Got a deathstick?

(click the image for a better view)

Above is an ad for a "New crush-proof box" for cigarettes. The ad is, of course, denouncing cigarettes and not promoting them with the box being a casket among other details.

Though the ad is short on very long text, the longest string of words explains that "The Surgeon General has determined that cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health." This may seem as if it were one of the most obvious facts in the world; however, the fact that this statement has been determined by the Surgeon General makes the statement much more credible. Most people would trust the word of anyone who could rightfully be called a surgeon but if that surgeon were the Surgeon General, who wouldn't believe what he or she has to say about your health? If this person were important enough to have a title that no other surgeon has, one would think that that person were much more knowledgeable than many other surgeons in the world. Another credible source to help strengthen this ad is the text about the use of the FTC method at the bottom of the image. The FTC method has been used to tell the amount of tar, nicotine, and other substances in cigarettes since 1967. The FTC method has been revised since to show the levels of tar and nicotine when a cigarette is smoked under higher intensive conditions. Because the FTC method is used in all cigarette advertisements and by the major cigarette companies, this bit of fact is not to be taken as a said statement by an untrustworthy source.

A few facts around this ad state a few hard facts such as the amount of tar and nicotine per cigarette and the Surgeon General's warning. 8 mg may not seem as though it were that much tar, but how many cigarettes are in a pack and how many packs do some people smoke in a day? Some people may consume up to 32 ml of tar a day, or even more. Again, the Surgeon General's warning has the simple fact that smoking is dangerous to your health. That simple statement states a fact which is impossible to argue with.

The largest part of the above photo is that of the coffin with a few cigarettes tucked into it's bed. The coffin may be reminiscent of the passing of a loved one or someone a person knew. From there, one could go as far to relate the loss of a loved one to lung or similar cigarette caused cancer. This thought can really pull on the heart strings of someone who has actually lost a loved one to cigarette smoke and even bring back painful memories. Even the joke at the top of the ad about the "New crush-proof box" has a kind of emotional appeal. At first a grin may cross a viewers face, and then a grimace after a little consideration about what is being said. The joke may even be suggesting that the smokers are more concerned about a few precious squeezed cigarettes than their health or the health of those around them.

Ethos, Logos, and Pathos are used in this advertisement against cigarettes by borrowing some of the Surgeon General's credibility, stating a fact about tar content, and reminding us of lost one to this addiction. This ad blends all parts of Aristotle's persuasive appeals to persuade people to not use cigarettes.

Something Taken for Granted

Late last night, while trying to find a topic for my final thINK summer assignment, I glanced at the counter to find food from my mother’s parent’s house. The food looked great; a kind of flour chips, a sauce, dried onions, and banh xeo comprised this tray of brought home food. I just had a sample of each but as I lay in bed, I realized how important home cooking is.
Both my maternal and paternal grandparents cook their own meals. I’ve never known any of them to so much as look at a fast food restaurant. What is a fast food joint anyway? Is it a place to find a good deal or delicious food? I beg to differ.
Even though the fast food places may seem to be a cheap place to get food, if one were to look a little closer, questions can be raised. If the value menus are composed of $1 items, what is the quality of the actual food? Restaurants are built to make money, not give it away, so how would they make money by serving high grade food for such a low price? I have watched my father cook a $40 batch of gumbo which fed my family and friends for days. How much fast food could a person get for $40 at not even a fraction the taste?
Besides being healthier and more cost efficient, cooking meals yourself brings people together. Why go eat out somewhere when you can cook for a friend or a loved one? If that cook doesn’t want to cook alone, they could get a loved one or friend(s) to help them cook, this is actually quite fun.
Whenever you get the chance, cook a nice home meal for yourself or your family. Not only will you hone cooking skills and save money, you will also get to spend valuable time with family and friends.

Money, Greed, and Temptation

Money leads to many problems in life and some go so far as to call money "the source of all evil." Money causes tragedies when in excess or when people think they need much more.

These ideas are expressed vividly in the short story The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving. Tom Walker was a meager, miserly fellow who lived just a few miles from Boston, Massachusetts during 1727. In short, Tom met a man claiming to be Old Scratch. He offered Tom the treasure of a pirate for the usual price. With much greed in his heart and fear for not wanting to lose the treasure, Tom struck a bargain with Old Scratch to be his "usurer" of money. Tom gained vast amounts of money by squeezing the money from poor debtors and land-jobbers. One day as he was about to foreclose on an unlucky land-speculator for whom "he had professed the greatest friendship", Tom lost his composure and exclaimed, "The devil take me if I have made a farthing!" Old Scratch was glad to comply.

Tom showed much greed when Old Scratch instructed him to "lend money at two per cent. a month" and he replied that he would charge four. Tom shows an even deeper greed and selfishness as he replied to Old Scratch's instructions to "extort bonds, foreclose mortgages" and "drive the merchants to bankruptcy--" by saying that he would "drive them to the devil."

Pink Floyd actually has an entire song about money and how it affects people. During the aptly named song, "Money", Pink Floyd explains how money changes people into greedy and selfish beings that "grab that cash with both hands and make a stash". Pink almost seems to compare money to drugs as he sings, "Money, it's a hit" in that we can't get enough and need another hit similar to a drug. Pink later goes on to sing about man's selfishness by stating "get your hands off my stack." This statement describes how people would not be moral enough to share any of their money.

In this society money can be the illusion of happiness, the more one has, the happier that person is. We see money's corrupting hand in our government and in other organizations. Even children are affected by money, some have too little, just enough, or too much for their own good. Many crimes are driven by the hunger for more money such as robbery, muggings, and the sale of illegal drugs and substances.

Be very careful when you handle money. Keep a firm grip on what cash means to you or it can posses you. Ultimately, I agree with Pink Floyd's lyrics, "Money, so it seems, is the root of all evil today."

The Men Who Shouldn't Come Home

This post contains spoilers about the short stories The Open Window and The Monkey's Paw.

Death is an inevitable part of life, we all know that. But what would you do, or could you think, if you saw someone who you knew was dead walk again? This might be harder to take in than the person dieing in the first place. Seeing someone dead and then seeing them walking again would be beyond reasoning. We know that once someone has passed, they don't come back. This belief is a part of our understanding of life. So what would you do if someone you knew was dead came walking in your front door?

I decided to read The Open Window by H.H. Munro. Many (well... maybe most) people would not interpret this story the way I did, which is their translation. Towards the beginning of the story, everything seemed to be normal with a simple exchange between Framton Nuttel and Vera about the loss of her aunt's husband and two younger brothers. What struck me as odd was that Vera had said that when the brothers and husband had drowned in the marsh that "Their bodies were never recovered." The story takes on a more solemn tone when Mrs. Sappleton remarks gleefully that her "husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting". Believing she had lost her mind, Framton thought the talk of the "shooting and the scarcity of the birds" was "purely horrible". The atmosphere turns ghastly when Mrs. Sappleton exclaims, "Here they are at last!" As Framton turned to look, he spotted three silhouettes "walking across the lawn towards the window" "in the deepening twilight". Not knowing what to do, Framton simply grabs his belongings and dashes out the door.

After I read The Open Window, I immediately thought of the story The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs. The Monkey's Paw in a nutshell is about Mr. White wishing for two hundred pounds because his friend, who gave him the paw, had told him to "wish for something sensible." Perhaps completely in coincidence, Mr. White receives two hundred pounds at the cost of his only son's life. A week after burying their son, Mrs. White demands that Mr. White wish for their son to be alive again. With much fear and demanding by his spouse, Mr. White wishes that his son was alive again. At that exact moment, there is a subtle knock at the door that resounds throughout the house.

I believe I made a connection between these two stories because of implied ideas about the living dead. Is there really a correct way to react to seeing someone you knew was dead walk again?

After research here, here, and here I realized that I horribly misunderstood the story of The Open Window. Vera's story and reaction when the men came home fooled me and if you knew me, you would know that I take everything anybody says very seriously and that I am very gullible. This would contribute to how I can not sense sarcasm unless it is extremely excessive. I believed Vera's story because she broke her self-possessed composure with a little shudder at the end of her story and a look of horror when she saw the husband and two younger brothers coming back from their hunt. When Mrs. Sappleton exclaimed that the men "looked as if they were muddy up to their eyes!", I believed that this was implying that the men had crawled out of the ground. However, we learn more from our failures than our triumphs.

My annotated photo/story

Here's my first Summer assignment for English class about who I am as a writer, reader and who I am myself.

Of Mice and Men

From his first paragraph, John Steinbeck sets the scene in Of Mice and Men through his use of imagery as he describes the natural world as a parallel to later events in the novel. From the sentence describing "the Salinas River" dropping "in close to the hillside bank and" running "deep and green", a few words stick out to me. "close" reminds me of being close to someone (as in a relationship). "River" sounds similar to a nourisher or life giver. Parallels to the story from this sentence would be that Lennie (hillside bank) and George (the River) are close and George provides for Lennie (ex. food). The "slopes" that "curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains" partly describes George and Lennie's relationship to one another. "curve up" sounds as though the mountains and the river are related to or close to one another (relationship). The mountains being described as strong and rocky are similar to something coarse and mighty. The parallel to the story could be that Lennie (mountains) and George (the slopes of the river) are close to one another and Lennie is very strong. One of the more interesting descriptive sentences about leaves "under the trees" lying "deep and so crisp" describes how protective each is to the other. The word under may refer to protecting or covering. The crisp leaves may be something unhurt and unmolested by trampling feet. To the story, Lennie (tree) and George (the leaves) or vice versa each protect each other and watch out for one another so no harm will come to the other. Even though there may not seem to be parallels to the story in the first paragraph, upon reading the book many parallels can be seen throughout the story.

The second part of this analysis involves quotes from the story and interpretations of the tone. The first tone word I came up with was unfortunate. George still stared morosely at the fire. "When I think of the swell time I could have without you, I go nuts. I never get no peace." "Well, we ain't got any," George exploded. "Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want... These quotes show how unfortunate George may be because he has to look after Lennie. George expresses how much more fortunate he would be if he didn't have to look after Lennie all the time. The second tone word I came up with was the word dire. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering. "Well, that girl rabbits in an' tells the law she been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie. So we sit in a irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day. Got on'y our head sticking out from the side of the ditch. An' that night we scrammed outta there." These quotes show how dire George and Lennie's situation was at times, mainly caused by Lennie's mistakes. The drastic measures George and Lennie took to avoid these consequences and what reactions these situations called for show how dire their situation was.

Although being your brother's keeper is not always easy, one must remember that your brother will keep whomever keeps him as well. "So we sit in a irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day. Got on'y our head sticking out from the side of the ditch. An' that night we scrammed outta there." This quote shows how dire George and Lennie's situation was and what measures they took by sitting "in a irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day." Carlson was not to be put off. "Look, Candy. This ol' dog jus' suffers hisself all the time. If you was to take him out and shoot him right in the back of the head-" he leaned over and pointed, "-right there, why he'd never know what hit him." This quote, while foreshadowing, illustrates that the people during this time would do what had to be done by shooting "him right in the back of the head". A show of mercy is also realized in this quote when Carlson says, "why he'd never know what hit him." Recently, I have had an instance of watching out for someone, and then having the favor returned. A couple weeks ago, I found a class ring that belonged to someone I knew from the band. I returned his ring and he replied by saying that he "owed me one". While taking a quiz in Chemistry class later that week, I came upon a question that I just couldn't remember. Part of the question had to do with "the partial pressure of a gas on the surface of a liquid". I wracked my brain to remember what the answer was, but I just could not remember. Mr. Russell, our Chemistry teacher, gave my class a hint by saying that "there's an eleventh grader with this same exact last name". After he had said that, I remembered who I had given the class ring back to and wrote his name down. Because of this exchange of favors and indirect favors, I made a one hundred percent on the quiz and raised my class grade to an eighty-eight percent.

(Direct book quotes are in blue.)

Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother

Nearly everyone has seen the photo of Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother at some point. Some may not have even known when this photo was taken. Even if someone doesn't know when this photo was taken, anyone can see and recognize the expression on the woman's face. The lines of a face which should be smooth and the (what seems to be) sped-up aging of this "thirty-two" year old woman are apparent. Even though you cannot see this in this picture, "she sat in that lean- to tent". The children's dirty, matted hair and the look of uncertainty and fear on their mother's face provoke thoughts of how cruel the Great Depression was or might have been for some or many people during that time.

(citations and image from here.)