Blog Post #7 Tentative Thesis Paragraph

 

The ongoing problem of an overpopulated world that needs to be addressed is what Jonathan Swift’s essay, A Modest Proposal consists of.  He discusses the moral issue of Dublin, Ireland, where the amount of poor people outnumber the wealthy, causing the streets to be flooded by mothers and children, otherwise known as beggars and thieves.  The papists or Catholics are blamed for the majority of this population due to their religious beliefs of having large families.  Swift’s essay is a solution proposed in a satire of both diatribe and caricature directed toward the wealthy people and politicians of Ireland, while criticizing the society of how heartless and defective their thoughts and actions are toward the poor people of the community.

 

Below is a link I attached that is a historical summary of Ireland in the 1700s to 1800s:

www1.xe.net/~mbone/webtree/history-ir.htm

 

Blog Post #6 - Response To Swift

Overpopulation has been an ongoing problem for a long time, with no solution until Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”.  As Swift states in his essay:

            These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to        employ all their time in strolling to be sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender of Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes  (Swift loc 6-8).

This statement is Swift’s subtle way of explaining to the audience how Ireland looks at the papists of the community.  Swift’s sarcasm of boosting economy and reducing the population by the slaughtering of infants for gourmet food and using their skin for women’s gloves and men’s summer boots is a grotesque yet dramatic form of irony.  What Swift is getting at is the landowners are blaming the Catholics for the economic downfall of Ireland, whereas the rich land owners are really to blame.

Swift’s way of computing a profit by the infant, by the pound, and to the shilling making a parody of the wealthy land owners.  Along with enhancing the economy, Swift also makes a remarkable point of diminishing the amount of abuse women are burdened with from their husbands, fearing the loss of a product he will make money on.  As Swift states:

            Men would become as fond of their wives, during the time of their pregnancy, as they are             now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, or sow when they are ready to farrow; nor    offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage  (Swift loc 101-104). 

This would cause less criminal acts, including the common problem of thievery.  Swift is trying to get across the way the country can work together to stand up for their rights, instead of the wealthy pushing the poor away, and considering them nothing more than their laborers.  Since there will be less children without food, there will be less crime, less begging, and more wealth.  Although this proposal was very emotionally diverse, Swift was able to clench the attention of the audience in what was really happening in Ireland.

https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/872/modest.pdf

Blog Post #5 - Rhetorical Analysis

Budweiser has great Super Bowl commercials every year, however, these commercials draw the attention of all age groups, causing a moral dilemma.  Like many, I am an animal lover, and look forward to the yearly Budweiser commercial.

The emotional appeal, or ethos, is what draws me in to keep watching like all of the other animal lovers of the world.  Since this commercial is about alchohol, the audience should be one of an appropriate and legal age that is drawn in.  By bringing a story of an animal re-uniting with its owner after 3 years, it is more of a heart-wrenching, fantasy that really has nothing to do with alcohol.  Now, if Budweiser came up with something that was more logical, or lethos, such as a bar scene, or adult party, the audience would be geared toward the proper age, causing the younger crowd that likes to watch “happy-ending” Disney stories to be uninterested in a beer commercial.

Blog Post #4, What I am Working On...

For the first assignment of the semester, I have decided to use the following thesis from our options:

"Bartleby is the hero of Melville's story in his refusal to participate in a workplace that represents the sad, dreary atmosphere of a bureaucratic, industrialized society. He is the only one standing up to a society that is increasingly oppressive to workers."

This thesis seems to be an overview of Bartleby's life and how he differs from the other workers of the world, including the law-copyists he works with, Turkey and Nippers. Where Turkey and Nippers have their own way of dealing with their life, with a mood-changing way, Bartleby is consistent in the way he presents himself, from beginning his employment proving to be a hard worker and knowledgeable of what he is doing, to a non-compliant, yet politically correct employee.

Although Bartleby passes on at the end of the story, Bartleby's spirit passed long before he was welcomed into the law-copyist position he was granted at No. Wall-Street.

Bartleby, the Scrivener A Story of Wall-Street

 http://www.shmoop.com/bartleby-the-scrivener/

“I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best.  Hence, though I belong to a profession proverbially energetic and nervous, even to turbulence, at times, yet nothing of that sort have I ever suffered to invade my peace.” (loc 8-12).

Told in first person by a lawyer, Bartleby, The Scrivener, A Story Of Wall-Street, by Herman Melville, talks of a time when few people are financially well off, and many must work hard to be able to live.  The passage I quoted I feel, is an introduction of the story, setting the time or era that the story takes place. 

The lawyer speaks of his scriveners, although far below his educational level, as hard workers that reside in their positions to benefit him.  However, when Bartleby comes to be employed by the lawyer, I feel he teaches the lawyer a lesson in life.  Bartleby is a quiet, yet “to the point” individual that, instead of continuously doing as he is told, simply responds with a “matter of fact” statement of “I would prefer not to”, versus being rude and outright saying no, I won’t do it, putting the lawyer into an unfamiliar position.

This passage has a lot of meaning, part of it saying that although the lawyer has worked hard, it was easy for him, and has always found himself in a relaxed state of mind.  However, Bartleby the Scrivener has in a sense, shaken up his perfect little world and teaches the lawyer a lesson in life by doing so.

I feel this passage sets the reader up to begin thinking from the very beginning of the story that people learn from one another, and although Bartleby was a so-called “blue collar worker”, he portrayed himself as a well-educated individual that mirrored the actions of the “white collar worker”.    Bartleby portrays a message to me, basically stating one can learn and become bewildered by the apprehensions of the so-called blue collar workers who have had to work hard, and, in the process, learning how to out speak the well-educated and financially stable people of the world, still get succumbed to the segregations of the white collar and blue collar workers, and still never move up in the financial world.

http://www.bartleby.com/129/