Mid Term Letter

Ms. Laura Cline,

I want to thank you for all that you have challenged me with so far in this English class. I feel my biggest challenge is trying to learn the new technology of the blogs that we have been doing, this is new to me.  My main reason for taking online classes is because of my work schedule and home life being so busy, I am able to do my school work around all of this so learning has be quite interesting thus far. I do feel like my biggest success has been being able to keep up with all of my homework, in the classes that I am taking and staying on task, along with my everyday life challenges with work and home and starting a new position at work.

The readings you have given us have been outside anything I have read before and have been challenging for me to grasp the concept of, however, they have broadened my wanting to read more and I have recently downloaded Gulliver’s Travel to read in the future when I am done with all the other reading I have going on currently in my schedule.

My goal for the second half of the session is to continue staying on task and completing the course with at the very least a B in the class, reaching for the A. I hope to improve my run on sentences and putting my words together the correct way so I can fit enough words to fill 3 full pages of these essays because that has really been hard to do when the papers we are reading are only eight pages long.

Thank you for all your help.

Sincerely,

Toni Paxton

First Paragraph and Thesis

 Swift the Grotesque Idea

In Dr. Jonathan Swift’s writing of A Modest Proposal, he proposes that the women of poverty sell their children to the rich people to plump them up, so the rich can then make the children into food, also they can  ” make gloves for the ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen” (Swift par. 15). The less fortunate tenants would then have another way to pay for what they need as well. Swift writes this proposal because he feels that there are too many children being born to poverty stricken women. While Swift’s proposal is grotesque in nature, he makes quite an argument with his ideas of what to make out the children and how eating the children will help the economy.

Irish stew, by Charles Haynes

Works Cited

Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal. eBook. <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-

       h/1080-h.htm>. Feb 22,2013 

Link I am going to do is definition and examples of satires.

Response to Swift

A Modest Proposal

1. What is the problem that Swift identifies in his society? What does he want to do about it? 

The problem that Swift identifies in his society is that there are many having babies that cannot afford to be having them and they are starving to death or begging and stealing to survive. Swift is trying to find a solution for so many children being born to poverty and so many poor people continuing to give birth when they cannot afford to feed themselves let alone more children.

 2. Is his suggestion serious? If not, what is the purpose? What is he making fun of? 

I don’t think Swift is making a serious suggestion. He is making an attempt at being funny. He seems to be making fun of how the people of poverty survive when they can’t seem to stop having children.

 3. Is his solution logical? What kind of evidence does he give to support his position? 

I do not think this is a logical solution because who in their right mind wants to have children so they can sell them like they would if they were raising cattle or chickens. In Swift’s proposal he has evidence to support his position, however, it is not logical to believe in his proposal. 

Picture of the cover for A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

The link I chose will take you to the story of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift. I linked it any time you see the name Swift.

Advertisement

The reason I chose this as a uniquely effective advertisement is because so many times I could relate to how these guys feel. Also because I find it to be a funny advertisement. I think the advertisement has pathos in it because I had an emotional connection to the character that was being sluggish from hunger. The logos being used was the young lady telling the tackled Betty White she needed to eat the Snicker bar to take away the hunger pain to stop being so sluggish.

What I am working on

What I am working on

I chose the thesis: Bartleby is the hero of Melville's story in his refusal to participate in a workplace that represents the sad, dreary atmosphere of a bureaucratic, industrialized society. He is the only one standing up to society that is increasingly oppressive to workers.

While this was a hard choice for me because I wasn't quite grasping the whole idea of this essay to begin with, I just chose this thesis and kind of ran with it. I am use to choosing my own thesis or idea from reading a story, so to have it there for me and not necessarily agreeing with any of the choices was probably what made it so hard. 

 I didn't really feel Bartleby would be considered a hero in today's world by refusing to do work that he was being paid to do, however back in the 1800's things were much different than in today's world.

Bartleby is stuck in an area close to the employer with a window that has no view at all but did give some light. Within a few feet was a wall and the light came in from far above between two haughty structures. The employer put up a green folding screen to further isolate Bartleby from sight but not from being heard or hearing when his employer needed something. Bartleby has been put in a dreary location to do his work and unable to continue to do the work in the environment he refuses to endure. (Melville)

Melville, Herman. “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street.” (1853) 

Jan 28, 2013 <http://www.bartleby.com/129/>

Bartleby Close Reading

"He is useful to me. I can get along with him. If I turn him away, the chances are he will fall in with some less indulgent employer, and then he will be rudely treated, and perhaps driven forth miserably to to starve. Yes. Here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange wilfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience." (p53)
The narrator tried befriending Bartleby but was unsuccessful. This quote made it seem like the narrator was concerned for Bartleby. Bartleby didn't seem to want to go anywhere else to work, even later in the story when the narrator was trying to get him to leave and trying to find him other work he turned all other locations down. I felt like the narrator wanted to understand why Bartleby was refusing to do the work and what was going on with him but didn't know how to go about getting him to open up. He seemed more interested in Bartleby than he did in any of his other employees. That could be because Bartleby was the defiant and refusing to do what he was paid to do and then refusing to leave.

Pablo Sanchez from Prague, Czech Republic