WRA135

EXAM ESSAYS

Midterm Exam #1

On 10.06.05, we completed our first midterm exam. The exam was divided into two parts: a 20 question objective portion, and the "essay" portion. The objective questions were based on assigned readings, matters discussed in class, and the rubric. Our "essay" portion required us to make sure our WRA135 webfolios and our SLWP webfolios were perfect, with no dead links or any traces of our templates.

Midterm Exam #2

For this second midterm, we had to view one of four movies and explain how the protagonists fit the bill of the "classic American Hero." We also had to relate four of our previous readings in this class to the work. The assignment was given to us on Thursday, and we had until noon Wednesday to complete it. I viewed the movie High Noon and wrote an essay about it here.

The Final

The final exam will be held Tuesday, December 13th, from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM in Bessey Hall. It will cover the rubric, material from our presentations, previous readings, and Bill Maher's book When you ride alone, you ride with Bin Laden. For the written portion of the final, I chose to write a letter to two critics disagreeing with their reviews of Michael Moore's movie, Bowling for Columbine.

ABSTRACTS OF SELECTED CLASS READINGS

Horace Miner's "Body Ritual among the Nacirema"

In “Body Ritual among the Nacirema,” Professor Horace Miner details the mystic rituals of an obscure North American tribe living between Canada and Mexico. The tribe is characterized by a highly developed market economy, and in between capitalistic pursuits, they participate in traditional rites pertaining to their physical bodies. Miner's premise is that the Nacirema believe the human body to be ugly, and they perform their magic in order to beautify themselves and correct nature's wrongdoings. Some of the practices, such as the men cutting their face, women baking their heads, or torturous visits to the ospital to alleviate pain, may seem barbaric at first until it is realized that Miner is describing none other than American culture in the 1950s through satire.

Jimmy Carter's Speech, "Crisis of Confidence: Energy and National Goals"

Jimmy Carter's 1979 address to the nation, entitled “Crisis of Confidence: Energy and National Goals,” is more famously known as the "Malaise Speech." Carter (1977-1981) describes the American people as having lost their confidence and their zeal for a better tomorrow, and associates their general gloom with tragic events such as the assassinations of Robert John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Watergate Scandal, the Vietnam War, and an increasing dependence on foreign nations for energy sources. The President says these momentous occasions shook Americans' faith in themselves and their government, and presents the nation with a choice: either work together in a concerted effort to rebuild, or perish along with what once was one of the greatest nations on Earth. Carter's call for the American people to return to the core values and ideas that helped establish the country offended many people at the time, but his words were echoed by one of our contemporary presidents, Bill Clinton.

Charles Derber's "The Good man Fills His Own Stomach"

The excerpt of Charles Derber’s, Money, Murder, and the American Dream, “The Good Man Fills His Own Stomach,” shows the twisted side of the American Dream. Derber first illustrates the brutal events of a Central Park raping and murder that led to the term "wilding," and then goes on to show that "wilding," which is defined as senseless acts showing callous disregard to others, is a natural mutation of the American people's narcissism. He gives us the example of the Ik tribe, a native people who are so self absorbed, that the only expression equating morality to them is that "the good man fills his own stomach." In a culture where the individual is stressed above society, and we are all encouraged to strive for nothing but the best, Derber shows how the American people can become so wrapped up in themselves to the exclusion of the others that the national motto becomes "Anything Goes."

Katherine S. Newman's, "American Nightmares"

In her essay, “American Nightmares,” anthropologist Katherine Newman outlines the problems associated with downward mobility in American society. She first gives us the example of one affluent middle class family who eventually slides down the social scale until their sense of place in the world is hopelessly distorted, then goes on to explain why such phenomena are relatively ignored by the public at large. In a predominantly Puritan society where it is believed that one is responsible for one's own destiny, the people can be unintentionally cruel to those that are subject to downward twists of fate.

P.J. O'Rourke's "Slamming and Jamming"

"Slamming and Jamming" depicts a brutally honest picture of how the government has failed the poor. P.J. O'Rourke, former editor in chief of National Lampoon, details one of his days in the vigilante gang, The Guardian Angels, led by Curtis Silwa. The Guardian Angels are a highly militarized group of young men who act as societal pressure in places where the government has been too tied up by bureacracy to reach. O'Rourke goes along with the Guardian Angels to some of the worst slums in New York, including Mott Haven and Hunt's Point, to practice the art of "slamming and jamming," a type of surprise raid that works through violence to ensure licentious activity never happens again.

John Grisham's "Somewhere for Everyone."

"In the small southern towns of my childhood no one talked about the homeless." With those opening words, famous author John Grisham in his article "Somewhere for Everyone" confronts the average American on his tendency to ignore the problem of homelessness. While doing research for his new novel about a street lawyer advocating the cause of the poor, Grisham gradually grew to understand the enormity of the homeless problem and began to sympathize with these unfortunates, even those who abused drugs and alcohol. He also details how, in the past, homelessness was the "chic issue" of the rich and powerful, but as the problem persisted and time passed, it gradually lost popularity and was forgotten. Meanwhile, politicians began shoving more and more poverty stricken people into the streets. Throughout the article, the message is clear and resonates with the title: everybody deserves to live somewhere in the world.

Jo Goodwin Parker's "What is Poverty?"

In her fictional short story "What is Poverty?", Parker uses the first person narrative style to depict the life of one of the many nameless and faceless homeless people populating our streets to give the reader a sense of immediacy when it comes to the conditions of poverty. In just under 2000 words, she communicates to us the horrendous and degrading situation in which a homeless woman must live, providing anecdotes about how she does not have to money to buy such a simple commodity as new diapers for her youngest child. She describes poverty as an "acid that drips on pride" until one is completely stripped of all human dignity, and asks that we take note of her story and wake up to the problems of the homeless.

Studs Terkle's interview, "Mike LeFevre: Who Built the Pyramids?"

Terkle's interview with Mike LeFevre, a blue collar steel mill worker, highlights the frustration of a man forever blocked by the modern machine in his quest for the American Dream. He yearns for individuality, for the ability to stand out and leave his imprint in the crowd, but is faced by the harsh reality of snooty bosses who constantly look over his shoulder and a job so mundane that the only time he is truly conscious is when he is punching in and out of work. Whimsically he wishes that those who labored on great monuments such as the Empire State Building could have a small place on which to inscribe their names so as to preserve their achievement, and this in turn leads to him talking about lashing out in small ways against the system by sometimes damaging his own work to make his presence felt. In the end, LeFevre knows that he himself and all those like him are lost causes, but maintains hope in becoming immortalized through his son.

Peter Marin's "Helping and Hating the Homeless."

Marin's piece, "Helping and Hating the Homeless," provides a new perspective on the issue of homelessness. Having himself experienced homelessness firsthand, Marin explains how society might misconstrue the situations of homeless people, who he divides into two groups. The first consists of those average Americans who, having suffered some sort of traumatic event, are unable to cope with it and spiral gradually into homelessness. He uses the anecdote of a rape victim named Alice to illustrate the issue, showing that homelessness can and usually does happen to the working middle class. The second group consists of those bold souls who wish to find a new frontier, but unable to do so, take to the road in their search for freedom. Marin's romanticization of homelessness in this manner paints those that live on the streets in a new light, and he asks the government and those of us who treat homeless people like human excrement to realize they have a duty to their fellow man and citizen.

Jonathan Alter's "Bridging the Digital Divide."

Alter's article, "Bridging the Digital Divide," deals with the widening gap between the rich and poor caused by the introduction of new technology. This is specifically targeted towards the issue of those who have computers and those who do not, and Alter describes how it is not only access and availability, but the knowledge of how to use them in a practical manner which assists in widening the chasm. Through the use of statistics, Alter shows how if this "divide" doesn't shrink, America could enter into another Great Depression with the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming even poorer. The underlying message is that America needs to reach an equilibrium concerning technological matters so the economic distribution across the nation will be more just.

Paul Recer's "Use of Guns Likened to Disease"

In his essay "Use of Guns Likened to Disease," Paul Recer describes gun use as a "fad," such as fashion. He explains that guns have become a status symbol in urban neighborhoods, and this mythologizing has led to gun use becoming a sort of "social toxin." According to Recer, America's youth pursue guns because they believe it will assist them in climbing the social ladder, and that this portrayal of guns as being "cool" will eventually die out if appropriate measures are taken. Recer also explores the issue of gun related homicide, and delves into the question of whether or not the money it costs to house a prisoner is worth it when compared to the social cost of letting a homicide go.

Jay Shaft's "US Homelessness and Poverty Rates Skyrocket"

Shaft in his article "US Homelessness and Poverty Rates Skyrockets" uses a long list of statistics to show how poverty is slowly taking over and destroying millions of lives. He uses the example of his own city, saying that the local park resembles a cross between a "concentration camp and a mass murder scene." Despite America being the richest nation in the world and constantly trying to show itself as "humanitarian," many of its own citizens are living at or below the poverty line. This deadly hypocrisy is shown best in the form of our President, Shaft says, who, while saying that "human compassion cannot be summarized in dollars and cents," has proposed a Medicaid program that would leave even more homeless people and children uninsured. Perhaps it is time to stop thinking about occupying a foreign nation at the cost of 4 billion a month, and think more about those citizens and children closest to home.

Kate Santich's "Life's a Bummer, But Whatever"

Kate Santich in her piece "Life's a Bummer, But Whatever," explores the reasons why modern American society has increasingly sunk into unparalleled levels of cynicism. Santich herself presents several opposing views on this general mindset, and while at first she appears to deride the nature of the cynic, eventually ends up with the premise that Americans have earned their cynicism through history. Events such as the assassination of Kennedy, Watergate, Nixon, Iran-Contra, Gary Hart, and President Bill Clinton are what have caused our citizens to go from saying "It's a jungle out there" to "Life sucks, and then you die." While this sort of mindset may be warranted, it is a dangerous "malaise," especially among younger people, and Santich wonders what can be done to pull America out of its vicious cycle of continuously being disillusioned.

Anna Quindlen's "Life of the Closed Mind"

Anna Quindlen opens her article "Life of the Closed Mind" with several introductory paragraphs that deplore the increasing tendency of Americans to ignore meaningful public discourse. She goes on to say that this tendency has been exacerbated by the events of September 11th, which caused much of our society to adopt a "us v. them" mentality. This polarization has led to us becoming more like America's terrorist enemies than we would care to admit. Quindlen goes on to say this refusal to acknowledge others' opinions stems from an innate fear of uncomfortable situations, and this fear has led to an almost universal paranoia. With good and evil being painted in such stark colors, America can no longer make human errors, but rather is thwarted by sinister forces whenever it makes what appears to be a mistake. This has led to the nation becoming a gang of conspiracy theorists. Quindlen ends by imploring Americans to keep an open mind to new ideas, and to accept them if they appear to be correct, even though they may be contrary to previously held beliefs.

Robert Reich's "An American Morality Tale"

Reich's essay explains that the American hero myth is made up of four recurring parables and mirrors the nation's rise from its "humble, immigrant origins" to the dominant superpower today. The first parable is the idea of the Mob at the Gates. To many Americans, their country is the "beacon" of the world and outside forces are nothing but "barbarians at the gates" seeking to spread their rot. The second is the story of the Triumphant Individual, which is the tale of the underdog who overcomes impossible odds and eventually achieves unprecedented success. The Benevolent Community shows America's immigrant origins, as it extols the virtues of the community all pitching in together to achieve a common goal, much like the religious communities of the past. Finally, there is the parable of the Rot at the Top, which differs from its European counterpart in that it is not a story about the rich against the poor, but of the powerful against the general public. The hero in this parable is the one who uncovers the corruption, usually in government and politics, and wipes it out through virtue. The parables serve as an example of America's classical individualism, for the hero is always a solitary figure willing to sacrifice himself for the common good.

PRESENTATION MATERIALS ON CHAPTER TWO OF CIVIL LIBERTIES: OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS.

My group, known as the S.A.C.S., consists of Nathan Browning, Jessica Fuller-Murphy, Alex Heimann, and Chris Kellogg.

Our group's web page can be found on our Moe's webpage here:

S.A.C.S.

WRITING RHETORIC AND AMERICAN CULTURE SERVICE-LEARNING WEBFOLIO

This Fall's Service-Learning organization is YouVote, a student-based organization designed to educate people on voting and help with voter registration. We have periodic assignments posted for us on the YouVote website and these will be completed in my SLWP webfolio. The assignments require me to educate the East Lansing community about up coming elections and the importance or voting.

Albert Hur's WRA135 Webfolio