A Modest Proposal Questions

1.  He makes the author of A Modest Proposal come off as witty and very intelectual.  He shows that the author knows how to solve all of Ireland's problems, but on the othere hand he is doing it sarcasticly.

2.The author's real thesis is that the people of Ireland need to do better to provide for themselves and take a stand against England.  If they keep living the way they are, they will surely die.

3.I detect differences between the propser and the author when he suggests that we eat the babies as the solution to the problem.  That was absurd so I knew he had to be joking.  This is the point of the story where it starts to get ironic.

4.A lot of people are singled out including old people, young children, and England.  He does not like the beggers at all.  He thinks they should be doing something better with their life.  The Irish are also to blame because they are not doing anything about their current situation.  His alligence lies with Ireland but he is becoming fed up with the people there.  He identifies himself as poor, but not a begger.

5.The essay does give some serious proposals such as saying that Ireland needs to get their act together if they want to survive into the next decade.

6.  This is organized by age of solution.  First he talks about babies, then young children, and then old people.  The purpose of the last paragraph  is to say that if he could help out he could, but he is poor so he unfortunately he can't.

7.  swift's piece is very successful.  I do ot think that the satire becomes overpowering, it strengthens the moment.  I think that it has a big enough impact because this is the first time that we hear an actual solution.

8.I have no idea about the different types of satire, but I know he used satire threoughout the essay explaining to use some ridiculous solutions.

9.It is an understatement because the proposal is not modest at all, it is a very radical proposal.  It is verbal irony for the same reason.

10.  Throughout the essay there is irony.  Especially when he is coming up with "solutions" to the problems of babies and the elderly.  This is also how he uses sarcasm.  It works out very well.

11.It is telling Ireland that they need to fight back in order for them to get what they want.  England is suppossed to be the big guys and Ireland the weaklings.  It also has something to do with civil rights.

Logos:  When is talking about the number of people in Ireland and explaining how the population breaks down by age and gender.

Pathos:  There is not that many places he uses pathos, but one place is when he is suggesting that we eat babies.

Ethos:  The last paragraph he is using ethos.

I want a wife responses

1. Does this essay have an explicitly stated thesis? If so, what is it? If you believe the thesis is implied, paraphrase it in your own words. 

 -No, this essay does not have a stated thesis.  I believe the thesis is that she wants someone to do everything a wife does for her.

2. Throughout the essay, Brady repeats the words “I want a wife.” What is the effect of this repetition?

 -The effect of this repetition is that it tells the reader everything a wife does that men take for granted.  It shows them that there are a lot of responsibilities that a wife has.

3. Brady never uses the personal pronouns he or she to refer to the wife she defines. Why not? 

 -She never uses personal pronouns because she does not actually want a wife, these are just the responsibilities that she has as a wife.

4. Do you think Brady really wants the kind of wife she describes—does this ideal spouse

actually exist? Explain why you think Brady wrote this essay. 

 -She probably would like to have a wife that does everything stated in the essay.  This ideal spouse does not exist, but when you love someone enough they come pretty close to it.  I think Brady wrote this essay because she is tired of having the womanily responsibilities around the home and wants to go to school to learn and be higher up in society.

 5. How does Brady define what it means to be a “wife”? How does she organize the many services a wife provides her husband and family? What do you think of Brady’s characterization of a wife and her responsibilities? How do you think she wants her readers to respond to this characterization? Why?

 -Brady defines it to be a wife as doing things around the home such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children.  She organizes the services a wife provides chronologically in what needs to be done first, second, etc.  Her characterization of a wife is pretty spot on.  She wants readers to resond in a sympathetic way and feel sorry for women by portraying them as slaves.

6. Write a letter to Brady responding to “I Want a Wife.” Let her know what you admire or don’t admire about the essay and the extent to which you consider it effective and/or persuasive. 

-Dear Mrs. Brady, I personally didn't admire your essay, I somewhat took offense to it as a guy.  I think you should stop complaining about your responsibilities as a woman and as a wife and get back in the kitchen to make some sandwiches. 
This is the way society is, so you should get use to it because it isn't going to change.  This is still true today, 40 years later.  I did however find it effective on weaker people.  They could feel sorry for women and try and do something about it.  It was clever how you used satire to say that you don't really want a wife.  Goodbye, Ben  

7. Write your own piece entitled “I Want a/an X.” You can use Brady’s essay as a model, and in the process, imitate some of her stylistic techniques. Or, alternatively, write an essay about the role of a “wife” in the early twenty-first century, explaining how a wife’s responsibilities complement and are complemented by those of a spouse.

-I want a sister. I want a sister that obsesses about how she looks every second of every day trying to impress her so called “friends”.  I want a sister that screams and yells at the top of her lungs when she doesn’t get what she wants.  I would love it if my sister did that; I would think to myself “She is handling her problems like such an adult right now.”  I want a sister that dresses like a stripper at school and thinks that she is more important then everybody else.  I want a sister that will make me food at a moment’s notice and will do anything I say.  I want a sister that doesn’t think independently an thinks what everybody else is thinking.  I want a sister that is dumb, that gets bad grades in school and doesn’t even care about them because someday they will marry some rich guy and grades won’t matter then.  That is the kind of sister I would be proud of.

LIGHTSWITCH!!!

A light switch is a very useful tool.  It makes turning on and off lights a breeze.  Without the light switch we would have to spend an extra ten seconds looking for another way to turn on or off a light.  Ten whole seconds!  That is too much time to be spending, looking for a way to turn on or off a light.  I bet Thomas Edison would be amazed with what we can do from his simple invention.  We have whole shows just dedicated on light and Edison was the first person to invent the incandescent light bulb.  The way a light switch works is that when the light switch is on the circuitry is all connected and the electricity can flow, when it is off then there becomes a break in the circuits which cuts off the flow of electricity.  It is a very cool invention that people take for granted every day.

HALLOWEEN!

One Halloween evening, I was walking through a cemetery and tripped on a tombstone.  When I got to my feet, I noticed that when I fell, I accidently moved the top of the grave.  I went over to put the top back on, but when I looked in the grave, there was nothing there!  Suddenly, something tapped me on the shoulder.  As I turned around in fear, I was terrified to find a zombie.  I ran from the cemetery as fast as my feet could carry me and returned to the safety of my house.  The house was set up for Halloween so it had fake blood, candy, and pumpkins everywhere.   My brother tried to scare me when I came in the house my saying boo, and while wearing an evil looking monster mask.  It did not work as usual, so I went to the kitchen to get some pumpkin pie.    I got on the computer and went on YouTube.  As I was watching a hilarious video my computer sparked and died as an orange ghost flew out of the monitor.  I was done with scary Halloween stuff for the day, so I decided to go to sleep.  The End

Letter from a Birmingham Jail They say/ I say

1.  In the first paragraph they are saying that MLK's statement was "unwise and untimely" but then MLK comes back and says "Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas.".  He is saying that he does not have to respond to every critic that comes his way and he is right.

2.On the bottom paragraph of the second page, it is talking about how the action of MLK and his associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely.  He comes back saying that the new Birmingham administration  must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act.  They are talking about the upcoming election for the mayor of Birmingham.

3.In the middle of page 3, they are saying that they express a great deal of anxiety over the black people's willingness to break laws.  MLK fires back stating that there are two types of laws: just and unjust.  He is basically explaining that the "laws" that his people are breaking are unjust so it should not be held against them.

4.In the first paragraph on the fourth page, they are saying that what they are doing is just and there is nothing the black community can do.  He says that he wants people to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right.  He also wants them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.  He wants the African-Americans to be treated equally because it is morally right.

5.In the first paragraph of page six, they are saying that the activity in Birmingham as extreme.  MLK says that he is disappointed that the fellow clergymen would see his nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist.  He is saying that the clergymen is taking his nonviolent approach to solve an enormous issue as extreme and that is not the case at all.

Exercise 2

In the Introduction to "They Say/ I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates designed to help young writers learn the basics of writing a persuasive argument paper. Specifically, Graff and Birkenstein argue that the types of writing templates they offer a guide to students about writing a fantastic paper and knowing how to write a paper that makes sense.  As the authors themselves put it, "Again, none of us is born knowing these moves, especially when it comes to academic writing.  Hence the need for this book.".  Although some people believe that people should be able to be creative with your writing and people are naturally talented, Graff and Birkenstein insist that this is not the case and you need this book to learn how to write.  In sum, then, their view is that people need to be taught how to write properly.  I agree with their opinion.  In my view, the types of templates that the authors recommend help students in writing papers and just nudges them into writing a well written paper.  For instance, this essay I am writing currently is based on a template and I feel it is going well.  In addition, I needed to be taught how to write in order for me to get to where I am today academically.  Some might object, of course, on the grounds that you are taking away kids freedom of speech and creativity.  Yet I would argue that they are only providing guidelines for the paper instead of denying their ideas.  Overall, then, I believe that templates help kids write papers- an important point to make given this is based on a template.

Exercise 1

Abortion, to many people is the equivalent to murder.  They see that taking a life away before it is fully developed is the same as killing a neighbor or classmate.  However, to others, this is not the case at all.  On the contrary, an unfit teenage soon-to-be mother that doesn't want a kid should be able to have abortion as an option.  The truth is, there are two very different sides of this issue and it is a controversial topic.  In this essay, then, closely analyzing the two sides of this heated debate and clearly show that abortion should be an option for women.