TOW #10 - Paris’s Longest Night

     I’d like to apologize in advance for picking two TOW’s in a row on the same topic. I’ll try to justify it by saying that I’d like my TOW’s to reflect on what’s happening in the real world, and the ISIS attacks, especially the one on Paris, have been all over the news. This article from The New Yorker, written by Alexandra Schwartz, cleverly uses impactful imagery and quotes from people who actually were at the site of the attacks in order to show the reader what it really is like to be in France and French at this moment.
     It is immediately apparent that Schwartz is telling stories almost as soon as you start reading the article. Her imagery and descriptive language immerses the reader into the story, making him or her feel like he or she is really there. In her second paragraph, Schwartz describes Matthieu’s experience on that fateful night. “A car screeched to a stop a few feet from where Matthieu was sitting and a man jumped out, firing a Kalashnikov. For a moment, Matthieu thought he was watching a private settling of scores. Then the man fired a second burst; there was a tremendous shattering of windows and bottles. Matthieu leapt over the table and started running. At the top of the street, he stopped and listened. It was only then that he realized that a bullet had lodged in his left hand. His pinkie and ring fingers hung at a crooked angle.” Upon reading this, one can almost feel the surrealness of the situation and the adrenaline pumping through Matthieu’s veins, helping him ignore the pain and just keep moving. Fortunately uninjured enough to be mobile, Matthieu, and the reader in his shoes, watches the chaos around him as if he were just a spectator on the outside, not comprehending that this was actually happening. The ability of Schwartz to make the reader feel like he or she is in Matthieu’s place helps him or her to better understand how French people are feeling.
     Schwartz then quotes Matthieu directly. “‘I saw a lot of women dead on the ground,’ he said, his voice catching on the ‘f’ of ‘femmes.’ ‘It was mostly women that I saw’” (para. 5) This quotes, paired with a description of Matthieu’s delivery, further shows the fear and trauma that many victims and bystanders experienced. Schwartz also uses quotes to show another point of view: one of a Muslim in France who feels antagonized after the attacks. “‘Now [she is] désespéré’—despairing at the prospect of more terror.” Sonia Ferhani, the person who spoke this quote, grew up in the banlieues, the suburbs, but these suburbs are very different from American ones. “There is furious debate in France about the ways that the cultural separation of the banlieues may leave the young men who grow up there susceptible to recruitment by terrorist networks.” This other point of view, strengthened by quotes from people who know the isolation of the banlieues allows people from other countries to understand the existing tensions that existed with France before and leading up to the attacks, providing a better understanding of the social situation in France right now.
     Schwartz’s use of descriptive imagery and direct quotes immerse the reader in the terror that the French are feeling and expose the existing underlying tensions in France that will bubble over because of the attacks in order to create sympathy in the reader by showing him or her what it’s really like for the French people now. Even though it seems like France’s pre-existing factions will only become more divided, the ultimate outcome of the attacks is solidarity, which is just what we need.

TOW #9 - Peace for Paris

     Two TOW’s ago, I chose an article about rural France because I take French and am a bit of a francophile. In light of the attacks on Paris, I figured it was appropriate to pick a text relating to the recent events. This drawing, done immediately after hearing the news about the attacks and by Jean Jullien, alludes to famous symbols, is simplistic, and has rough brushstrokes. The artist incorporates all of these elements in order to gain sympathy for Paris and unite the people against terrorist attacks in a peaceful manner.
     Jullien’s most obvious rhetorical device is his allusions which cover the topic of the drawing and evoke sympathy in the reader. The artist combines a peace sign with the Eiffel Tower, a symbol of Paris, creating a relationship between them that is best summed up by the hashtag that the drawing inspired: #PeaceForParis. The use of the peace sign is very powerful, even more so than some of the speeches made by national leaders that talk about “acts of war.” The peace promoted by this drawing sharply contrasts the terrorism and violence that happened and the reactionary steps that countries are preparing to take. This appeals to the audience’s pathos because it shows that the people just want to live in peace and don’t need revenge, overall creating sympathy in the audience for the people of Paris.
     The drawing is also very obviously simplistic, with one object in the center, a plain background, and no color. This draws attention to the main focus by deleting all of the distractors, an approach which forces the viewer to recognize the artist’s point and focuses the viewer on the sentiment that Paris wants peace not war. This simplistic, single-mindedness unites the audience under one single cause: a peaceful fight against terrorism.
     The colorlessness that adds to the simplicity of the drawing also emphasizes the type of stroke that the artist uses: a thick, rough stroke that shows the audience the violence of the recent events along with the emotionally raw state the artist was in. The contrast between the peace sign and the violence communicated by the brushstroke creates sympathy in the audience similarly to how the notion of peace contrasts national leaders’ speeches. In addition, the artist’s emotional state is relayed to the audience, creating an emotional bond that again adds to the sympathy that the viewer has for Parisians.
     Jean Jullien’s allusions, simplistic style, and rough brushstrokes evokes sympathy in his audience and unites them against the terrorist attacks in a peaceful manner. As previously mentioned, this is even more effective than speeches that rally citizens against “acts of war” by reciprocating these acts. As proof, just go check Twitter. This drawing and the hashtag are everywhere.

#PeaceForParis - Jean Jullien

IRB Intro Post #2

This marking period, I’ve decided to read How to Listen to Great Music by Robert Greenberg. The title makes the content of the book pretty obvious. To spell it out, Greenberg teaches the reader how to appreciate classical, aka concert, music. This book is supplementary to a lecture that I’m listening to on Audible.com with my dad by the same author and with the same title. Since the book is on music, I would definitely be missing out if I just read the book and didn’t listen to the music that goes with it, which is why the lecture version is important. I’ve always been pretty into music, but I’m hoping to garner an appreciation for music that I usually don’t listen to.

TOW #8 - The Omnivore’s Dilemma (IRB)

     Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading my independent reading book: Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In his book, the Pollan uses insightful and humorous metaphors and addresses a counterargument in order to revolutionize the reader’s understanding of the food industry and the way we eat.
     As mentioned in my previous post on this book, Pollan has a gift for using metaphors in order to explain complicated phenomena and processes to the general public. In his second section, the one on organic food, Pollan says that Whole Foods has one of the largest collection of “grocery lit” (137) as he gives examples of the colorful--and most likely not completely truthful--stories of free-range chickens and organic milk on the labels of many products. This metaphor compares the information on the labels, which is supposed to be just that, to stories and literature. The audience, while chuckling at the comparison, also gets a better understanding of Pollan’s experience in reading all of the labels at Whole Foods.
      In the third and final section of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan takes a chapter to write about the ethics of eating meat. In doing so, he addresses a counterargument that many vegetarians are likely to bring up against his decision to go hunting for his final meal (for the book, not for the rest of his life). In order to do so, Pollan actually becomes a vegetarian himself for awhile, trying to better understand those on the other side of the argument. This gives him incredible ethos by the time he gets to proposing his solution: a middle ground in which animals destined to be eaten are treated well and slaughtered humanely. This chapter as a whole makes a very strong and convincing argument, appealing to logos in the solution and ethos in becoming a vegetarian. Therefore, addressing this counterargument makes it easier for the reader to buy into Pollan’s revolutionary revelations about the food industry.
     All in all, Pollan does a great job in answering his question from the introduction: “What should we eat?” (1) In order to help the reader better attack this complex question, Pollan uses funny and eye-opening metaphors and addresses a counterargument throughout all three of the main sections of his book. And, now that I know so much more about where my food comes from, it’ll be so much easier to figure out what to eat for dinner tonight.