Journal #7

Reading Michael Lassell's poem How to Watch Your Brother Die saddened me. I thought it was a really deep and emotional poem about death but more about dealing with homosexuality. The poem starts off with the narrator going to visit his dying brother in the hospital and meeting his bother's lover. The narrator is obviously uncomfortable with the fact that his brother is gay and has a lover but tries to let it go for the sake of his death. He tries to comfort his dying brother's lover for the last hours of his brothers life but he still cannot completely connect and relate to what its like to feel love for another man. The narrator even says to the lover "I'm sorry. I don't know what it means to be the lover of another man." I think that the narrator tries really hard to be comfortable with homosexuality, but deep down he will never really be able to. The reason I feel this is because the narrator says to the lover "how can you stand it?" which shows emotion that he feels sad for the negative retaliation the lover gets for being gay. Also, when the funeral director says that "he will not embalm the body for fear of contamination" the narrator says "let him see in your eyes how much a man can hate another man" which shows that he is mad at the funeral director for "the fear of contamination" of his brothers homosexuality. These two quotes shows that he cares but the very last line of the poem contradicts this. It reads "how [his] children will feel in [his] arms, warm and friendly and without challenge. The worlds "without challenge" stand out boldly saying that people who are homosexual are challenge and he will be lucky to hold his kids whom he assumes wont be like that.
I see a relation in this poem to the glee episode that we watched in class. In glee, a gay guy named Kurt struggles with his sexuality. He is the only sexually open gay guy in his school and he comes across many challenges and troubles because of so. For the choir class, the singers have to pair up to sing duets. Kurt wants to sing with a new student who just came into the class but is told by his friends not to for the sake of the new kid's reputation. His friends don't want the new guy's first debut to be with a gay since not many people know him and they don't want him to come out making a bad first impression to everyone else. Kurt is hurt by this, but he understands that he is "different" so he himself chooses to not sing the duet with the new kid. Instead he does a duet singing the parts of both a man and a female role showing that it doesn't matter if you are a boy or a girl. His statement is bold in defining that homosexuality does not define a person and men can like what women like as well.
The similarities between these two are the fact that people in our world today are not comfortable with homosexuality. They both show a discrimination for gay people having lovers or for liking someone as their same sex. I feel that this is unfair today and people should be able to love whoever they choose. I believe that love is not something that can be chosen, it is something that is set out there for you to find in your life time and whomever you find it with should not be judged.

Rhetorical Analysis, Jornal #6

The text that I chose for this journal to perform a rhetorical analysis on was the animal abuse commercial that was presented in class. I felt that this commercial best showed all three aspects of rhetorical analysis, logos, pathos, and ethos.

The purpose of this commercial was to warn and aware the watchers of the extent of the horrific amount of animal abuse in the world today. the authors intent in writing the commercial was to get people to donate to the fund and the shelters that help battered and abused animals. The author was very successful in doing so,  since all aspects of the commercial reached out to the viewers hearts making them want and feel the need to donate their money to help save innocent and hurt animals. In rhetorical analysis, the purpose of the text is to determine the success of the authors intention and appeal and the achievement of their purpose. This commercial really stood out and the author definitely achieved his purpose by using images of abused animals, sad music, and by getting a famous actress to support the cause.

The audience of this commercial was greatly appealed to. It was directed towards any aged viewer, but I'd say more specifically to the ones who are old enough to understand and make a contribution to the cause. All the aspects of this commercial captured the hearts of every viewer. The music made things stand out even more because of its emotional lyrics and slow background music. The images of all the hurt animals and they rescue crew trying to save them also gave the audience a chance to really see how bad animal abuse really is. No body likes to see an innocent creature being hurt, and by using the images and video clips of these poor animals, it automatically persuades the viewer to feel condolences towards these animals and pulls them in for their help and contribution. The actress in the commercial helps promote the cause as well. By having a well known celebrity promote the cause it influences the audience for their contributions as well.

The context of this commercial shapes the text to any audience viewing it. The way it is written stands out to people watching and is convincing to them to make a contribution. The script appeals to the emotional and tender hearted side of a person and makes them want to help a good cause. It is really effective because of this.

This commercial clearly displays all the aspects of rhetorical analysis and effectively uses logos, pathos, and ethos. It has the greatest emotional appeal, but the audience and context still strongly contribute as well. I think that this was a great commercial to pick and use for our rhetorical analysis project in class and reviewing back on for a journal.

Journal #5

After reading both Sloan's text from our book and the hypertext version, I feel like there are aspects of both texts which I like.

I like the hypertext version because it included pictures, and even though while reading I could visualize the architecture, it was still cool too see. It was effective in the way that I actual got to view the sculpture rather than just a made up depiction in my head. The links didn't bother me either, I've gotten used to reading online, so that wasn't really an issue. 


Although, I liked the version in our writing as revisions book also because it included a personal aspect. I thought that the story of the girl meeting with her father's friend was really important because the reader got to hear a different perspective of what it was like growing up in that time period and surviving through that much. That part of Sloan's story added an emotional aspect and i liked the quoting that she provided. 


For me, both of the texts weren't that hard to understand and were both effective. They both provided basically the same information on the history of LA and the art work. If I had to choose which would be more effective, I think i would have to go with the text in the book. The part with the fathers friend really stood out to me and even though I liked seeing the pictures in the hypertext, one doesn't really need pictures to make a story complete.