Menzel Photos

The photos show families and their food supply all around the world. In places like China, Japan, and rural places the food is fresh and healthy. Though those rural places may not have as much food as the U.S. does, the food they have is of better quality. Places like refugee camps, however, have an extremely scarce supply of food. The picture showing the family from North Carolina exemplifies how in the U.S. we have an abundance of food but choose to eat unhealthy. The U.S. family was shown with pizza, chips, fast food, soda, and other processed items. Other places around the world eat the food they have available where as in the U.S. we let food go to waste.

The Pleasures of Eating

1.)    In order to produce your own food, you can grow small vegetables and herbs using your windowsill. In a small pot you can plant small tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers or herbs like basil and rosemary. These small crops can help flavor the food you have already bought.

2.)    Each dorm has a kitchen, usually one on each floor. Students can have the kitchen unlocked and use it to prepare their own meals. Simply find someone with a car and drive to the store and stock up on basic ingredients you can use to prepare a variety of meals. Spending the time it would take you to walk to a dining hall to make your own meal insures that the food you are eating is quality and you know what it is made out of. It is a simple way to eat healthier in college.

3.)    The internet is a great tool to research where your food comes from. Researching the food company that supplies your college dining halls is useful so that you can make smart decisions about what you choose to eat there. You can also research your local grocery stores to find the one that buys food that comes from the closest locations.

4.)    College students do not have the ability to travel to a local farm and speak to a local farmer. In Columbia, however, there are a few farmers markets that sell fresh products. Buying from a farmers market is both informative and healthy. Students can learn where the fresh products are grown and buy food to prepare in their own residence halls.

Steps 5-7.) The best way for college students to learn about industrial food production, farming/gardening, and the life histories of the food species, is by using the library, internet, and workers at the farmers markets as resources. Researching what you eat and how it is produced is a great way to lead a healthy lifestyle. There are plenty of books at the library that you can check out in your spare time that will greatly benefit you.

The Cooking Ape

Wrangham makes several casual links to the relationship between mastering fire and using it to cook and what made humans who we are. He first talks about the physical changes mastering fire and learning to cook had on the human body. Cooking food makes it more digestible and therefore we are able to take in more calories. The more calories we take in, the more energy humans have. The greater amount of energy that came from cooking food resulted in humans having bigger bodies and the development of a large proportion of organs. Cooking food also softens food, which enables humans to have smaller teeth and smaller jaws, as well as smaller guts. Mastering fire translates into cooking by looking at the cognitive development of humans. Once our ancestors were able to control fire they were able to experiment and play with it, which would have led them to try mixing fire and food.

            Wrangham also makes links to how cooking affected the social structure of humans. Cooking forces a species to keep food for a period of time, creating ownership. Whenever there is ownership of something, competition is created. The ownership of food through cooking created the competition for food we have today. Cooking food also allows humans to have big families in which the children are dependent. Unlike apes that wean their infants at about 3 to 5 years old, humans have children that are dependent till at least 12 years old. This dependence on cooked food is what strengthens the parent/child role. Feeding infants cooked mush allows them to abandon nursing early and gives the mother more energy. This increase in energy is what led mothers to be able to reproduce in quicker intervals and created bigger families. Finally, Wrangham mentions that due to the great amount of energy we acquire from cooking food humans have better immune systems and therefore have a lower mortality rate.

First Draft Concerns

-Did I cite the article I was analyzing enough? Should I use other sources?
-Is my summary of the article done well?
-Is my conclusion strong enough?

Point #1

  After the audience has come to know and support Dowry and his participation as a witness, Kahn makes the strategic decision to close the argument with the tragic death of Dowry. Kahn describes the scene in ways that specifically target pathos. He mentions that it is Thanksgiving and that Dowry is with his family which causes the reader to think about their family and the emotions that they feel on that holiday. Thanksgiving is usually thought of with positive feelings which are why when Dowry is killed the reader feels sorrow and it leaves a lasting impression of anger towards the lack of protection witnesses have. The way Kahn relates his closing back to the beginning brings his entire argument full circle and after knowing more about the justice system and witness protection system the audience looks at Dowry’s story with a new perspective and stronger feelings.

Outline

Title: A Culture of Silence

Thesis: Kahn structures his argument around the life of John Dowry, taking us on a journey through Dowry’s experiences as well as his own evidence and reasoning. This structure is effective because it creates a beginning and end that strongly appeals to pathos and breaks up the facts and evidence so that the reader is not overwhelmed. It allows Kahn’s claim to emerge subtlety and gives the impression that it was well thought-out and fair. Kahn also presents a solution to the problem and that gives his argument closure.

I.                   Using the story of John Dowry implements very strong pathos into the argument.

A.    Starting off his writing with Dowry getting shot is a powerful way to make a statement. Kahn was bringing his readers right into the heart of the problem and enticing them to want to know why this happened.

1.      Giving background on Dowry and explaining how he changed as a person makes the reader feel like they know him personally and forms a connection. The reader then feels happy for Dowry when he succeeds and shocked/saddened when he is shot.

2.      Before giving the reader any background, he says “in the eyes of many people in the blocks around Bartlett, John Dowry had gotten what was coming for him” which gives the audience an eerie feeling.

B.     After the audience has come to know and support Dowry and his participation as a witness, Kahn makes the strategic decision to close the argument with the tragic death of Dowry.

1.      Kahn describes the scene in ways that specifically target pathos. He mentions that it is Thanksgiving and that Dowry is with his family which causes the reader to think about their family and the emotions that they feel on that holiday. Thanksgiving is usually thought of with positive feelings which are why when Dowry is killed the reader feels sorrow and it leaves a lasting impression of anger towards the lack of protection witnesses have.

2.      The way Kahn relates his closing back to the beginning brings his entire argument full circle and after knowing more about the justice system and witness protection system the audience looks at Dowry’s story with a new perspective and stronger feelings.

II.                Kahn provides his evidence and reasoning in a variety of ways which enhances his ethos and logos

A.    He provides facts from prosecutors and policemen

1.       Facts about crime and murder rates

2.      Gives their opinions on why witnesses won’t come forward and how it affects the judicial process

B.     Kahn shares similar murder cases to Dowry’s

1.      Shows that this problem with witnesses is much too common

2.      Helps explain why so many witnesses do not come forward

C.     Shares stories and opinions from average citizens

1.      Shows how culture has evolved over time

2.      Gives the reader a sense of how afraid people really are

III.             Kahn’s presentation of a solution strengthens his argument

A.    He comments on how new laws have not worked in the past

1.      Talks about the new law that says witness intimidation is punishable by at least 5 years in prison and allows prior statements to be used even if the witness is not present

2.      Mentions that the new law excludes child-abuse and domestic-violence cases which are big problems

3.      Gives the opinions of Jessamy that matches his own

B.     Putting more money into the witness protection programs will not work either

1.      “might chip away at the edges of the problem” meaning they make a very small impact and something else needs to be done

2.      Kahn presents his solution that culture needs to change for anything else to work. He says that inner-city neighborhoods need to come together and make a change so that their loved ones will stop dying. Society needs to see that intimidation of witnesses is morally wrong and that killing “snitchers” is nothing to be proud of.

3.      Kahn’s solution is powerful because it puts a lot of responsibility on society and has us blame ourselves rather than institutions or the judicial process.

IV.             Conclusion: Kahn does not specify ways to get society to change

1.      He leaves it up to the reader, gets his audience thinking

2.      Does a great job connecting with the reader on an emotional and intellectual level

3.      Appeals to both people who live in cities like Baltimore that have experienced these things, as well as people who had never known this happened before.

4.      Kahn informs his readers while swaying them to his side

The Story of a Snitch

Jeremy Kahn’s main claim is that the justice system is crippled by the lack of witness cooperation. Witnesses are too afraid to come forward with information and therefore murderers get no punishment. Without better witness protection, the justice system will remain unjust. Kahn builds his argument by beginning and ending with the story of John Dowrey—a criminal that witnessed a shooting and decided to come forward in hopes of reducing his own sentence. This strategy grabs the reader’s attention in the beginning and leaves the reader emotional and thinking at the end. The reader becomes enthralled in Kahn’s argument because he/she wants to find out what will happen to Dowrey and wants to know the facts and history behind why it happens. In order to build ethos, the author includes facts about crime rates, court cases, and the amount of money being put into witness protection programs. He shows knowledge of the justice system and its problems as well as the impact it has had on specific people. Kahn’s appeal to pathos is shown in his heart-wrenching stories of real people and families affected by the lack of witness protection. He talks about houses getting firebombed, families having to flee their hometowns, and closes with the tragic death of John Dowrey. This causes the reader to feel sadness and anger towards the failing system and it is the hope of Kahn that the reader will feel motivated to support witness protection reform and stand up and be a witness if needed.

Womb For Rent

Goodman’s main argument was that international surrogacy is unethical. In her words babies have become “products” and the world has developed a surrogate “marketplace”. She brings up issues like what will the offspring will be told when they grow older, what responsibilities the family contracting the surrogate mother has, and what issues could arise from illiterate, poor people signing the contract.

In order to establish pathos in her argument, Goodman explains and even sympathizes somewhat with the opposite side. She talks about the women who are contracted and their reasons for taking the job. Some of the international women contracted come from third world countries and would have to work years and years to ever make as much money as they could from becoming a surrogate mother. Goodman includes the heart-wrenching story about the mother who used the money she received to buy a heart operation for her son to show that she is sympathetic and understanding. Including stories like that make Goodman more appealing and kind in her audience’s eyes.

The question I chose is related to ethos and how knowledgeable Goodman is of the opposing side. She seems very knowledgeable and has even taken the time to research specific international surrogate women and learn their stories. The majority of her column is actually focused on the other side and only towards the end does Goodman establish her own argument. I thought the way she developed the column was very effective and I was able to see her thought process and how she came to have the point of view that she has.

What strikes me as most disturbing is the word choice that Goodman uses. Her word choice comes with a very negative connotation and image. Describing babies as “products” and surrogacy as an international “business” makes the whole process seem very emotionless. She compares the surrogate mothers to slaves and talks about “selling children” which gives the audience the impression that this is morally wrong and horrific. Although her word choice was a bit disturbing, it made for a very effective argument.  

Catherine Beecher

After researching Catherine Beecher, I learned that she was a huge advocate for the education of women. However, I would have never known that by reading her writing on housekeeping. I also learned that Beecher was an anti-suffragist because she believed women had very specific roles in life and should not get mixed up in politics. These roles, according to Beecher, were to be the best mother and teacher possible. Her writing on housekeeping was a way of emphasizing these roles of a mother and a teacher and the affect they have on the family.

Housekeeper SWA 4

According to Beecher, a housekeeper is the wife and mother of a family. The housekeeper is responsible for keeping a family functioning well and maintaining order. She uses “housekeeper” and “woman” interchangeably throughout her writing. Beecher believes a housekeeper should always have an “equable and cheerful temper” because the way in which a housekeeper portrays herself influences the entire family. If a housekeeper is irritable and scolds the family members when an accident occurs, the entire family balance and mood will be thrown off. The best way to handle a problem, according to Beecher, is to meet it with a cheerful disposition and act calmly. Her example about the mother calmly explaining to the child what she did wrong exemplifies this necessary behavior. If a housekeeper does not maintain an “equable and cheerful temper” than she will be met with retaliation and anger and that can be damaging to a family.

                There are several important considerations that Beecher outlines that prepare a housekeeper to meet daily problems within the family. The first is that a woman should not view her duties as irrelevant and unimportant; she should view her duties as dignified and difficult. Maintaining this point of view will “sustain and invigorate her” and motivate her to perform her duties well. Another consideration Beecher outlines is that a woman should always expect her plans to be interfered with and prepare for that. By preparing for the worst, she will not be disappointed and will be able to meet the problems with a “cheerful and quiet” spirit. A housekeeper should also always consider the overall comfort of the family over the execution of her plans. It is more important that a woman’s children grow up with amiable tempers than that every chore and task be completed. If carrying out her plans will cause discomfort to the family, a housekeeper should reduce the task until it can be accomplished comfortably.  A woman should not ever succumb to anger or using angry tones because it will accomplish nothing. Lastly and most importantly, a housekeeper should always remember that anything and everything occurs because of the divine power of God. Therefore, a woman should not complain about things that go wrong in the family because she would be complaining about God and that is a sin.

                Beecher is biased in her assumptions about a housekeeper. Her version is based off of her own experiences and class. She does not account for upper class women who have maids or lower class women who have much bigger concerns than keeping a cheerful disposition. Her considerations and descriptions can only be applied to a certain type of woman and not all.