A new point of view...

Frederick Douglass does not understand why he was asked to speak on a day that is centered about white people’s national independence. Douglass feels quite strongly that the Fourth of July means nothing to the black, and everything to the white. “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.” (Frederick Douglass) For whites, the Fourth of July is a celebration. Douglass continues on to say “The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, ahs brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” For him, this day is seen the day the blacks remember American slavery and all the injustices they were faced with.

Douglass supports his feelings by appealing to logos, pathos, and ethos. Douglass obviously appeals to ethos because he is a black himself. He personally feels this way; he isn’t looking from the outside in. When he appeals to logos in “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”, he explains his reasons as to why he doesn’t believe he is the right person to make this speech .It is clear Douglass is addressing and appealing to pathos the most by how he points out his audience as “you”. He is asking white people why he was called upon to speak and why he has to do with independence. He appeals to pathos by saying things “with all the emphasis I can command…” (Frederick Douglass) He exposes how a slave feels and explains the Fourth of July from a slave’s point of view by reciting a poem. Douglass speech focusing on emotions and I think he succeeds in persuading his audience, white people, to question why he was chosen to speak about an event that has nothing to do with him.

The Roots of Prejudices

Parrillo states that the socialization process is about, “individuals acquire the values, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of their culture or subculture, including religion, nationality, and social class.” (RA p.514) Which is to say that part of the reason why there are prejudices are because a child will adapt the same beliefs and expectations of his or her parents without questioning. Even if a stereotype if made that is not true, our perception are shaped around it and influence how we act towards that particular group. This is to say that prejudice is simply taken from the socialization process. I think that Parrillo has a pretty accurate take of the socialization process.

I agree with what Parrillo is saying. Growing up as a child, you are taught to distinguish between right and wrong, what’s acceptable behavior in the house and what’s not in public, and if you disregard those, well, then you get a spanking. You believe everything, or at least you tell them you understand, because they said so and that heavily influences who you become as an adult. In order to make friends and to be “well liked” (as Willy would put it, anyway) you have to conform to some sort of general idea. In order to feel acceptable, you alter your opinions and are persuaded to change due to certain prejudices.

Oh Mr. Jefferson...

Although Thomas Jefferson was a great man as the author of the Declaration of Independence and promoter of the Louisiana Purchase, he was a confused man. On the inside, Jefferson was morally opposed to slavery and we can see this in the Declaration of Independence when he wanted emancipate and free the slaves. He knew in his heart that was wrong, but that didn’t stop him from owning them himself or fathering children into slavery. I feel that Jefferson was a hypocrite and contradicted himself. In private he was against slavery, but in the publics eye he was for it. On the other hand, I think it’s difficult to judge what someone does in a time period completely different from now days by using today’s present standards. Unlike many slave owners, Thomas Jefferson treated his slaves with kindness and he freed Sally Hemmings, who he was in a relationship with (on his deathbed). I consider Jefferson to have some flaws, but he was only human who was bound to make mistakes, and despite his contradictions he truly was a great American.

Comparing Loman to Tucker

The primary difference between Willy Loman and Cora Tucker is how they act and what they do. Tucker seems to depend mostly on her self, rather than on others like Willy. For Loman, he does stuff his own way and does it with a minimal amount of effort. He feels that his connections will get him places more than what he is capable of. Tucker on the other hand, works for what she wants and stands up for what she believes in, such as with equal rights between the black and white communities. Both of these characters are opposites with their goals in life. As Loman continues to fall short because of his concentration on being “well-liked”, Tucker pushes herself and her ideas to the next level. She doesn’t care so much about being “well-liked”; she strives off of what she is passionate and believes in. She has a mindset of what she wants to accomplish and has a set of realistic goals, unlike Loman who’s dreams crushed him. That is the difference between Loman and Tucker.

Oh Willy ...

According to Willy, in order to be successful you have to be “well liked”. The more liked you are in life the more opportunities and open doors will come from the people above you. To Willy, it’s more important to get ahead through people and to be popular than how hard you work or what you’re capable of doing. That is why he is so confused as to why Biff isn’t successful because he used to be well liked and as to why Charley is successful, since he isn’t well liked. Willy tries to figure this out throughout the play and has a hard time understanding that his philosophy does not always apply.

Cheers - Day 2

Man you could tell people had dotted their i’s and crossed their t’s for the second day of speeches and torture (haha!). A few things that felt very convincing in some speeches were the personal stories and the connection with the audience. Derek I loved how you mentioned other people who were involved with Dress for Success. Brittney and Maggie, you both did very well in knowing that your audience was a high school class. I felt like I was being talked to one-on-one with you guys! Great job everyone!

Everyone needs a little love - Day 1

Well I might say that our class did a remarkable job in writing speeches, convincing their challenging audience, and sound passionate about their presentation. Of course, thee wonderful Alex went first and set the bar EXTREMELY HIGH with his Goodwill speech. I froze in my tracks after hearing that one and happened to be in luck that my name wasn’t called because it allowed me to practice my speech a couple more times. Also, and here is your love Iyesha that you asked for on your blog ; ], I liked that you gave us a future look on where AVID is heading in 2010. We got a full 360 perspective of where your organization had been, is presently, and is heading. Lastly, kudos to Mei-Mei for her speech! I liked that you jumped right into what United Way was about and gave a personal story to go along with it.

Oh Mr. Emerson...

Emerson says that it takes trust in yourself and following your own path to be successful. You can’t let others’ impression of you or negative things affect where you are heading. To be successful you know to stay true to yourself and be a hard worker. I’m on both sides of the fence with his argument. For one, I definitely don’t think it is that easy. People’s opinion of you is going to shape your performance and if you completely ignore those, then you aren’t going to get far. Things in the past also should not be forgotten. What happens in your past makes you that much stronger. Sticking to the same mindset and staying true to your self is good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s realistic. That would be like relying on yourself, and that is not possible. You have to have a support system in life, especially in order to be successful. Everyone, at some point or another, needs to have some guidance in his or her life. You need to have people and let them affect your life, or else you won’t know where you’re going or what is going on around you.

Dayspring Center

Trying to find an organization that does more than feed or home the homeless is harder than I thought. If I am going to make a speech about a charity that empowers people to pursue success, it needs to have something special about it. I want to write a speech about someplace that does more than give the poor shelter or protect abused women, which is why I chose to write a speech about the Dayspring Center. The motto that they go by is, "Helping homeless families find a way home." Dayspring helps families realize their potential. They make a difference in more than one person's life.

I also chose this organization because my family contributes to their cause. My dad also knows some of the people who coordinate volunteers, so it works. This feels like the right organization to write a speech about.

Oh Mr. Alger...

Dalton tells that, “Confronting the reality is made that much harder by a mythology that assures us we can have it all.” (p.253) Meaning that by exposing the faults in a myth, we can understand and show what is behind it. If I were to agree to this, that a myth can be buried like exercise 9 tells us to do, I would find it incredibly hard to achieve.

This reminds me of back in middle school when we read “tall tales”. They were stories that had a lot of untrue things about them, but we read them anyway. Knowing they were false, we still continued to study them. If we know a myth is false, how do you stop people from talking about it? We submerge ourselves in a society that strives off of negative stories. I don’t think it’s possible to inter a myth that Alger presents.

How can we put down a myth that if you try with all your might, that you’ll succeed? How do you shut down the people that continue to believe that? If for a moment, I agreed that it could be accomplished a couple of things would need to happen. The first being that more books, advertisements, television shows, ECT need to agree with the concept that it’s impossible to live life starting out with nothing and then reaching the top. It would need a lot of support and credibility to bury this myth.

Cruz v. Alger: Game On

I was on a field trip on Friday, so this blog post will be comparing Cruz to Alger and which one is more realistic.

I think that Cruz’s piece about the American Dream is way more realistic than Alger's. Perhaps it’s because I find it authentic to look at all the faults (in the American Dream) in a story. The message I got from Ragged Dick was that, if you constantly work hard at what you do then you will succeed. If you keep on trying, something great is going to happen to you. That’s not real! That’s not realistic! Dick’s life was changed because he was brave and took a chance. We don’t see the bad or the consequences, like we do with the other reading. The reality is that we have to hold on to what we have and keep on going forward. You have to seek out possibilities; they aren’t going to come to you.