Rhetorical Appeals

Movie: Pineapple Express

Visual Elements: Feelings of euphoria, drug related violence among suppliers, drug dealing

Argument: By keeping marijuana illegal, people are forced to buy from black market, Drug wars competing for territory

Audience: College students and adults, smokers

Ethos: At the beginning of the movie, Dale is driving around smoking a joint. For work, he must deliver subpoenas to people which can be very boring and time consuming. To keep his spirits up during work, he smokes on the job just as employees smoke cigarettes during work.


Song: Legalize It - Peter Tosh

The message that Tosh is conveying is that eventhough marijuana is illegal, everyone still smokes it even the arresting officer. "Singers smoke it, And players of instruments too. Legalize it, yeah, yeah, That's the best thing you can do. Doctors smoke it, Nurses smoke it, Judges smoke it, Even the lawyers too." If policy makers, law enforcement officers, judges, doctors, etc. are going to sit here and tell us that we cannot consume smoke then they should be held to the same standard (Pathos/Ethos).

Visual Piece: Depicts officers after a drug bust with the costs associated with the bust such as the salaries of the troopers, police commissioner, and the value of the marijuana they confiscated and are not going to burn. (Logos)

4 Modes

Song: Legalize It-Peter Tosh

Movie:Pineapple Express

Visual Piece:


Book: Economics of Cannabis Legalization

Reading Reveiew: The Simpsons

The Simpsons, which first aired in 1989, quickly rose to become one of Fox's highest rated programs by offereing a sarcastic critique of the average American through hypocrisy within the education system, religious beliefs, American Political structures, and even capitalism. What gives The Simpsons a sense of uniqueness are the characters. "The characters," states cartoonist Matt Groening, "are caricatures of the ideologies the represent, they are all ruled by their impulses." As such, The Simpsons is driven by conflicts of ideas rather than that of personality which is what most sitcoms today are based.

Watching The Simpsons were an essential part of my childhood. What made the show so appealing to me were the social issues that were constantly being satirized and the absurd adventures that Homer embarked on which often ended in failure. To me, Homer is the heart of the show. Homer represents the average man, except for maybe intelligence, who takes whatever advice or information he receives literally and is unable to reason rationally.

To me, what makes The Simpsons a success is the fact that often times the show coincides with current events which provides writers a chance to express their opinions by creating episodes that often insult our government. However, the element that the writers rely on, conflict, is wearing thin. I feel that the newer episodes of The Simpsons are not as good as the older ones. I feel that the plots of the episodes have become so outrageous and absurd that I am no longer able to relate to the characters.

Songs

Feels Like the First Time - Foreigner

Hurts So Good - John Mellencamp

Reading Review: The Second Sex

The Second Sex examines the femininity and the negative social images associated with women, both past and present, and their struggle to create a world where women truly can be equal to men. In light of such the author identifies how women have developed the subservient image and how a male dominant world creates a caste system putting themselves on top and women in the lower class. In an attempt to illustrate the inferiority women feel, the author provides a comparison of women to the Negro in that even though the Negros have been emancipated, we still wish to keep them in their place. While women are considered to have equal rights to men, society still places limitations as to what jobs are appropriate for women, the statuses they may attain, and the opportunities available.

Feminisim,in and of itself, creates a duality. In one sense they want to be equal to men but at the same time, women also want to be held to a different standard. To support this I quote Dorothy Parker, "...men as well as women, should be regarded as human beings. But nominalism is a rather inadequate doctrine, and the antifeminists have had no trouble in showing that women simply are not men. While woman is, like man, a human being; but such a declaration is abstract...To decline to accept such notions as the eternal feminine is to say that none existed." To say that, in referring to a group of people--containing both women and men--as man, is to say there is only men, drawing a the conclusion that the women are not included. To remedy such, they wish to distigusish and separate themselves from the men.

While we do indeed live in a male dominated world, it is necessary to cite the hardships and challenges that women have overcome in an attempt to create a balance of power among men and women. The fact of the matter is that the social image of woman is engrained in history thus creating the predisposition that women are to be seen as below men. However, as of recent, we are beginning to see the rise to power of women taking on positions of high social status and a breakaway from the stay at home mom.

Questions:

1. Is there a catch 22 in the principles of feminism?

2. Does the role of the man as the protector create inferiority?

3. Do we have the right to classify a job as to dangerous for a woman?