TOW #3 - Homage to Catalonia (I)

While George Orwell is mainly known for being the author behind best selling novel, Animal Farm, his experiences with war and communism stem from a deep and dark past in which he vividly describes to the reader in his autobiography titled Homage to Catalonia. Prior to beginning his tale, Orwell automatically assumes that the reader is well aware of the tensions in Spain at the time. From the beginning, Orwell makes it clear to the reader of his anti-war mindset by illustrating thoroughly the poverty and spoils caused by war. He uses irony in order to convey to the reader his point. At the time, Orwell’s troops are facing shortages of many essential supplies such as clothing, and Orwell is personally dealing with an outbreak of lice. He remarks, “I think the pacifists might find it helpful to illustrate their pamphlets with enlarged photographs of lice. Glory of war, indeed!” (Orwell 54). Here, Orwell shows some of his dissatisfaction at the war. however it is for the same purpose as when he previously described the conditions the men were facing: to build up the image of the Communists. For example, he later says “Everything was running short - boots, clothes, tobacco, soap, candles, matches, olive oil. Our uniforms were dropping to pieces, and many of the men had no boots, only rope-soled sandals. You came on piles of worn-out boots everywhere. Once we kept a dug-out fire burning for two days mainly with boots, which are not bad fuel.” (Orwell 54).  Here Orwell aims to show just how poorly the Spanish were faring, and that despite that they were still attempting to fight on. This illustrates how Orwell attempted to show the fighters as being good people, with good characteristics who were poorly armed but still fought on, believing in their cause - making them far more sympathetic to the reader.

TOW #2 - For Every 10 U.S. Adults, Six Vote and Four Don’t. What Separates Them?

As the 2016 Presidential Election looms around the corner, viewers and voters come to take a look at past election turnouts in order to understand the American stigma for voting. Even though the right to vote is given to all American citizens, not everyone chooses to exercise that right. In the article, For Every 10 U.S. Adults, Six Vote and Four Don’t. What Separates Them?, journalist Alicia Parlapiano and Adam Pearce try to piece together the mystery of why some people in certain communities choose not to vote. Parlapiano is a journalist working for The Washington Post and the Pew Research Center and Pearce is a writer and illustrator for the New York Times. Parlapiano and Pearce first  separate voters into groups based on income, education, age, and race and then use rhetorical strategies such as logos, irony, and juxtaposition in order to better understand voter statistics. They establish credibility through the use of statistics and numbers in their article, such as, "African-Americans are also more reliable partisan voters — more than 90 percent voted for President Obama in 2012" (Parlapiano, Pearce 1). By employing this rhetoric device, Parlapiano and Pearce create credibility based on the facts stated. Using the facts already established, the authors use juxtaposition next to compare different groups of people based on their voter statistics, "Among voters with little education, African-Americans are 1.7 times more likely to vote than whites." (Parlapiano, Pearce 1). The purpose of juxtaposition is to contrast voter statistics to make a point and to ultimately achieve their purpose of debunking the voting myth against certain groups of Americans. Parlapiano and Pearce come to a conclusion in saying, "While young people, poor people and Hispanics are often singled out for low voting rates [...] the majority of people who didn’t vote in the 2012 presidential election were white, middle-income and middle-aged." (Parlapiano, Pearce 1). It has been previously thought that the majority of voters were middle aged and white but Parlapiano and Pearce were able to prove this assumption wrong. The authors use situational irony because statistics and research show how events turn out the opposite of what was expected or ought to happen. 

In essence, Parlapiano and Pearce achieve their goal of educating their readers on voter majorities in America in addition to successfully proving the prejudice against the youth, poor, and non-white wrong.

TOW #2, "It's Only Illegal When Illegal Immigrants Break the Law"

This politcal cartoon, illustrated by Lalo Alcaraz, shows the hypocracy of the American government towards regugees and immigrants currently coming to the United States to seek the same freedoms and rights that Americans take for granted. Alcaraz is an American cartoonist. He is most well-known for being the author of the comic La Cucaracha, the first nationally syndicated, politically themed Latino daily comic strip. Having a primarily Hispanic audience, Alcaraz embraces his Latino heritage and fights against the racist stereotypes against his people. For instance, in light of current events, such as Donald Trump's anti-Latino slurrs, Alcaraz uses his art to show Americans how flawed their beliefs really are. Spatially speaking, the Native Americans were the first ones to occupy the continent, therefore, Westerners are the true "immigrants". Like all political cartoons, Alcaraz uses the rhetoric device of allegory to illustrate who his characters represent. Unlike works of literature, he does not have the option to build up description of his characters, instead he uses traditional garb so readers can infer who he is talking about. One can tell through the feather head wrap, popular among tribes of Native Americans, who Alcaraz is portraying. The Western suit, typical to the white man, signifies white Americans who illegally immigrated to America. Instead of flat-out telling the reader who each character portrayed is, Alcaraz instead uses clothing popular among each ethnicities in order for the reader to themselves infer who he is referencing. Alacaraz also uses irony in this image to depict to the reader how the expression of the meaning of "immigrant" signifies the opposite for emphatic effect. When Donald Trump told the American people that he would rid America of illegal immirgants, he did not mean Westerners, even though the Natives occupied North America first. Therefore, Alcaraz deliberately illustrates immigrants contrary to what one would expect. Thus, Alcaraz achieves his purpose of calling out white Americans for their hypocracy in their belief that they are first settlers in America. 

IRB #1 Intro Post

Cathy Zhou
TOW #1- Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
IRB Intro Post #1
9/6/2016

For my first independent reading book, I have chosen the book: Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell. This text is an autobiography of Orwell's time serving in the Spanish Civil War during WWII. He recounts his accounts of his experinces and observations. I choose this book because I am very interested in history and how the events of WWII impact present day.