have a say in government.  

     The clear allusions in this novel to Stalinist Russia make this story much more captivating.  The events on the farm closely mirror many of the events in Russia relating to communism.  The allusions draw on a much deeper meaning to the story and it made the novel appeal to a high number of people during the peak of Stalinist communism and the fear of communism in the Americas (the red scare).  This novel hit home with many Americans who were witnessing all of the awful things happening in russia.  

Response to Course Materials

Even though I haven’t been in class for a full week yet I feel like I have really learned a lot in AP English.  I think that after the summer and first few days of school I already look at literature in a completely different way.  I really enjoyed The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing by Michael Harvey.  The most influential idea in this book to me was that pompous writing with big fancy words and formal structure does not always mean that it is good writing.  Through the summer work I have realized that ideas are the most important piece of literature.  Ideas are the backbone that words cannot hide but instead are used to aide the presenting of ideas.  How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster showed me how to read and understand literature better.  I think this book showed me that the “what” of literature is not important unless you understand how it relates to the story itself.  In the past I have always been taught to figure out the “what” of literature but I never understood its relevance.  The power-points and this story have made me realize that the “what” (diction, syntax, symbols, etc.) are there to aid in the understanding of the big picture.  The terms test we took on September 7th (Friday) made me realize that it is not enough to just know the definitions of terms but you need to know how to identify them in the text.  Overall I think I have learned more in AP English so far than my other three years of high school english combined.

Me Talk Pretty One Day

When I first saw the title of the essay, “Me Talk Pretty One Day”, I was unsure what to think.  The title drew my attention and made me want to know what the essay was about.  At first I thought that it would be written by someone who couldn’t speak English fluently and I expected it to be written in broken English.   To my pleasant surprise I thought that the essay was a masterpiece.  It held my interest throughout and included many elements of The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing by Michael Harvey.   His essay flowed well, his ideas were clear and concise, and he used punctuation very well.

     David Sedaris’ “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is an informal essay that gets the point across clearly.  He did not jam his essay with big words to make himself sound smarter like most college kids do but instead he used the proper word choice to communicate his ideas effectively.  In The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing Michael Harvey says, “Concision leaves us fewer words to hide behind”. (1)  When you cut out all the filler your ideas are much easier to read and understand however if your ideas are weak that will also show easier.  Sedaris had very strong ideas and he did not add in unnecessary words and filler to hide them.  The product was a clear and concise essay that is easy and entertaining to read.   

     I thought Sedaris did a great job following Harvey’s rules for punctuation.  In his book, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, Harvey says, “Indirect questions have their uses, but direct questions are also legitimate and can be remarkably effective in formal writing.” (44)  Sedaris did a good job using a direct question when he says, “Why refer to Lady Crack Pipe or Good Sir Dishrag when these things could never live up to all that their sex implied?” (13)  Another success was Sedaris’ use of dashes.  A good example of this is when he said, “I absorbed as much of her abuse as I could understand, thinking – but not saying – that I find it ridiculous to assign a gender to an inanimate object which is incapable of disrobing and making an occasional fool of itself.”  He uses the pair of dashes to stray away from the normal flow of the paragraph.   

     Sedaris’ essay is an easy, entertaining read as it is very clear and concise but also because he uses many of the techniques mentioned in the third chapter of The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing about flow.  He used many pronouns, punchlines, and introductory clauses to create a flow that Michael Harvey would surely be proud of.  “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is a piece of comedic and literary genius.  David Sedaris did an outstanding job of using punch lines to make the story interesting.  My favorite punch line of his is when he says, “The teacher forged on, and we learned that Carlos, the Argentine bandonion player, loved wine, music, and, in his words, ‘making sex with the womans of the world.’” (12)  Harvey said that punch lines can make it easier to take in large amounts of information without feeling swamped by it.  Sedaris also used introductory clauses such as, “At the age of 41” (11), and “While the optimist struggled to defend himself”.  In Harvey’s words introductory clauses “make room for contextual information, so that by the time you reach your main point your reader gets it.”  This helped to make Sedaris’ essay even clearer, easier, and more interesting to read. 

     It is very unlikely that David Sedaris ever read Michael Harvey’s book The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, his essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day” does a great job of applying Harvey’s techniques.   David Sedaris wrote an essay that was smart without writing in the collegiate pompous style that Harvey talks about.  I think Harvey would consider this essay a model essay that all writers -not only in college- should try to emulate.

My Five Poetry Goals

My five poetry goals are: 

     

1.) To have the patience to strategically reread each poem multiple times

2.) To be able to identify the different types of poems 

3.) To be able to identify the speaker in the poem

4.) To be able to identify the purpose and main themes that characterize a poem 

5.) To be able to identify the symbolism within poetry 

These poems were denser and harder to understand than most poems I am used to reading.  If I follow my five goals I think I will be able to understand poetry much better.  The Peterson’s AP poetry section mentioned several times how key it  is to reread each poem several times (they suggested four) so my first goal is to reread each piece of poetry I have to read several times to uncover deeper meanings within. My second goal is to be able to identify amongst the different types/forms of poetry.  As I was answering some of the practice problems I realized that I don’t know my forms of poetry very well and it was difficult to identify what was what for me.  My third goal is to be able to identify who is speaking in the poem.  I noticed when they asked who was speaking during the Sonnet 55 practice problems I could not identify who the speaker was and I had to guess.  I also struggled to identify the speaker as I read The Terrorist, He Watches  for the forum posts.  Learning how to identify the speaker will take some practice as it is not basic memorization like identifying the different types of poems but I think that the skill will come as I work more with poetry.  Usually one of the question about a poem is why it was written, or the themes in a poem.  My fourth goal is to be able to identify the purpose and main themes that characterize a poem or why it was written.  I usually struggle with this as I don’t usually understand who is speaking and because of complex symbolism used that I can’t recognize.  My fifth goal is to be able to recognize and understand the symbolism used in poetry.  I think that My third, fourth, and fifth goals are all interlaced and as I become better at one skill it will make it will help me with the other weaknesses I have.  I think that these skills will take time to acquire but I think if I keep these goals in mind as I read poetry it will become easier and easier each time I analyze another poem.

Peterson's Diagnostic Exam

     The diagnostic test was not as daunting as I had first thought it would be. One thing that surprised me about the diagnostic test was that I did not feel rushed taking it.  Although the passages were quite difficult to understand I ended up getting the majority of the questions right!  To me the structure was quite similar to the ACT’s reading section, however the pieces of literature in the diagnostic test were denser and tougher to interpret.  The prose was fairly easy to understand the first time I read through it but the poetry was a completely different story.  I had to read the poems multiple times just to grasp the basic ideas behind them and answer the questions but I still did not feel like I ever truly understood them.  I noticed that because the poems were short I could reread them over and over and still finish with plenty of time to spare.  One thing I struggled with was understanding the complex vocabulary used in both the questions and the passages.  Another difficult thing for me was identifying the types of poetry used.  Miraculously I managed to get those questions right using the process of elimination but it is definitely a skill that needs a lot of work.  Overall I have many things I need to improve on but taking this diagnostic test really boosted my confidence that I can conquer the AP English Literature and Composition Exam!