Post 5: The Lesbian Bride's Handbook by Ariel Levy

Ariel Levy (right) and wife
Amy Norquist (left)

Planning a wedding is not an easy task and Ariel Levy wrote about her own experience in her essay The Lesbian Bride’s Handbook. Ariel Levy has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2008. In her career she has written several books and has appeared on television programs such as The Colbert Report and Oprah (Levy). Trying to plan wedding is a struggle no matter how big or small. Although, she tried to deny that she was unlike other brides Levy had to deal with everything any bride must go through: venue, in-laws, food and most importantly the dress. What Levy wrote was deeper than just the plans; since her purpose was to inform the audience that in the end all that matters is love and happiness. The intended audience women who have been or will be getting married. Description was used in the essay and was important to achieving the purpose of the essay. Ariel went into great descriptive language of the dress that she bought for her wedding day “The skirt was tight at the top and then exploded with volume and hand-painted floral appliqués. When I put it on, I appeared to be in full bloom” (Atwan 138).  The description used made it easy for the reader to know how much Levy loved the dress and how it made her feel. Description of the dress helped add contrast to the end of the story when she had the dress just hanging in her closet and realized the only thing worth keeping was her wife, Amy. Ariel Levy did accomplish her purpose in my own opinion. I found that through her use of personal information and fabulous description in the essay, she was able to make the purpose known to the audience. I thought that the essay was well written and unique; which allowed the purpose of The Lesbian Bride's Handbook to be achieved.

Work Cited

Atwan, Robert, and Adam Gopnik. The Best American essays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.

Levy, Ariel. "Ariel Levy." Ariel Levy. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Aug. 2013. <http://www.ariellevy.net/news.php>.

Post 4: Cricket Fighting by Hugh Raffles

Cricket Fighting

In China the act of cricket fighting has been a part of the culture for hundreds of years and is still in practice in modern day. Hugh Raffles is the author of the essay Cricket Fighting first featured in Granta. Raffles is a professor of Anthropology at the New School liberal Arts College in New York ("Hugh Raffles"). Basics of the Cricket Fighting in China, including the five virtues and three reversals, is written about in the essay. The author in detail describes interaction between humans and crickets. Training and fighting of the crickets in the Chinese culture is also part of the essay context and is extremely informative. The purpose of the essay was to inform readers about the practice of cricket fighting in China while drawing parallels between humans and crickets. The essay was directed towards people who have no background knowledge of the Chinese cricket fighting culture and have an interest in anthropology. In the essay personification was used as a strategy by Hugh Raffles and was important to achieving his purpose in writing. Cricket Fighting had numerous facts about the actual cricket fights to inform readers about the crickets however the personification involved in the essay was the element needed in order to get the purpose across. Personification is used for the crickets giving them human qualities and making them more relatable to the reader. The personification makes the connection between humans and crickets believable. The author did accomplish his purpose in my own opinion. Hugh was able to show the connection between the crickets and the Chinese people quite well and was able to do it in entertaining manner. I had no previous knowledge of the custom of cricket fighting and after reading I was able to see the similarities between the crickets and the humans in the essay Cricket Fighting. 

Work Cited

                                                                                                                                                        "Hugh Raffles - Professor of Anthropology." The New School | A university in New York City. The New         School, n.d. Web. 12 Aug. 2013. <http://www.newschool.edu/lang/faculty.aspx?id=1690>.

Post 3: The Way We Age Now by Atul Gawande

In the essay The Way We Age Now by Atul Gawande the topic of elderly health is written about in detail. Atul Gawande is a surgeon, writer, Harvard professor and public health researcher. He has been a contributor for New Yorker magazine since 1998 and has written several bestselling books (Gudrais). Medical treatment that is given to the elderly is known as geriatrics medicine; the essay goes into further detail about this form of medicine. The work started off with medical facts and statistics about the elderly and then goes into specific individual lives of selected patients. The Way We Age Now surrounds the present day situation for the elderly and slightly into what the future may look like in terms of treatment available for the older population. The purpose of the essay was to inform readers about the demise of the care for the elderly and to persuade people to respect geriatrics more. This essay was targeted towards people in the world who were slightly indifferent to elderly medicine before reading the essay. Atul Gawande used pathos in The Way We Age Now which was important to achieve the purpose. The essay appealed to the readers' emotions by adding in real people alongside the medical facts involved. He told the story of the patient rather than just their medical problems making them more human. This appeals to the audience because the person in the story becomes far more easy to relate to thus evoking more emotion from the reader. I believe that the Atul did accomplish his purpose. Over the course of the essay I received more information about the elderly and geriatrics that I had no knowledge of before. I found that the author had a perfect blend of personal touches and medical background that was needed in order get his purpose across.

Work Cited

Gudrais, Elizabeth. "Atul Gawande: surgeon, health-policy scholar, and writer | Harvard Magazine Sep-Oct   2009." Harvard Magazine | Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898. Harvard
College, n.d. Web. 12 Aug. 2013. <http://harvardmagazine.com/2009/09/atul-gawande-surgeon-health-   policy-scholar-writer>.

Post 2: Buzzards by Lee Zacharias

Turkey Vulture

The topic of the essay Buzzards by Lee Zacharias is a balance between information about vultures and a glimpse into the life of Zacharias's own father. Lee Zacharias has published numerous
books, essays and short stories. In her lifetime she has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council ("Lee Zacharias"). Lee has also had a successful career as a photographer; she writes in the essay Buzzards her experience of taking pictures of vultures. The essay goes into detail about facts of vultures and how they act in the wild as well as perceived in various cultures. Lee writes about her silent father, an old-fashioned man, who never approved of Lee achieving her dreams of writing and photography. In the essay Zacharias writes her father's eventual suicide and her own insight to his tragic life and death. The two stories draw parallels between them that reveal the purpose to the essay. To persuade and inform the audience that in life being vocal about dreams is needed to avoid a lonely life and death is the purpose to this particular essay. Lee Zacharias directs Buzzards to people who are contemplating on whether to speak up and follow their dreams in life. Logos was used in the essay and was important in order to achieve the purpose. The Logic given in the essay main analysis found through the writing of the vultures. Lee writes about how in different cultures the vultures has been viewed in certain ways. In particular “Africans believe that vultures dream the location of their food...Why would we dream, if never to leave the domain of our waking world?” (Atwan 281).  The reasoning included in the statement is to express the parallels between the two stories that dreams should be followed. In my opinion the author did accomplish her purpose in this essay. By the author writing about her own experiences with her father and the vultures it was easy to see what the Lee was trying to show in her writing. I personally saw that by speaking up about dreams my life could be lived to the fullest.  

Work Cited
Atwan, Robert, and Adam Gopnik. The Best American essays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.

"Lee Zacharias - UNCG | Creative Writing." UNCG MFA Homepage - UNCG | Creative Writing.                UNCG Creative Writing , n.d. Web. 12 Aug. 2013. <http://mfagreensboro.org/faculty/lee-zacharias/>.

Post 1: Becoming Hitler by Rich Cohen

Rich Cohen

           Hitler’s toothbrush mustache is a symbol of pure evil. Rich Cohen decided to wear the infamous mustache and wrote about his experience in his essay entitled Becoming Adolf. Cohen has been a contributing editor at Vanity Fair since 2006. Articles written by Rich have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Rolling Stone and The New York Times (Daneman). Rich Cohen decided to actually become Adolf in a sense and wear the notorious toothbrush mustache in public to see if he could defuse the negative connotation the mustache brings. The history of the toothbrush mustache goes farther back than the life of Adolf and is explained in detail in the essay. Rich wore his mustache in public and observed the reactions he got from strangers and friends while wearing the toothbrush mustache. The purpose of the essay was to inform readers the findings of the power of Hitler's mustache in modern day. Becoming Adolf was written to target people who have the background knowledge of the Hitler’s reign who are also intrigued by fashion. Ethos was used in the essay and was important to the purpose of the essay. The persona in the writing was little sentences expressing his personality “This is the part where I am supposed to explain just why I decided to write this story now” (Atwan 15). The addition of Cohen’s personality helped achieve his purpose by making it easier for the reader to become more engaged with his essay and view him as a credible writer. I believe that the author was able to accomplish his purpose in the essay. The actual test to see if he could defuse the power of the mustache failed, however by including ethos and history into the essay he was able to inform readers about the strength of Hitler's mustache in modern day.  

Work Cited 

Atwan, Robert, and Adam Gopnik. The Best American essays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.

 Daneman, Kathy . "Author Rich Cohen, Bio." Author-Writer Rich Cohen. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Aug. 2013.       <http://authorrichcohen.com/bio.htm>.