The history of the United States of America is vast and complex, encompassing thousands of events that all helped form it into a modern day superpower. When reflecting on the history of America, many historians remind us of major events that changed the course of the country's development. Many authors of these works analyze American historical events through the perspective of the people living through that event or through a 21st-Century viewpoint. However, there are fewer authors who are able to successfully illustrate more about an event than what can be visibly seen or inferred by a reader. Mark Feige, a history professor and writer, is one of the few authors who is able to uncover additional information in American history.
In his passage from “Last Child in the Woods,” Richard Louv uses various rhetorical strategies in order to make his audience more supportive of his argument. The passage discusses the connection, or really the separation, between people and nature. On this subject, Louv argues the necessity for people to redevelop their connection with nature. His use of tone, anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and factual examples all help develop the pathos and logos of his piece.
It’s hard to understand much else about the why’s and how’s of laughter, but they seem to know, simply, that it works. This means that in order for readers to further understand the reality of things like humor in Kesey’s book, oneself should have to ignore their feelings and sacrifice the pleasure and ask questions that help people to discover what it is about humor that is so powerful. Laughter does not only play a major role in the story, but in life as
The Impact of Humor As Leo Rosten, an American humorist and author states, “Humor is the affectionate communication of insight” Humor is an intelligent way to enforce an argument to your audience. With the employment of humor, the authors are able to persuade their readers into understanding, and sometimes agreeing with their opinions. Humor allows authors to have the insight about their topic thus, giving the author credibility and zealousness. In Laura Fraser's essay, “Why I Stopped Being a Vegetarian”, she employs the element of humor to strengthen her essay in a myriad of ways.
Bardon argues that the relief theory can be used to explain why we find awkward or situations saturated with tension humourous. He states, “The relief theory is the view that humorous laughter is a manifestation of the release of nervous excitement or emotional tension” (Bardon 468). By recognizing that laughter is “manifestation” of our stress and tension, Bardon recognizes that we need to release our anxieties and humor is a good way to allow the reader to cope with their current problems. This epitomized in Sedaris’ essay when he explains how he used to deal with situations that made him nervous. Sedaris writes, “We were alone now, and something unpleasant entered my mind.
Rhetorical Analisis of “Why Funny Animal Videos Are Good for You” In “Why Funny Animal Videos Are Good for You” author Elizabeth Heath argues that funny animal videos help our society with problems such as negativity and mental health issues. Heath examines how funny videos exhibit positive emotions, and allows a better flow in societies day to day life. As the article continues Heath shows how negative feelings such as anger, fear, and disappointment may also benefit us in our daily lives. Heath's primary purpose for this article is to inform the audience of the positives about funny videos and show that finding ways to bring out positive emotions may be the thing we need in order to help our society improve overall.
Nature in “A Long Way Gone” is often described as beautiful but also dangerous, for example he describes many villages out in the country do not have running water or electricity and are surrounded by bushes and jungle. Ishmael can see a grander perspective when confronted by natural beauty. Ishmael strives to be like the moon, he is adept at living off of the forest when he is stranded, and he rejoices when he sees the ocean for the first time. Also, during the story the forest is described as nature foreshadowing the evil that is coming because of the war. Ishmael could not outrun the evil because forest did not end, and even when it did end to the beach that just meant he had nowhere else to run, and that eventually the evil will come.
Louv uses pathos to illustrate his disdain with man’s separation from nature. He mainly uses pathos through his personal anecdotes with nature. For instance, Louv recounts on how witnessing nature through a drive “was the landscape we watched as children. It was our drive by movie” (55-56). By stating
Humor is the ingredient that keeps it all moving, holds the bigger picture, inspires and brings a sense of gratitude for life. Aspiring to these qualities illuminates the lack of them at times. When I hit this kind of wall or low, I turn to the smile and humor to elevate my
By taking away the seriousness out of these topics through humor, allows readers to take their focus away from the negativity to
In a space of faster and easier global interaction in the “modern era,” the presence of “the other” becomes more and more important to the discourse of the nation. In East Asia, the Chinese way of thought had been the centre of both Korea and Japan for much of history. However, because of an increased amount of foreign interaction, one important goal for many nations was to establish themselves as an independent country in the world. One task of this was through the establishment of a national identity as a symbol of uniformity and consolidation. In Japan’s days as an Empire, their status nevertheless relied on the inclusions and exclusions of “types” of people such as intellectuals, women, and colonial subjects.
We should value nature and its animals much more (Becker, 1971). In today’s world we have what Becker calls a “power-saw mentality” (Becker, 1971, p. 114). Instead we’re greedy with what nature has to offer us. “Man takes what nature offers us, but usually only what he needs” (Becker, 1971, p. 114). There is a psychological difference in today’s world of what we enjoy out of nature (Becker, 1971).
Nature is easily projected onto, as it allows for a sense of peacefulness and escapism. Due to its ability to evoke an emotional reaction from the masses, many writers have glorified it through various methods, including describing its endless beauty and utilizing it as a symbol for spirituality. Along with authors, artists also show great respect and admiration for nature through paintings of grandiose landscapes. These tributes disseminate a fixed interpretation of the natural world, one full of meaning and other worldly connections. In “Against Nature,” Joyce Carol Oates strips away this guise given to the environment and replaces it with a harsher reality.
One of the most valuable aspects of personality is humor – we value one’s sense of humor and make friends often based on finding certain things funny. But how and why do we consider things to be funny at all? Human beings have strived to uncover fundamental truths about human nature for centuries – even millennia – but humor itself is still yet to be pinpointed. Henri Bergson is only one of many who has attempted this feat, and his essay Laughter: an essay on the meaning of the comic from 1911 breaks down comedy into what he believes to be its essential forms and origins. While Bergson makes many valid points, Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times that was brought to screens only twenty years later seems to contradict many of Bergson’s theories, while Bergson seems to contradict even himself over the course of his essay.
There was no chattering or chirping of birds; no growling of bears and no chuckling of contented otters; instead, the clearing lay desolate and still, as though it never wished to be turned into day. The only occupants were rodents and spiders who had set their home in the dank, forgotten shack. From its base, dead, brown grass reached out, all the way to the edge of the tree-line, unable to survive in the perished, infertile soil that made up the foundations of the house. Bird houses and feeders swung still from the once growing apple trees, in the back garden, consigned to a life of
