His key point is that, although many students are motivated learners, students rarely pursue their passion, and this creates a joyless and poor environment for students. In his essay, Zinsser successfully uses irony to express the severity of self-induced pressures college students experience, and he effectively uses a metaphor to show the greatest weakness American education faces. Zinsser’s essay is effective as the author uses an ironic story to convey that students induce
While this line is also sarcastic, Klosterman is able to enhance the humor of the line with profanity. In Klosterman’s Harry Potter essay, he states, “I honestly don’t give a shit if my assumption is true or false” (“Death by Harry Potter”). Klosterman casually throws around words most professional writers avoid because it fits his style of humor and connects him with readers. Since Klosterman’s essays are already more informal due to his biting sarcasm and hyperbole, his use of curse words only adds to his growing bond with the audience. Modern society has built crass language into our basic vocabulary; Klosterman’s use of profanity presents him as an average person to his audience in order to connect with them.
The narrator’s constant allusions to things only well educated people would recognize such as “Virgin Spring” (4) shows that despite portraying himself to others as a hardened rebel, he is an intellectual with a strong educational background. Had “Greasy Lake” been written in 3rd person it would not possess the same level of intimacy. In 1st person the narrators unreliability is highlighted in a way that 3rd person cannot. The reader would lose the ability to distinguish between the narrators outward persona and his inner self. An example of this is when the narrator expresses that he keeps a tire iron under his seat because thats what “bad characters” (6) did.
Not only did McCandless come from a well-off family, but they were educated too; Chris was no exception of course: “[Chris] had distinguished himself as a history and anthropology major with a 3.72 grade-point average” (16). Just given this information, one could readily question why McCandless would give that all up on some dangerous adventure, but Krakauer includes some important information about Chris. He points out that Chris found that “titles and honors are irrelevant” (16). Although brief, this is a large hint of McCandless’ frustration with society. McCandless also wasn’t motivated by such distinications and lacked, seemingly, a true purpose in his life.
His family was in need by normal standards, but overall he came from a middle class background. The main plot of his essay was that Alexie was different than his fellow other Native Americans due to the fact that he learned how to read and could read very challenging works, such as the Grapes of Wrath at a young age. Has he gets older, Alexie values education and knowledge and does not let preconceived ideas of the stereotypical concepts of how Natives Americans “are” let them get in his way. In this essay Alexie juxtaposes himself in his own essay to demonstrate how he broke the stereotypes against him. However, Sherman is trying to demonstrate to his audience (upper-middle class who now “values diversity”) who are the people who were types to probably doubt him.
He talks about a French philosopher Blaise Pascal and describes the root of most of problem people have. Pico paraphrases Pascal, “He remarked that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone” (Iyer 3). Pico does not only talk about the topic of being alone on the surface alone, but goes deeper and gets to the root of it with the help of a philosopher. Since the reader now knows that most people’s problems come from the idea of not having enough alone time, I come to the conclusion that his main idea, which is that people should have time alone, is acceptable. It makes more sense as to why people should spend time alone because their problems could be reduced.
Due to distinctions in various aspects mentioned previously, it is clear that the outcomes of their criticisms are also different. Particularly, the roles that Socrates and Jeremiah play in their societies is a determining factor. Socrates is an ingrained part of Athens and describes himself as a "gift to the city by the god." He is well-known for working with people, educating others, and guiding Athenians to adopt a life of goodness. This is exemplified by the close vote such that "a mere thirty votes had been [cast] different, [Socrates] would have been acquitted."
In my experience, what Martin Luther King Jr. calls “thinking intensively and critically” is very different from what my high school teachers called “critical thinking”, most especially by the way Dr. King links intelligence and learning to the development of character, that is, growth as a person. Too often in my past, teachers mentioned critical thinking only as a mental activity of seeing through stereotypes, evaluating both sides of issues and understanding and accepting differences. As worthwhile as these are, I have found that high level thinking without having a more enlightened character is simply inadequate. That was a recent, very positive experience with two very nice people of different faiths. As much as we had been taught in class about prejudice, the recent terrorists attacks across the world bred a good deal of ill-will in
By going against his stereotypical norm, Will is able to solve difficult math theorems that only a handful of people in the world can solve and he is only the janitor at M.I.T., not a student. This act is identified as soft deviance because while it goes against the social norm, it does not threaten social
According to the lecture, Socrates always asks just the right questions to make Euthyphro see that he does not really know all that he claims he knows. In other words Socrates proves that Euthyphro “…doesn’t have the knowledge of which he speaks” (Youngs’ Plato Lecture, 10:00). I feel as though that is exactly what Socrates did in this