Reading Critically

In Reading Critically, the author thoroughly explains a reading process that, if used correctly, can help the reader fully understand and get the most out of what they are reading. The author defines critical reading as reading that looks beneath the surface of a work, whether written or visual, seeking to understand the creator's intentions, the strategies for achieving them, and their worthiness. To help readers do this, the author outlines the basic things that the reader must do before, during, and after reading. Before reading any of the content of a piece of writing, one must identify the preliminaries, which are the title, the author, where the work was published, and when the work was published. By doing this, the reader gains background knowledge that will help them better understand the content of the piece. Next, the reader must do a basic first reading in which he or she gets the general feel for the piece without diligently combing through every detail in the writing. This allows a reader to glimpse an essay in its entirety so that later he or she can go back and process those little details. As the reader reads the piece, it is essential for him or her to mark up the piece of writing. Whether it's writing questions in the margins or underlining important words and phrases, this can help to point out things in the writing that need to be more carefully processed or better understood. It is always good to write a summary of the writing, be it a detailed explanation of the most important parts or a short description of the main concept of the piece. Doing these things will help a reader to think critically and better understand the author's meaning for writing the piece. A reader should analyze, make inferences about, synthesize, and evaluate a writing piece to grasp the full concept or message that the author was trying to convey. By doing these things, according to Reading Critically, a reader would be going past the written words and understanding why the author wrote a certain piece.

American Tongues

1. In my opinion, voice in literature is when the writer's personality is portrayed throughout their writing. If someone has a strong voice in their writing, the reader should be able to identify it and recognize it in other works.
2. A person creates his voice when writing by using words that he would use in his everyday life that can convey his personality. If he is a nice, warm person, he would be considerate in his writing and show those traits through the language he uses. I think creating voice is more unintentional. I think that a writer will naturally incorporate his personality in his writing even is he does not mean to.
3. According to the speaker, many people talk around a subject because it is the way that they have always done it and it is how they were taught to speak. We can tell how much confidence a writer has by the way he approaches a topic. If he is straightforward and jumps into the topic, that shows that he is confident with what he has to say.
4. Voice is important in writing because it can show the reader who the writer is without directly telling them in the writing. Readers can draw out information and clues about the personality of the writer and how they are as a person.

Eleanor Rigby- PAIN vs. Beatles

1. I like the second song better. The main reason is because I have heard this original song before today and liked it. Also, the first song had a strong metal-sounding guitar, which I did not like. The original version is much softer and lighter, which makes it sound better to me.
2.The second song is also more pleasing to listen to. When listening to a song, I want it to be soft in my ears and not very intense. The first song was very strong and loud, which is not aesthetically pleasing to me. The softness and happy mood that the original song creates make it more pleasing.

Kardinsky vs. Pollack

1. Personally, I like the Kandinsky painting better than the Pollack. Kandinsky uses very bright colors that make the painting have a happy and positive feel. He uses geometric shapes and patterns to create a modern feel that is pleasing to the eye. There is a lot of open space in his painting and the space is not crowded.
2. The Kandinsky painting is more pleasing to the eye. This painting has very bright colors that create a happy mood, which is pleasing to the eye. The colors in the Pollack painting are very neutral and dark, creating a boring, sullen feel. The Pollack is also very crowded and does not have a lot of space, which makes it less pleasing to the eye. The Kandinsky has a lot of open space, making it more pleasing.

Sign Language

1. The single effect of the short film is finding beauty in simple things.
2. a.) He loves his job, even though he just holds up signs in the street.
    b.) "So much beauty, so much opportunity right under our noses."
    c.) Editing- When he is talking about the beauty of things, the camera shows the girl who he wants to talk to.
3. If the sign holders had directly spoken to him instead of showing the text on the signs, the single effect would be affected. The simplicity of the job is all of the workers out on the street, holding signs, and not saying a word to one another. He is able to see the beauty in his job from this simplicity. If the workers had spoken to him, this simplicity would be taken away from and the effect would be lessened.

Harry Nilsson's "Good Old Desk"

S- A good friend (Correction- God)
O- 1972 or '73
A- People listening to his music (Correction- Non-believers, God himself)
P- Tell about his good friend (Correction- Thank God for always being there)
S- Harry Nilsson
T- Positive, Happy, Cheerful

I think Harry Nilsson is not literally talking about a desk. I think he is talking about a good, loyal friend who he can trust. He says that his desk is always there and is stable, like a good friend would be.

Three instances of the symbol of God-
1. "Such a comfort to know it's got no place to go. It's always there."
2. "It's a friend i've got, a giant of all times."
3. "Such c comfort to know, it's dependable and slow. But it's always there."

Shooting an Elephant SOAPSTone

Subject: The subject of George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant is that if there is a great enough influence, one can be driven to do something that he or she does not want to do. Someone being persuaded to go against what they think is right is illustrated by George Orwell, the narrator of the story, feeling forced to shoot and kill the elephant because of the large crowd that was watching him. He clearly did not intend to shoot the elephant, but if he did not, he was worried that the audience would be disappointed and laugh at him. This shows how the crowd had a very strong influence on him that caused him to go against what he wanted to do and to shoot the elephant. At the end of the story, Orwell writes, “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.” This further exemplifies how he solely shot the elephant because of the influence of the crowd and the want to please them even though it was not something that he wanted to do.

Occasion: Shooting an Elephant was written during the time when Britain had control of Burma. The essay’s time of creation is conveyed when Orwell says, “Theoretically – and secretly, of course – I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” This tells the readers that this was written in the time when the British were oppressing the Burmese, which means that they were in control of the country. The probable place of the essay’s creation is Moulmein, Burma. “In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me,” writes Orwell in the first line of the piece. This clearly shows where the events that he describes in the story take place.

The time and place of the essay’s creation influence the essay by causing George Orwell to be abnormal in Burma at the time. Orwell says in the story, “Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd – seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.” This shows how he was obviously different from the native people of Burma because of the fact that he is a white European and the Burmese are “yellow” Asians. Orwell was there at that time because of the British’s control of Burma, which is why the time period is important to the story.

Audience: George Orwell’s specific audience for Shooting an Elephant is teens who are exposed to influence on a regular basis. The author’s target audience is revealed by the realistic story portrayed by Orwell. He tells a true story of how he was influenced by others, which most teens in any society are as well. This story is mainly to this group because they are the ones who can most directly relate to the message and moral of the story.

The author’s general audience for the essay is all people who are old enough to make decisions. The author’s general audience is shown by him having to make an important decision with a crowd of onlookers influencing him. Anyone who can make a decision can also be influenced by another on how to make the decision, which is what happened to Orwell in the story.

Purpose: George Orwell’s purpose in Shooting an Elephant is to convey the idea that one can be influenced to do something that he or she does not want to do by telling personal story from his life that exemplifies this. Orwell wants the audience to stand up for what they think is right and to not let anyone or anything else influence them, no matter how strongly they try. Not succumbing to persuasion and influence from others is illustrated when Orwell says, “It seemed dreadful to see the great beast Lying there, powerless to move and yet powerless to die, and not even to be able to finish him.” This shows that his decision to shoot the elephant left him feeling dreadful and sad about it because he did not want to do it in the first place. Also, this is shown when Orwell writes, “The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie.” This shows that even though some people agreed with his decision, some people were unhappy with the choice he was forced to make.

Speaker: George Orwell, an English author and journalist, believes that people should stand up for what they think is right. This value is illustrated by the fact that, in the story, Orwell did not stand up for what he thought was right and shot and killed the elephant. Orwell describes the dreadfulness and horror that came from having to watch the elephant die, which would not have happened if he stood up for what he thought was right and did not shoot the elephant.

George Orwell, thought to be the twentieth century’s best chronicler of English culture, also believes that reputation is very important to a person. This is shown when he says, “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.” He did not want to look like a fool in front of all of the people and to gain a bad reputation for not killing the elephant, so he chose to shoot it.

George Orwell’s use of a literary device is evident when he says, “The thick blood welled out of him like red velvet, but still he did not die.” Here, he compares the elephant’s blood to red velvet by using a simile. Orwell used this simile to show the harshness and seriousness of what he did, which was shoot the elephant. The blood represents the elephant’s death and how real the moment was.

George Orwell’s use of another literary device is evident when he says, “I looked at the sea of yellow faces above the garish clothes-faces all happy and excited over this bit of fun, all certain that the elephant was going to be shot.” Here, Orwell uses a metaphor to compare the crowd of Burmese people to a vast sea. He uses this to show just how big the crowd of over two thousand people seemed to him, and how much pressure that added to his decision.

Tone: George Orwell exhibits a serious and regretful attitude about individuals being influenced by others to do things that they do not want to do in Shooting an Elephant. These attitudes are expressed when Orwell uses words and phrases like “mysterious, terrible change”, “desperate” and “solely to avoid looking like a fool”. “Mysterious, terrible change” and “desperate” are very serious, grim words that create that same kind of tone in the story. “Solely to avoid looking like a fool” is a phrase that shows how Orwell regrets shooting the elephant and the only reason he did it was to not look stupid in front of the crowd of people. The author’s tone serves the purpose of the essay because being influenced to do things one does not want to do is a very serious thing that many people come to regret.
 

Rockwell's "The Runaway"

In Rockwell's "The Runaway", a scene is shown of a little boy, some sort of officer, and a diner worker all engaging in a conversation. Although it would definitely be possible to see this scene happening in the 1950s and on, one would most likely see some variation in the subjects. The three figures seen in this painting are clearly white males that play completely different roles in their society. In the 1950s, if an artist wanted to show the rift that was emerging in society, he would most likely include diversity in what kind of people he portrays. The artist clearly overlooks this fundamental rift that was rising in America throughout the 1950s- an emerging counter-culture that was not concerned with how things were in America but rather how things are.