“…bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.” The distinction between bullshit and a lie is at times very clear, but it also can be hard to identify. Bullshit is not a lie, and a lie is not bullshit, even though both are considered to be deceitful and insincere. Harry Frankfurt wrote his essay entitled “On Bullshit”, and through reading and analyzing his writing, his position on which is problematic (lying or bullshitting) becomes clear. Near the end of his essay, Frankfurt states, “Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic are more extensive than his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic” (Frankfurt, On Bullshit, 99). Bullshit is a double-deceit towards a person, because you are hiding the fact that you do not know the information about a topic, and you are spouting out information which you are not 100% sure of, and claiming as if you know enough to hold a conversation.
The content in the work is imperative to the messages it communicates. “Take the N-word out of ‘Huckleberry Finn’ and is it still ‘Huckleberry Finn’? Probably not, after all it is a book narrated in Huck’s voice.” writes journalist Delia Lloyd about the subject. The individual ideas in the book can’t be as easily conveyed in ‘politically correct’ language. When Huck says “Jim had an uncommon level head for a nigger” the message he is conveying to the reader will be distorted if you alter what Twain originally wrote; the sentiment will not have been as accurately communicated.
Gladwell stated what he wanted the readers to get out from his book and what we were expecting. Also, while at the same time Gladwell is persuading the readers to think the way he does. When I read this passage, my first initial thoughts were that learning how to control my judgments and first impressions is impossible. To me the statement, “be in control of your judgments” means the same as the statement, “I have control of my own heart beat,” which is impossible. My judgments are my own and it’s unique.
Ryan Wong 8/21/12 APLAC “All literature is protest.”-Richard Wright. Through this quote Richard is saying that all writing usually conveys a purpose, to persuade, to explain or even to call people to action. In a fictitious novel the purpose is most likely conveyed as a constant moral, or thesis throughout the story. In a review he wrote for the New Masses magazine called “Between laughter and tears”, Wright criticizes Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Richard claims that there is no central idea or theme to Hurston’s book, thereby giving it no persuasive, explanatory or call to action-like traits.
I never really liked writing from personal experience because it always felt forced. I wasn’t thinking about it for myself, from a student writer’s perspective, but for the audience as well. But I took into account the fact that the audience for almost all student essays is going to be just one person who's going to tell me if I did it correctly, and percentage-wise just how correctly. Then I thought, ”How could I, or for that matter anyone, be personal incorrectly? How would one misuse their personality?” It may have been that I was defining the term personal to strictly refer to speaking of a past experience.
Thoreau strongly uses pathos throughout his essay in ways that might not be obvious but definitely grasp the attention of anyone reading. In the text it states “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation unless it was quite necessary.”
These symbols throughout the story include the old mans eye, the heartbeat and the contradiction between love and hate in which I will be talking about in this paper. When reading Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, it is more easily understood as a figurative text rather than a literal text. A literal reading of this story would make it very difficult to understand the details. By taking this story literally it is not easy to understand the entire meaning and representation of the story. In the beginning of the story, the narrator describes the old man’s eye.
It would have been inappropriate for a younger generation to read this story, considering how young they might have been. He also had to remember that as he was writing this paper about real people and he needed to do his best to not offend them with his writing, making sure he kept his writing professional. He may have offended some by the style of writing in the article, especially to not really care when he used the term “jumpers” like it was nothing. He needed to reach out the message to people that some of them were jumping, others were blown out or forced out; regardless to the people, it looked like they were jumping. By making the name of the article “The Falling Man” he is being
However, what the novel fails to reveal is the answer to the deeming question “why?” Although this may be Cain’s way of allowing his readers to interpret the novel on an individual level, it seems to instead lead his readers down a path of misunderstanding and forced assumptions. For example, Phyllis initiates a dialogue between her and Walter, “‘Do you understand me Walter?’ ‘No.’ ‘Nobody could.’ ‘But we’re going to do it?’ ‘Yes, we’re going to do it’’’ (19). In this dialogue, Walter and Phyllis are confirming that they will follow through with their plan. Cain makes it obvious that Walter does not understand where Phyllis is coming from in her insistence of this plan and yet for reasons that are unclear to readers, Walter is still involving himself in the crime. The dialogue of a story is an important part of characterization because it allows the readers to see into the characters minds and examine their motivations.
The only thing I didn’t like about the book was that Douglass never went into detail about his escape. He more described his reasons for why he didn’t such as he wanted to protect the ones that helped him and to not let slave owners know how many slaves will escape in the future. Douglass point of view while writing this book is that he also wants to show his readers how