Close Read #3

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/opinion/sunday/new-hope-on-immigration.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

          In New Hope on Immigration, the author primarily communicates a point addressing the President and government to act on immigration reform while many opponents are softening their position.  Techniques such as word choice, detail, and figurative language are used to strengthen the author's argument and to create a more compelling editorial.  He/she gains supportby influencing the reader's decision with the techniques without outright telling them that certain things are right or wrong.   

         Out of the three, diction is used most extensively throughout the editorial.  The editorial opens using the words "unauthorized immigrants" in lieu of illegal immigrants which is a clever move as "illegal" sounds a lot worse to a reader than "unauthorized."  Later on, the author uses the word "undocumented" in place of "unauthorized" and then refers to the same people as "Americans-in-fact".  A slow progression is made to a completely positive connotation by the end of the editorial so that a reader will convince his/herself unconsciously that illegal immigrants are nominally different from any other citizen.  This progression is made subtly enough so that a reader will not notice and so the article seems more objective while describing illegal immigrants.  

         Detail is used in the editorial to support the author's position through deliberate choice of only facts supporting his/her side.  In the second paragraph, the author says, "[Asians] rejected Mitt Romney by 3 to 1, according to exit polls," to make it seem like the Republican party is becoming more irrelevant.  This, in effect, persuades to reader to also reject the Republican opinion because statistics reject it.  One cannot argue numbers or facts so a statistic favoring the author's opinion strongly creates an effect of persuasion.  The author goes also on to provide details that blow up immigration reform to appear to be a very important issue on the agenda.  It is specifically mentioned that there "11 million" undocumented immigrants and "400,000" deportations which gives the author a tangible sense of how many people are affected by immigration reform.  

         Finally, figurative language is used to ridicule and deprecate the Republican party.  Readers will not want to associate with the Republican voice thus creating support for the author's opinions.  In the first paragraph, the author writes, "Senators like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who once bravely supported bipartisan reform but slunk away late in the last Bush administration, are scratching at the door again, as if the last five years never happened."  These opponents of immigration reform are made out to look pathetic and wishy-washy in the reader's eyes with the image of some kind unwanted dog back "scratching at the door again."  Later, fair-weathered bipartisan Republicans are again described as changing with the times: "But the election did scare some of the immigration opportunists back onto the bipartisan bus."  The "bus" is a band-wagon.  

         The author's diction, figurative language, and deliberate inclusion of details are all used to gain support for the author's opinion.  These techniques are subtly used so the reader will side with the author unconsciously.

Prompt #3

2008. In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast or comparison, the distinctive characteristics and qualities of the main character. For example, the ideas or behavior of a minor character might be used to highlight the weaknesses or strengths of the main character. 

Choose a novel or play in which a minor character serves as a foil for the main character. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the relation between the minor character and the major character illuminates the meaning of the work.

In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Bernard serves as a foil to Biff which highlights the themes of denial and the failure of the American Dream.  Bernard works hard as a teenager and grows up to be a success while Biff coasts off of his personality and popularity and grows up to be a lost, wandering soul without real employment. 

Denial is a major theme within the work, as all the character's struggle to cope with reality.  Willy, Biff's father, raises Biff to believe that personality is everything in the world and that all things will fall into place if one has the right personality/relationships.  As a result, when Biff is a teenager, he does poorly in school and fails to graduate.  Willy only denies Biff's faults instead of teaching him to do the right thing.  For example, when Willy encourages Biff to steal or when he tells Biff to cheat on his exams.  He only sees his son as perfect.  Bernard, the foil, does not receive the same kind of unconditional encouragement and is forced to work hard in order to succeed.  However, this good work ethic makes him successful as an adult.  When they are adults Willy further denies that he had anything to do with Biff's unemployment as an adult.  From a bigger perspective, Willy's problem with denial throughout the play led him to raise Biff into the man he is in the present who has trouble gaining unemployment.  The stark contrast between Biff and Bernard leads the reader into questioning why they are so different which highlights the theme of denial, the main reason behind their differences.  These differences continue to highlight denial as Willy questions them as well.  He constantly searches for answers from the different characters which encourages the reader to search for answers as well.  

The American Dream is a major theme in the work, highlighted by Biff and Bernard as Biff is the poster child of the American Dream while Biff is the complete opposite.  Bernard is a very successful lawyer who earned his worth in the world through his trade.  Biff cannot find happiness in white-collar, professional work, so he has trouble holding a job.  The American Dream as represented in the play is that anyone can go into the world of professionals and climb their way to the top.  The American Dream fails Biff and he is left having trouble getting a job because his real desire is to move West and work on a farm, with no desire to become an important person. The failure of the American Dream and Arthur Miller's message that it is not for everyone is highlighted by the differences between Biff and Bernard.  As the reader looks for an explanation for their differences they can see that Bernard finds extreme success through the American Dream while Biff suffers.  

Overall, Death of a Salesman is able to emphasize it's themes and meaning through it's use of foils Biff and Bernard.  The reader unconsciously answers questions and as a result understands the meaning of the play.

Response to Course Material #3

         Recently in class we have been studying Death of a Salesman, which I have found to be shockingly similar to our last focus, The American Dream.  I'm not certain if the entire year is going to have a focus on American ideals, but I guess that will make itself apparent once we read the next work.  We have not discussed too much about the deeper meanings of Death of Salesman, but I missed Friday so we might have talked more about it.  Hopefully both of these texts will prove to be useful on the AP exam which I am sure they will be (otherwise why else would we be reading them.)
        Another thing we did in class is practice multiple choice questions on the AP exam.  The application of this practice is obvious because we will get better at answering multiple choice questions.  We identified the different types of wrong answers and I was surprised to see how the practice questions tended to have them all.  The different wrong answers included too narrow, too broad, opposite, We will be well prepared to avoid the traps that the exam writers have set up for us.
       Finally, we did work out of the textbook.  I thought this was beneficial because not only did it give us tone practice, it exposed us to some other authors that we haven't studied.  These included Langston Hughes and Amy Tan.  Interestingly enough, they were about the American Dream.  Additionally, Mohan and my presentation was successful in informing the class about our poem and making the class laugh.