Paralysis

Richard's views and feelings toward life in general change a lot after his mother suffers 2 strokes, the first one leaving her paralyzed. The first time, his neighbors help him take care of his mother, but he also decides to write a letter to Granny to help him. He is anxious for Granny to arrive, and "when she came, I gave up, letting her handle things, answering questions automatically, obeying, knowing that somehow I had to face things alone. I withdrew into myself." He "went through the days with a stunned consciousness, unable to believe what had happened". He also says, "The utter loneliness was now terrifying. I had been suddenly thrown emotionally upon my own." Wright is distraught when he comes to the realization he is on his own. Although he is scared because he has never had this type of responsibility, he refuses to accept food from other people even though he needs it because he is ashamed. When Wright's mother has a second stroke, she is taken away, and at this point, Wright realizes that his mother is out of his life completely. His mother suffers a lot, but he is still allowed to see her. Her illness becomes accepted in a way that they realize nothing can be done. His mother's suffering becomes a symbol in his mind for many negative aspects of the world. 

Cultural Heritage

While Wright's mother and Aunt Maggie worked all day cooking for white families, he and his brother were left at home to do whatever pleased them. They were given money everyday and each day they went to a grocery owned by a Jew. He had never seen a Jew in his life up until this point and says "the proprietor of the corner grocery was a strange thing in my life". He says that people in his neighborhood hated Jews not because of the way they were treated by them, but instead because Sunday school taught them that Jews were "Christ killers". Jews were seen as a separate group from them and they singled them out and ridiculed them in ways such as chanting rude things. Wright and other kids were taught to hate Jews by their parents and that it was part of their "cultural heritage". Wright had seen many bad things happen to black people, such as Hoskins getting killed for no reason, and doesn't trust white people and he's kind of used to bad treatment of other people. Also, because blacks were the victims of this hatred, they needed a scapegoat. Black parents and children didn't see any harm in this because of how they are treated.  

Hunger

Wright is physically hungry for food. When his father left his family, there was no food for Wright's family to eat until his mother got a job as a cook for a white family. Even then he was not given enough food to satisfy him. He was allowed to go to work with his mother and was allowed the have scraps if there were any. Also, he didn't understand why he couldn't have the food his mother was cooking and that bothered him. Wright's hunger often consumes his thoughts, and he associated hunger with his father which caused a dislike, among other factors, towards him. Wright is hungry for other things not physical. Based on his behaviors, such as lighting the house on fire or hanging around bars, he needs to be occupied. He is often bored and it seems like he wants attention, someone to care for him, or somewhere where he belongs. He doesn't seem content which is apparent from his impulse or risky behaviors early on to the way he feels when lived at the orphanage.

School

As much as I dislike having to go to school at times, I think it is needed. Gatto does make valid points, but I think school has many positive aspects that shouldn't be thrown away just because of the negatives. The first aspect he lists is the adaptive function which causes people to obey authority without judgment. This does often happen, although not with everyone, and can be negative. However, learning to obey authority in a way where people still make their own choices is important. Another part of school is the integrating function in which people learn to conform. Conformity in a way is important for some level of functioning, but I agree with Gatto's stance that it is bad because it can cause people to lose their true identity. The diagnostic and directive function, as he states, determines a student's role and the differentiating function determines a student's role and how they are treated based on their determined role. I think that this definitely occurs, but that is unfortunate. In terms of the selective function, I think it's true, but I'm not sure what I think about it. As bad as it sounds, society needs people to do the less desirable jobs. The aspects of school that Gatto lists are generally true and some are damaging. However, the benefits, such as an education and other nonacademic skills acquired, are more important.

Nonacademic Education

I think that the nonacademic education that we receive is really important. I don't think that school is all about getting good grades or learning math or other facts because there's more to life than just doing homework and trying to get As. In school, people learn a lot socially which is an important factor for your whole life, unlike, for example, learning math or random facts. In order to keep a job, one has to know how to deal with varying social situations. Another part that's important is responsibility that goes along with going to school, although people display it at different levels. I think that learning social skills and responsibility are some of the most important and beneficial. Mann talks about other aspects of the nonacademic education such as physical, political, religious, and moral education. Physical education is important so that people can keep themselves healthy. Also, I think that political and religious education is important so that people can make informed decisions on what they believe and stand for. Although these are important, out of the things that Mann lists, moral education is the most important along with social skills and responsibility. Students are influenced by these nonacademic topics, and it is probably usually good. However, in some cases I think it could be bad, but whether or not it's good or bad is based completely on personal views and can vary person to person.

More Presentations

A lot of people used stores as examples of rhetoric, but there were a lot of advertisements too. Mallory talked about how Victoria's Secret arranges their store to attract people. She also compared Gap Body to Victoria's Secret and the different messages they send and how they attract different people, which I thought was interesting. An advertisement that I thought was kind of weird was the beer ad with the pregnant woman. Yes, it was nonalcoholic, but I just thought it was kind of odd to try to attract pregnant women to drink even though it wasn't dangerous. I guess I would think pregnant women would be really interested other things instead of finding something to drink that was safe while they're pregnant. Who knows... I'm not them. Even though it was kind of weird, the shock of the picture catches people's attention.

Rhetoric Out on the Town Presentations

I thought that a lot of people had good ideas and examples of rhetoric. I didn't think of anything other than advertisements as examples, and I liked how other people thought of less obvious and more creative examples. For example, the one of Victoria's Secret and other stores at Clay Terrace were good examples of rhetoric in how they attract certain types of people to sell their product. Also, I liked the billboard for The Economist because it was an interesting idea and a good way to catch people's attention to get them to become more interested. I also thought that the MTV one with the election was good because MTV's audience is young and the picture showed younger people and diversity, which makes it appealing to a larger audience. I'm interested to see what other types of examples of rhetoric people found.