BRENT STAPLES "CUTTING AND PASTING"

In Brent Staples essay "Cutting and Pasting", (2010) he argues that students who plagiarize are likely to fall behind in the understanding and learning of their work. Staples give us comparisons of cheating behavior studies done by Professor Pritchard and his colleagues that proved plagiarism is indeed linked to failure. Staples passionately try to inform his readers of the importance of being original in order to get students to develop their minds and critical thinking. This essay is clearly directed to all students and alerts them to avoid plagiarism indefinitely.

 

I am enlightened by Staples essay. I agree with Staples that plagiarism defeats the purpose of learning. If students copy and paste all the time, what are they gaining? It is also true that plagiarism can lead to being repetitive and can infect all area of a person’s life. All students can relate to this essay as to avoid copying and pasting, but there will always be some to take advice for granted. I believe most people plagiarize because of being lazy, not thoughtful, or last minute. If more students were original, then our universities would have higher intellectual environments.

Staples keep his essay very informative about what need to be done about plagiarism. He relates plagiarism to our current society when he says, “They become like rap musicians who construct what they describe as new works by “sampling” (which is to say, cutting and pasting) beats and refrains from the works of others.”(pg. 148) His choice of words also raises an issue of judgment. He states that he bases his assumptions that students plagiarize off written in-class assignments can compare them with their other papers. Though odds point to someone in his class will cheat, he does not consider a student’s writing development or those who actually worked hard on their original work. One overall moral that is imbedded into this essay is that teachers should not judge students and students should not cheat.  

The Deer At Providencia

            In Annie Dillards essay The Deer At Providencia, (1982); she tells about her encounter with wildlife in the jungle and explores the different cultures that separate wildlife form civility. Dillard tells how she experiences the different lifestyle of the natives and how they are immune to killing or harming animals versus those who don’t see it every day, how she notices a deer tied up waiting to be prepared for dinner as they head to the table or camp site to dine. Her purpose for this essay was to show that this is how some people survive and it is apart of their culture and natural for them to see on a daily basis. The intended audience would be those who are into nature and wildlife civility.

            My perception of this is neutral because I know people have to provide the best way they know how to but on the other hand I don’t condone animal cruelty. Although I do eat meat and know that animals are sacrificed for my pleasure, I couldn’t bear to watch it suffer the way she explained in her essay. The site of that would have ruined my appetite and would have emotionally disturbed me but they have to eat to survive so I cannot judge them.  We kill animals every day for food and even clothing. This is a part of the society we live in.

            In her essay Dillard gives vivid details of the deer and its struggle to get free but yet she shows no emotions. She stated that, “I looked detached, hard, or focused, still.” The site of the trapped deer didn’t bother her; she was accustomed to the events that were going on. “I have traveled widely in Roanoke, Virginia. I have thought a great deal about carnivorousness; I eat meat. These things are not issues.” Proving that she is not disturbed of the events that took place that day.

THIRTY-EIGHT WHO SAW MURDER DIDN'T CALL THE POLICE

In Martin Gansberg’s cultural criticism essay “Thirty-eight who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police” (1964), Gansberg claims that society should be more involved in taking action when witnessing violent or life-threatening encounters between other people. He elaborates on this theme by providing a real homicide scenario that occurred as a short story. Martin Gansberg’s purpose of writing this essay is to persuade readers in order to make changes in our society’s mindset on public safety. His intended audience was towards anyone in general, especially to those who may witness violent disputes between other people.

Reading this essay made me realize how distant citizens are from one another. This upset me, mainly because of the fact that many people witnessed this encounter between the victim and the assailant, yet no one took action until it was too late. The victim’s life could have been spared if one of the neighbors would have called the authorities when the victim was first being assaulted. Other than being upset, this essay was also interesting, as it expanded my mind the way most cultural criticism essays should. I loved the fact that it was in a short story form, with very vivid descriptions and details of the night of the victim’s murder. Overall, I do strongly agree with the fact that witnesses of situations where someone’s life is at stake should immediate action to spare the victim’s life.

Martin Gansberg wrote this essay mainly to persuade readers that our society should do more in protecting other citizens. He started his essay off by telling a story as a flashback of the encounter, then resuming the story. He strongly supports the fact that people should have taken immediate action when they witnessed the assailant’s attempt to killing the victim. He also supports this claim by giving feedback from authorative figures. He mentions detectives’ feedback on the situation, stating that “A phone call would have done it” (139). He also provides responses from many of the witnesses as they answer questions from detectives and police. He emphasized the fact that each one of the provided responses dealt with each of the witnesses not wanting to “get involved” with the situation (139). Gansberg did a very well job using his format of a short narrative based on a true event, then getting his thesis across from the murder case. He was very informative when providing the details and descriptions of what caused this tragic death of an innocent victim.

WILLPOWER

Poetice Justice1101

Professor: Cantice Greene

October 22, 2012

               In Dianne Tice essay, “How Can We Get Willpower Back Once It Has Been Depleted?”(2012), She argues that willpower is easier to control the more you practice it and getting plenty of rest. Tice supports her theory by stating that the more rest you receive at night the more strength you’ll have the following day. Her purpose for this essay is to help others gain willpower in order to get things that are most important in life done. The intended audience is those who lack motivation or is having a hard time pushing themselves to do better.            

                I agree with the point she is trying to get across in her narrative. We often become lazy due to lack of rest or even energy because we don’t eat properly. If we want a balanced lifestyle we have to set positive goals. The more we work towards those goals the easier it’ll become. Practice makes perfect so the more energy we put towards the things we want the more willpower we’ll inquire to get closer to that goal. We have to establish that drive to increase or willpower that will motivate us to get on the right track and make it easier in the future.

                Tice wrote this essay to encourage others to motive themselves for a better and maybe even healthier lifestyle.  She states, “Rested, well-slept people have more willpower than tired people.” Also eating a well balance meal gives you more energy to increase your willpower. If you are weakened or tired due to lack of sleep you will not have the energy or power to strengthen your willpower. Practice good habits so that in the future you won’t have to force yourself to do so it’ll already be installed within you.

Black Characters in Search of Reality

                In Brent Staples’s essay “Black Characters in Search of Reality” (2012), he claims that African Americans play roles in many of today’s dramatic works that are commonly stereotypical. He supports his claim by describing how African Americans are imaged in many advertisements, and provides examples of roles played by African American actors and actresses in dramatic works. Staples’s purpose of this essay is to acknowledge various roles played by African Americans in order to stress the fact that there is a continuous pattern of the roles played. Brent Staples’s audience could be African American population, as well as many African American actors and actresses.

                This text provided me insight on this played by African Americans that I never took into consideration. I could relate to the text because of the examples he provided, one being about Hattie McDaniel. Being that I read “Gone with the Wind” myself, I could relate to his statements about her being African American and winning an Oscar for playing a maid, as well as the two actresses from “The Help”. Overall, I was very pleased with this text because of the comparisons he used to identify how the African American community is perceived as today.

                Brent Staples wrote this text in order to analyze how African Americans are viewed thorough dramatic arts. Comparing their affluence on billboards to their roles in movies and plays, he states that these arts are “rooted in a narrow past view of African American life” (149). As many movies and plays contain African American maids, the Black communities are upset by the stereotypical views of their race. Although praised for their astounding roles played, Staples indicates the growing “hunger” for demonstrating decent Black lifestyles, and how it was finally shown in Lydia Diamond’s “Stick Fly” (150). This was one play that officially satisfied and entertained large Black audiences, giving them the credit that they deserved.

JAMIE HOLMES - WHY CAN'T MORE POOR PEOPLE ESCAPE POVERTY? A RADICAL NEW EXPLANATION FROM PSYCHOLOGISTS

In Jamie Holmes informative essay "Why can't more people escape poverty?" (2011) she implies that for the less fortunate, freedom is not really free and their willpower is always being controlled by finances. Holmes provides valuable explanations of why people stay in poverty by showing us researched experiments from various studies of peoples' decision making. In order to effectively conclude that one's willpower is not self-controlled, Holmes compares poverty stricken life to wealthier people. Jamie Holmes intends to draw in everyone who has ever experienced poverty.

This article was very interesting to me. I believe it to have some truth value to it. If you take a wealthy person and relieve them of all their property, financial resources, and income, and replace it with a lowly sum-subsistence level, and set them loose on the city streets, their level of stress and depression will tremendously rise. Their standards of self-control will decrease.

“Willpower is defined by the article as it was defined by the study: the capacity to make a long-term decision over a short-term decision. To put it another way, can you continue at a difficult task? The study showed that those who had resisted cookies did not keep on at a tough task for as long as those who had "resisted" radishes. The more we have to control the id, the harder it becomes. ”I am obviously not convinced by the article. I don’t agree with their definition of will power. What does it mean to make “a long term decision?” Does it mean making a decision and sticking by it? If so there may be many reasons why a “long term decision should not be implemented: conditions change and if you make a long term decision and stick to it for its own sake over changing circumstances, then that in itself could be a sign of irrationality. I also found the cookie/radishes decision unreal. Will power is part of the will, a human faculty. It is not a human organ or muscle. Will power is more like memory and imagination than it is like seeing or speaking. The poor are poor because they have no power to paraphrase Hemingway in a different context and not because of any lack of” will-power. ”If you have ever met a variety of poor folk you would know what a load of horse manure the argument is. Many poor people I know have a lot of will power but they are still poor. I also know some rich people with very little self-control.

THE WORLD OF HAPPINESS PART II

Making Happiness a Top Priority

                In Jeffrey Sach’s essay “The World of Happiness Report” (2012), he explores implications that that elaborate on the happiness throughout the general population. Sachs provides multiple subjects that have been shown to have had the largest impact on the human population, and explains how these topics should affect us with proposed changes made to policies. Jeffrey Sachs’s purpose of writing this essay was to stress how and why policies created by the government should be altered, in order to make the general population’s happiness a top priority. Jeffrey Sachs intends to draw in everyone living on our planet to this essay, no matter what their standard of living is.

                Personally, this article was a bit puzzling. Mostly to me, it was challenging to determine what the author’s intent was in writing this essay. There were terms used that I don’t come across every day, which contributed to my inability of entirely grasping the concept of this piece. Eventually, I could pick out bits and pieces of his intent to form a main idea.

                Jeffrey Sachs has highlighted many of the controversial issues we deal with as humans, and compares these issues to what a “sustainable” society should be.  He also mentioned certain components of life that should make a person happy, and explained the negative/ positive outcomes of these factors that will determine someone’s happiness. He describes many priorities to humans that should, but generally don’t, provide us with happiness such as work, values, religion, and education. Sachs mentions that the “happiness agenda” is task that will influence our communities as we go through many experiences in life (109). He uses formal terms and definitions in this article to enlighten his readers about concepts not thought of daily. Overall, the policies made that people have to encounter each day have degraded the happiness of those all around the world. Sachs stresses the fact that before making these policies a top priority, the government should focus on the values of people’s lives just by adjusting some of the policies they’ve created, for the well-being of the human race.

THE WORLD OF HAPPINESS REPORT PART 1

PoeticJustice1101

Professor: Cantice Greene

September 24, 2012

                 In Jeffrey Sachs persuasive essay “The World of Happiness Report” (2012), he states that the world would be a happier place if the human race cared more about our environment and fellow humans than we do material thin.gs.  Sachs support his opinion by showing how we have people  who are without food, shelter, and clothes and how we as a nation lack social trust and confidence in our government but is advancing in the development of technology. Jeffrey Sachs purpose for this essay is to get people to see what’s more important in life in order to save mankind and the land we in habitat. Sachs intended audience is directed towards everyone because we all walk the earth and play a part in how we maintain and take care of our society.

 

 

                I agree with the message Sachs is trying to get across. If we put more good into our environment than we do in things that are less relevant the world would be a much better place.  It is not morally right to care more about material thing than the health of human race, our environment, or atmosphere. We can’t survive if we breathe polluted air each day, if we don’t have a well-balanced meal, or even if we develop bad habits that cause deterioration of our health. I wasn’t too surprised at how selfish we as humans can be at times but to put our personal needs before that of our environment is absurd.

                Jeffrey Sachs essay mostly focuses on the well-being of the human race as well as the land we walk on a day to day basis. If we take pride in helping others and maintain a peaceful, stable, and inhabitable environment the world would be a happier place. Sachs states that “if we act wisely, we can protect the Earth while raising quality of life broadly around the world.” (pg.91). In general is saying that we need to focus on things that are more important and that will benefit us in the long run not just a temporary fix . We as a nation can thrive through economic growth and support of each other. We have the tools to improve our nation we just have to use them.

EDWIDGE DANTICAT "BETWEEN THE POOLS AND THE GARDENS" BLOG

PoeticJustice1101

Professor: Cantice Greene

August 29, 2012

Edwidge Danticat’s narrative essay “Between the Pool and the Gardens” (2012) Danticat portrays that the effects of having miscarriages are very scaring to a women’s mind and can lead to physiological break downs. She wanted a child of her own so bad, she took in and cared for a deceased baby she found on the side of a curb after many failed attempts of having children. Danticat took in the deceased baby as her own in order to fill the deep void in her life. It is apparent that she reaches out to women who have ever suffered a miscarriage or loss of a child.

                I felt a little disturbed at the fact that Danticat took a deceased baby home. For several days she cared, clothed, and even talked to the baby as though the baby was still alive! At the same time I empathized with her distraught situations in her life such as the many miscarriages and her husband’s cheating and being negligent. Danticat seemed to have drifted into her own perfect world after the first citing of the baby. Whether or not her experience is demented or uncommon depends on how you view a dead child. I agree that nobody can just find a beautiful deceased child and immediately throw them away without taking a second of sympathizing for him/her. In Danticat’s case she just went too far and her actions can be viewed as insane. 

                Word choice and bluntly eerie reasoning made this narrative very different from usual writings. The narrative takes you into a person’s world that is filled with death and void and how they try to cope with the two. Danticat give records of all the unusual deaths that happened in her family, use words like “flesh,” and “little corps,” and expounds vividly on her experience with the deceased baby. Sentences like “I swayed her in my arms like my own sleeping dove” seemed to express Danticat’s romantic love for children which counters and overpowers her imbalanced acts with the child. Overall love and sympathy is the main morals in this narrative.

 

SARA RIMER "THE BIOLOGY OF EMOTION"

PoeticJustice1101

Professor: Cantice Greene

September 17, 2012

In Sara Rimer’s expository text “The Biology of Emotion- and What It May Teach Us about Helping People to Live Longer” (2011), she claims that the general population’s risks of severe illnesses can be reduced with a healthier and happier lifestyle. Rimer supported her thesis in an informative manner, giving examples of different studies performed and statistics collected, according to the issue at stake. Sara Rimer’s purpose of this article was to inform the general public of factors that severely increase health risks in order to give counter examples of factors to reduce these risks. Most likely, Rimer’s audience was targeted towards anyone, being that illnesses can affect anyone.

            This article was very informative, giving very thorough explanations and observations of studies done on the effects of happiness on a person’s life span. I was amazed by the fact that people with happier lifestyles are more likely to thrive longer than those without more negative lifestyles. However, I didn’t know that a person’s mood could affect their body as drastically as described in the health article. It’s always great to read up on an article that is subjected to the public, especially when it comes to one’s health.  I feel that more people should read these types of health articles, just to be aware of different factors of illnesses, and how to prevent them from occurring.

            Sara Rimer’s text mainly focused on a comparison and contrast of people who have happier lifestyles and those who don’t. Ultimately, those who do have happier lifestyles receive many benefits from positive factors surrounding them. Rimer states, “In a 2007 study that followed more than 6,000 men and women aged 25 to 74 for that emotional vitality-a sense of enthusiasm, of hopefulness, of engagement in life, and the ability to face life’s stresses with emotional balance-appears to reduce the risk of coronary heart-appears to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.”(84) Sara also provides different studies that help support her thesis. As stated on page 85, she states, “ In 1979, Lisa Berkman, director of the Harvard Center . . . Participants who reported fewer social ties at the beginning of the survey were more than twice as likely to die over the nine-year follow-up period, an effect unrelated to behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and physical activity.” For the public health’s sake, people should start thinking optimistically. There have been many studies that Rimer has demonstrated where people literally thrive longer than pessimistic views. As they say, life’s too short, and people only make life even shorter by obtaining negative mentalities.

 

 

 

BRENT STAPLES "BLACK MEN AND PUBLIC SPACE" BLOG

PoeticJustice1101

Professor: Cantice Greene

September 5, 2012

In Brent Staples personal essay "Black Men and Public Space" (1986) Staples depicts the physiological effects that determine how a person thinks and acts based on a stereotype about black males. Staples give us evidence of his power to strike fear in society by simply being a "rough-looking" black male in public by citing all his unprecedented encounters with the law, women, pedestrians, and corporate America. In an effort to stay out of trouble, Staples restricts his normal way of carrying himself by doing things like whistling Beethoven in public in order to be perceived as a good man or a non-threat to society. In this narrative, Staples grabs the attention of young adult males who been judged by the way they look.

I am baffled at how black males became the common victims of profiling. I asked myself, "Would I profile Staples if I were to encounter him in the wee hours of the night like the people stated in the essay?" With my own personal experiences, yes; I would tread consciously about suspicious looking people.  Staples give great details of how people tend to act different when something is not normal in their environment. I feel sorry for Staples about how he was treated. It is unfortunate that Staples fit the profile of usual suspects of crimes, so I agree that Staples had to do certain things to calm the public’s perception about him.

Staples use multiple onomatopoeias to describe the severity of prejudice around him. Words like "thunk" "victim" and "encounter" suggests that Staples want his audience to feel the harshness of the prejudice. The many situations that he pointed out also show how common prejudice was against black males. He took pride though in his ability to manipulate people when he said, "The fearsomeness mistakenly attributed to me in public places often has a perilous flavor." Staples want us to know of the anger he felt inside him, yet, he teaches us how to be humble given the unfortunate circumstances of society’s prejudice towards one another.

 

LANGSTON HUGHES "SALVATION" BLOG

PoeticJustice1101

Professor: Cantice Greene         

September 17, 2012

 

              In Langston Hughes’ literacy narrative “Salvation” (1940), Hughes claims that he lost his faith in God because of his inability to see Jesus, which would’ve acknowledged his genuine retrieval of salvation. Langston Hughes supported his thesis by giving vivid descriptions of the reflections he had about his spiritual encounter at the church. Hughes’ purpose of the narrative essay was to inform his audience of his personal experience while receiving salvation, in order to elaborate about his reasoning of losing faith in his religion. The audience who Hughes may have been intending to target was people who most likely contemplated or doubted whether or not to have faith in their religion.

            Personally, I was very satisfied with the text. I loved the imagery and vivid images Langston Hughes used, as if he were literally painting a picture for me. Towards the end of the narrative, I was very shocked at the outcome of him getting saved. Although he received salvation at such an early age, he didn’t understand the true meaning of belief in his religion, which is why he felt that Jesus didn’t exist anymore. He didn’t understand that God deals with things on his own time, unexpectedly. For example, when he mentioned his friend saying God’s name in vain with no form of punishment at that moment, he took that as a source of evidence that God and/or Jesus were nonexistent. Additionally, I felt that it was bizarre how the children were somewhat forced to go to the altar, whereas of nowadays, churches allow children to go up by their own will. Hughes’ final thought of his religion doesn’t agree with my own; however, his narrative demonstrates an excellent narrative, with a very deep and spiritual meaning behind it.
                Langston Hughes’ text is mainly focused on his understandings of his spirituality as a 13 year old boy. His expectations of his spiritual encounters were based on verbal comments made by his aunt. For example, in paragraph 2 he stated, “My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light. . . She said you could hear and feel Jesus in your soul.” (69) As a 13 year old, those words were very convincing to him, which is why he put so much faith in her words. Hughes mind was set on the literal aspects of her words, rather than a spiritual viewpoint of them. As stated in the essay, he stressed the fact that he waited a long duration of time to “see” Jesus, which was why he was the last to get baptized. The final straw was pulled when he witnessed his friend disrespect God, “see” to god, and then suddenly become saved without any consequences. In Hughes’ narrative, he states, “God had not struck Westley. . .temple” (70), prior to calling Westley a liar. Unfortunately, because of his aunt’s words of visually seeing Jesus, when he didn’t, he was brought to the conclusion that Jesus didn’t exist. Perhaps if he were taught a little more of the religion, or even that the realest things in life are what you can’t see, he would’ve still had his faith in God, without any doubts.

 

 

AMY TAN "MOTHER TONGUE" BLOG

Poetic Justice1101

Professor Cantice Greene

September 10, 2012

Amy Tan’s narrative essay “Mother Tongue” (1990) Tan informs her audience that although a person can come from a home that does not speak the accepted language, their learning capabilities to improve their grammar skills are not limited. Tan writes about how she spoke in many “different Englishes” in situations to appeal to the appropriate audience whether it was around family or outside the home. In order to prove that English connects to identity and is a crucial issue for adolescent growth, Tan brought her audience back in time to her upbringing where showed examples of how her mother spoke and how she translated it the correct way of speaking. Tan’s intended audience is her mother as well as all first generation-Americans with emigrant parents.

I understand where Amy Tan is coming from in her story and how difficult change can be for people who are unfamiliar with a countries language. It’s not easy being misunderstood by your peers and having to translate for your parents. I sympathize for her having to deal with that responsibility as a child and having to see her mother go through some of the trials she endured being misunderstood. She also had to juggle her personal life and professional life as to how she spoke in public verses how she would hold a conversation with her mother or husband.

I felt that the meaning of this story was to get the audience to better understand Amy and the difference in her lifestyle. She would tell about certain situations that would happen to her mother and how she would have to defend or speak for her. One incident occurred when her mother did not receive her pay check. Her mother called the company about the issue but they weren’t able to understand what she was saying so Amy had to speak for her. I can only imagine having to do something like that. Amy developed a system for her use of language and she was able to turn it off and on depending on her surroundings. This helped her adjust to life and still manage to communicate with her mother.