Nickel and Dimed (IRB)

Barbara Ehrenreich began this New York Times Bestseller with an anecodote about being assigned "the old-fashioned kind of journalism—you know, go out there and try it [your]self" (1). The "it" in question began with the simple task of making it in America as an underpaid, low-skilled worker. And that's exactly what Barbara did. Although some critics question the authenticity of her project, (Barbara even notes herself that her "rules" and "limits" are luxuries that none of the workers around her have, and thus could be considered cheating) her work still manages to truly open the eyes of middle and upper class workers who rarely take the time to recognize the difficulties of being a waitress or maid in America.

Although the statistics referenced and analysis of the cost of living even in a trailer park are very effective in demonstrating the plights of poverty, Ehrenreich's best rhetorical strategy is the emotional component to her story. She introduces us to several heroes and heroines that stay in "flophouses," their vans, trailers, hotels, and even boats, as well as the antagonistic corporate workers who demand workers to be on their feet for 10 or more hour shifts without even bathroom breaks. In this chapter, "Serving in Florida," Barbara talks about a Czech immigrant who was fired for stealing what Barbara guessed to be "some Saltines or a can of cherry pie mix and that the motive for taking it was hunger" (41). Anybody can be stunned by some facts about the percentage of the working force that is homeless or the number of hours low-class workers end up working per week, but to read these heart-wrenching, yet also at times funny and touching, stories really changed they way I perceive the poor. There are few words that I could use to describe Nickel and Dimed, but one of them would be: unforgettable.

Las Meninas

This seventeenth century Spanish painting, entitled "Las Meninas" (The Maids of Honor) is perhaps one of the most influential and highly analyzed paintings in the world. Diego Velazquez, who is shown in the painting, is one of the most famous Spanish painters ever. This painting captures a single moment in time, which would've been exceedingly difficult to do without cameras, and interacts with the audience, who take the role as the subjects of the painting being painted.

Las Meninas is a very confusing and intense painting, with "Inception" ideas portrayed hundreds of years before Leonardo di Caprio was even born. Several of the subjects of the painting look outward to the audience, which is being painted by the portrait of Velazquez. This portrait is reflected in a mirror in the background, and the audience can see that they have taken the role of the King and Queen of Spain in this situation. Other characters include the Infanta Margarita (the focal point of the painting) and a curious man running away in the background. In other words, the painter is asking the artistic question, "how do you know what you know?"

This painting is one of the most self-conscious images images in Western art, and therefore deliberately uses several rhetorical devices in order to challenge the viewer on the certainty of their perspective. One of the main rhetorical devices is the inclusion of otherwise unrelated characters, such as the self-portrait, the man running away in the background, and the dwarf handmaidens waiting on the princess. While the Infanta Margarita is prominently displayed, with her central location and the lightening of the painting drawing the viewer's eyes to her, the King and Queen, the subjects of the portrait, are merely seen in the reflection of the painting-within-the-painting in the background. Thus, Velazquez creates a chaotic scene that challenged many of the artistic normalities of the time period.

If the goal of this painting was to challenge the viewer to question the very idea of it, Velazquez certainly did an effective job in doing so. From the moment I looked at this painting, I began questioning what was going on, and was surprised with the lack of answers to some of my questions. I still do not know why the handmaidens are portrayed in this painting, or why the man running away is doing so. I wonder why Velazquez used only the bottom half of the canvas for his subjects, while most of the upper half remains dark and empty. I puzzle over the logistics of portraying this perspective of the scene, if Velazquez was painting the canvas as shown. Most interestingly, why did Velazquez leave the audience to fill the shoes of royalty?

New York City Hurricane Sandy

With the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy concerning men and women across the Atlantic seaboard, New York City seems to have quite the clean-up, according to Lisa Foderaro. Her article, Storm Inflicted Beating on Trees In New York City, cites incredible numbers of collapsed trees and tree limbs, and the massive amount of work needed to clear them from roads and the roofs of destroyed buildings. The New York Times reporter is writing to her American audience to inform them on the damage, but the comments the article received argued that more needed to be done to ensure the trees lost, and perhaps even more than those lost, are replaced.


One rhetorical device Foderaro used was the incorporation of personal stories from New York City citizens affected by downed trees, in order to draw on the audience's emotions. She writes,

"Frederick Quint, 49, who grew up in the house, at Midland Parkway and Henley Road, treated the workers to a couple of pizzas as a token of his thanks. The trees, each measuring 40 inches in diameter, had fallen at 8 o’clock that Monday night as the hurricane tore through the city. The trees hit two others on Mr. Quint’s property, and together they smashed a parapet over the sunroom, as well as windows, gutters and roof tiles.

'It was a loud thud,” he said, describing the impact on the three-bedroom house. Watching from his front door as the loader hoisted what remained of the pin oaks, he said: “There they go. It’s distressing. I grew up with those trees.'"(1). Without this interview, the article would have felt dry and emotionless, because it would merely cite facts of the number of trees that have collapsed within the city. Using Mr. Quint's story, the article effectively conveys not just the physical damage of Hurricane Sandy, but the emotional as well. Furthermore, one story combined with a fact about the number of trees that have collapsed allows the audience to comprehend the problem without becoming overwhelmed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/12/nyregion/hurricane-sandy-inflicted-a-beating-on-new-york-city-trees.html?_r=0

Blink: Concluding Chapter

For my second TOW regarding my IRB Blink, I am focusing on Malcolm Gladwell's concluding chapter to his bestseller. The chapter, entitled Listening with Your Eyes, details the story of a woman trombonist in 1980 who applied for a job at with a German orchestra. At the blind auditions, she "floored" the committee, but the moment they realized "he" was actually a she, their prejudice began damaging their image of her as a trombonist, which is an instrument typically played by a man. Gladwell argues that these blind auditions are the perfect "Blink" moment—the music played is the first impression of the committee, who can thus filter out any additional information to focus on the true ability of the musicians that audition for them. Malcolm Gladwell, a noted author of four bestselling novels and writer for the New York Times, made some incredible insights on the world of expert judgment and thin-slicing throughout his book, and this conclusion served as a great wrap-up and application of his thoughts to the lives of his readers.

The story of Abbie Conant, the woman trombonist, used the rhetorical appeal pathos to gain the sympathy of readers when she was judged for her gender, and even more so when she was demoted within the orchestra and received less pay than her male co-workers for the same or perhaps better ability. The readers instantly side with Conant as Gladwell describes her struggles to be recognized, and eventually as she takes her case to court. Thus, we realize the harmful effects of stereotyping to making good judgements in the musical world and in the more general sense as well.

Blink opened me to new and exciting possibilities for our natural capacity to judge a situation within an instant, and to judge a situation using very little information. From Gladwell's assertion that humans naturally try to decipher the emotions of others by reading their facial expression to his research focusing on pschological "priming," this book has influenced my perception of my very own abilities greatly. This concluding chapter helped me recognize the power of determining the really important information from the potentially harmful information, and with this in mind I will try to apply Gladwell's theory to my own life, which makes the book extremely effective.