TOW #13- Visual- Genocide

In Steve Greenberg’s political cartoon, a character created to represent the world presents a genocidal situation. Within the cartoon, Greenberg pictures the world explaining the handling of genocide, and a family in Darfur being diminished.  Implementing parody and understatement, Greenberg uses elements of satire to exemplify what happens when no one intervenes with genocide.The cartoon essentially outlines a parody of how the genocide in Darfur is being handled, as well as similar genocides. Not of the genocide itself, but of how the world has handled it. In the cartoon, a character pictured to represent “the world” says, “I am not sure it’s really necessary to take action in Genocides…” However, as he says this, a family made to represent the victims of Genocide ironically gets smaller and smaller.  This is meant to represent the real world that Greenberg presents to think falsely that not taking action is the best solution. The viewers, whom would come from western nations with control over the situation, would then be astounded, and disgusted. The parody thus successfully shows them what the end result will be with no action, and causes them to consequently want to take this action.Greenberg understates the situation in order to add an ironical feel to the cartoon. Within the cartoon, “the World” attempts to make the argument that lack of action is the most logical solution to the issue of genocide. “The world” states that, “… If you don’t do anything for long enough… the problem eventually sort of solves itself.”  Under the text, a family is shown being depleted with time until the family is absolutely annihilated. By exemplifying the world understating the matter at hand, the actuality strikes at the emotions of western readers. Through the parody and understatement exemplified through Greenberg’s cartoon, the western audience is made to understand the vast effects of lack of intervening in genocide. They are successfully made to comprehend the fatuity of claims that lack of action is the best course of action.

TOW #12-IRB-Eat Pray Love

In the novel, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, Gilbert presents a novel to teach her audience of young, struggling women that hope can be found easily through just three aspects which are to eat, pray, and love. Her purpose was to give the readers a sense of hope by presenting her story where she had gone from nothing to everything. Gilbert used order to achieve her purpose. This most notably shown in the way she divided the three aspects of a good life and presenting them through stories. Her first story dealt with her trip to Italy and the "Eat" part of her adventure. In Italy, Gilbert gained happiness by spending time with new people and enjoying food with them. She experienced new things such as the best pizza in Italy. Next, she presented “Pray” by describing her trip to India where she met an “unnamed” guru to teach her to meditate and clear her head from thoughts that have been troubling her. Next, Gilbert explained how she met her new love, a Brazilian who loved her for the way she was. By telling these stories in this order, it makes it easier for the reader to easily follow Gilbert’s intention and find a connection to the stories with the title and the purpose of it. Gilbert was able to accomplish her purpose which was to give readers a sense of hope by providing her personal story of her life and how she was able to fulfill her life the way she wanted it. By using order, Gilbert was able to tell her story in an organized fashion making it easier for readers to follow and understand the theme: “Eat, Pray, Love.” 

TOW #11- Nonfiction Piece-Whose Family Isn't Crazy

"Whose Family Isn't Crazy" is an piece by Dr. Peggy Drexler an author, social psychologist and gender scholar. She wrote the book Raising Boys Without Men and was a nominee for the Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction. In her piece she talks about the holiday motif of the crazy rambunctious family and ties it with the stress many people with mental illness deal with during the holidays. In her piece Drexler juxtaposes the crazy family occurrence to the actual crippling time many mentally ill people face during the holidays. Her main purpose being that even with your hectic family life to look out for the people like ones with mental disabilities because the holidays can become a stressful time. Drexler most evidently juxtaposes these two topics when she first mentions the topic of mental illness. She writes "Entire movies are based on the hilarious, madcap mess of forced holiday family fun, and every year we watch them with collective nods of recognition: Christmas Vacation, The Family Stone, Home Alone, and countless others. But what if your family really is dealing with mental illness, as so many are?" (3-4). By successfully juxtaposing these two topic she connects her audience, families, with the real life topic of mental illness. Making the topic seem closer to home as "61.5 million Americans suffer from mental illness in any given year"(5). By utilizing juxtaposition she not only connects with her audience but shows how the seriousness of mental illness during the holidays and how hectic for you could be torture for some members of ones family.