Propoganda and the Iraq War

Prompt: It is acceptable for a government to try and shape public opinion through information campaigns.

The Iraq War was a highly controversial topic within media, where some media outlets were accused of being biased or even a form of propaganda. Different media outlets were reflective of their respective ideologies, based on their own ideas and the interests of their viewers. However during the Iraq war, American media outlets broadcasted information presented by the U.S. military, which was accused of being biased and one sided. Which brings us to the idea of government influence of media portrayal of certain events in order to gain or reinforce support. This is a common occurrence as government attempt to persuade public opinion during events such as war. However this is something that should not be deemed acceptable. Information campaigns usually attempt to communicated information by misrepresenting the other side and omitting information to mislead public. This can include the exclusion of important information that may reveal the nature of the event and cause discontent. In turn, this paints an unfair image of the opposing side, which should not be done by a government as they have strong influence on people. This unbalanced view of events may cause unjust perceptions of certain groups, and to create issues towards them. Governments should portray both sides equally in order to maintain credibility, giving the people a full image. Specifically for the Iraq War, the American government, through their influence on the media, gave the American people a negative portrayal of the Iraqi population. This was done in order to convince the public to accept the war on Iraq, and to enhance the American image. However this created a negative image that was closely associated with American perception of Iraq, and was damaging to their population. Therefore it should not be acceptable for government to shape public opinions, but rather to present both sides and encourage support. 

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Media Bias Article Rewrite

Rationale:

This article is a rewritten version of the FOX News Article titled Palestinians stab Israelis in 2 Jerusalem attacks. The FOX article is one that clearly favors the Israeli side, often portraying Palestinians in an inhumane manner and favoring Israeli sources. There is omission of events that may portray Israelis negatively, and those which are mentioned often lack detail. The rewritten article will place more focus on the Palestinian side, using Palestinian sources and accounts. It will be placing the Israeli side in a negative light, to present a more positive image of the Palestinian side. 

Article:

JERUSALEM - Israeli police has shot a Palestinian in Jerusalem following a stabbing attack on settlers while in Gaza, 2 Palestinian children, aged 13 and 15, where shot dead. This came during a time of increased violence by settlers protected by Israeli police in Jerusalem and other cities.

These stabbing attacks have spread widely after settlers have attack the holy site of Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, under the protection of the police. As a result, attacks have spread between Palestinians and Jewish settlers.

Further, a 16-year-old boy was shot dead in Jerusalem after he attempted to stab two settlers, who were left with light wounds. Elsewhere in Jerusalem, the IDF have stormed a hospital while an Israeli settler has run over Palestinian workers.

In Gaza, Israeli drones and jets are intensively circulating, causing police stations to be evacuated in fear of an attack. Military boats placed attacks on Gaza, and later, loud explosions were heard. There were two rockets launched from Gaza today, which hit rural areas and caused no causalities. More clashes within Gaza, wounding dozens of Palestinians, some of which are minors. 

Many arrests and attacks have taken place within Gaza since the 2014 Israeli attacks on the strip, which killed over 2000 Palestinians. Rockets have been launched out of Gaza as an act of support for the uprising within Palestine, which came after settler attacks on Al-Aqsa mosque.

Over the day 586 Palestinians were wounded in the West Bank amid clashes with the Israeli police. More protests occurred at the funeral of a 25 year old Palestinian, where Israeli police opened fire on the protesters. In Hebron, thousands took to the streets for the funerals of Palestinian martyrs who had carried out recent attacks.

Since the start of this month, police and the IDF have killed 23 Palestinians, while over 500 have been wounded. Many of these are minors, such as those attacked in a school in the West Bank city of Ramallah by the IDF.

Attacks on behalf of Palestinians are in response to the increased Israeli aggression, and are a form of resistance. As Jewish settlers have attacked holy sites and innocent people in those areas, Palestinian youth has been responding with a series of attacks.

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The Tempest IOC 2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1RzIF3v6xYHbl9DWU1VSklkVVk/view?usp=sharing

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This is Water

In his essay, "This is Water", David Foster Wallace discusses the human outlook towards everyday life and how this impacts overall happiness. He begins by discussing the routine of everyday life and the tedious tasks that come with work and responsibility in adult life. He argues that our perception of this routine is something that has a direct connection to our freedom. He suggests that by becoming more conscious of these surrondings we are able to become more free and to open up our perception of the world. This concept is grounded in his discussion of the everyday chores that an adult must take responsibility for. This includes waking up to go to work, commuting and working, as well as other necessities such as grocery shopping which Wallace focused on greatly. The many minor details that are such an integral part of grocery shopping, such as the damaged carts and the long check out lines, become part of that irritating reality. However Wallace argues that our outlook towards and understanding of these details and parts of everyday routine is what frees us as humans. By looking at these with a different, more open-minded perception, we can free ourselves from the typical reality that has become almost subconscious. 

Literature plays its own role in relation to this concept, where it can add greatly to our social lives. Through the understandings that we gain from literature, we will be able to shape a more well-rounded view of the world. We are exposed to characters, settings, experiences and events which develops our views. This forms a sense of empathy for the reader. Emotional intelligence is defined by one’s ability to recognize emotions and differentiate between them. This is fostered by our ability to retain information on different human interactions and relationships. While we can attain this from real life situations, literature can give us exposure to a wider range of these instances, and explain them in great detail. Through the development of characters, as well as the changes that they go through, we can learn about the essential parts of human thought. These details will allow us to have a greater understand of emotions within a larger context, in turn expanding our emotional intelligence. 

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Family Furnishings IOC

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1RzIF3v6xYHYnpZcmtUdkYwMDA/view?usp=sharing

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Boys and Girls IOC

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1RzIF3v6xYHUzNqX0dEaHJtM3c/view?usp=sharing

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Woman's Literature Reflection

The study of literature allows us to broaden our perspective of the world and to be more open-minded. Through our exposure to literature, we will be able to gain a wider understanding of people and different cultures. We can understand the ideas of people around the world and those from different times. Further, it can improve our social skills and help us to interact with different people from different backgrounds. Literature can provide a good image of different cultures, and to expand out ideas of the world. Woman's literature in particular has a unique viewpoint which is important for us to examine. It is expressive of oppression and major changes within a social group. Whether it is directly advocating for feminism or not, there is a sense of honesty that brings interesting ideas into literature. Further, it can show the true experiences of the female and their outlook on different concepts.

Munro is able to incorporate her own personal life into her stories and create complex characters through doing so. This is significant because it calls for change within personal stories that allow us to understand the viewpoint of those experiencing the issues. The stories were very realistic and had everyday events, therefore they addressed true aspects of life. As a result, the reader during those times, as well as modern readers, were able to relate to the stories and the messages she was expressing. Despite that Munro does not write with the aim of advocating for feminism, she addresses feminism in subtle ways. She does this by honestly portraying the role of the female within her realistic stories and showing the true emotions involved. This raw honesty means that she is not directly trying to portray her issue with gender inequality, however it conveys an extremely strong message. 

The part I enjoyed most of Munro's work was her ability to create complex characters and describe their experiences. They all had very realistic personalities and her ability to convey their emotions so clearly strengthened her stories. The interesting development of her characters was something that I greatly enjoyed. They were also highly relatable in some aspects, which is a result of the realistic nature of the stories. The complexity and honesty of the characters allow Munro's work to be influential, and to convince us of her message. 

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The Names They Gave Me

A few days ago I came across an article by Arab-American writer, Tasbeeh Herwees called The Names They Gave Me. I found it particularly interesting since it was related to the Language and Identity part of our course. Further, it was something that I was very familiar with and I found the article to be very well written.

In her article, the author talks about how she grew up in the United States with an Arabic name. Her mother felt very strongly about her keeping her real name instead of adopting an American nickname. This is followed by many awkward encounters with teachers who are incapable of pronouncing her Arabic name, leading her to feel as though she was a burden. She compares this to a tribe who did not have a name for the color blue, leading her to the conclusion that "It does not exist because it has no name". This story is one that is probably shared by most children with names that are native to their home country living in the United States.

However, I realized that this is a story that is not only related to children growing up in western countries. Since third grade, I have attended international schools here in the U.A.E, and I have noticed that this is also a common theme for us. Children coming from countries all around their names quickly accustom themselves to a twisted form of their names. Even as an Arab living in Arab country, I have realized that Arab names are rarely pronounced in the correct way at school. After a few years, we begin to introduce ourselves in the same way our western teachers and friends said our names. To me, that seems like a destruction of our identity. And in a way, that sounds hypocritical to me, because we do have the power to correct those who mispronounce our names. However it was exhausting to correct them time and time again, to watch them struggle with the letters and sounds. In order for us to embrace our differences and collectively strengthen our languages, we should make the effort to pronounce names correctly. Herwees describes the time her math teacher works to correctly pronounce her name as a moment which made her feel as though her "name was a crown". And that should be the case with all names, in order to strengthen them as individuals and keep their identity. 

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Summer Blog Post

A few days ago I returned from my trip to Italy with my family, we went to a city that I had wanted to visit for a long time, Milan. In the few days building up to my trip, I spent my time frantically planning and researching. I wanted to fit as many things into our trip as possible, a typical habit of mine. But for some reason, I forgot a major detail: language. I am fluent in English and Arabic, and I can speak a little bit of French; but I knew nothing of Italian. I remembered this while I was at the airport, with a few minutes to board and barely had time to try and look up a few common phrases which I could use. Italian was not a language I was familiar with at all, and when I arrived at Milan Malpensa, I knew two words, "grazie" and "ciao". 

The city was beautiful, it really was. On the first day we visited the nearby Lake Como, which was a beautiful lake surrounded by several small towns. Communication in those towns proved impossible very quickly, they were very small towns with not many residents and English was not commonly spoken. Still, since it was a tourist area, I didn't understand the full extent of this language barrier until I got to Milan. Although it was the financial capital of Italy, many people in the city did not speak English, especially in the smaller stores. However, we did get by, and we were able to have full meals in restaurants who had no English speakers. 

This brought my attention to two things. The first was our ability to communicate, two groups speaking completely different languages were able to somehow understand each other. And in a world where "broken English" is deemed unprofessional or unacademic, that seemed like an amazing thing. That leads me to the second thing, that despite that they were not able to speak English, they were all working and doing perfectly fine. Speaking English wasn't a requirement for them, and not having this ability certainly didn't make them any less successful. This meant that anyone who wanted to work or live in Italy, would have to learn Italian. And this creates a sense of identity for the country which I believe is a huge advantage for them. It allows them to hold on to their culture, history and traditions, which strengthens them as a nation. Furthermore, it encourages more people to learn their language in order to benefit from what Italy has to offer, and this makes the language stronger and more popular. I felt this within my first few minutes in the airport, where most signs had large Italian labels followed by smaller, less obvious English translations. I quickly learned that "uscita" was exit, and although that wasn't very helpful in my upcoming interactions with natives that didn't speak English, it just showed how important the Italian language was for its people. 

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How to Write About Jordanians

As any good piece of writing should, begin with a description of the landscape. You know, the sunset that stretches over the desert and sand dunes, that kind of thing. Never mind that Jordan actually has a diverse terrain that is usually only found in countries that are more than twice its size; but obviously no one knows that. Now, remember all those cool pictures you saw of camel rides in the desert? Right, time to recall all of those “Arabian Nights” type scenes, because its obviously an essential part of Jordanian life. Next, focus on the most important part of the Jordanian’s life, meal times. Because of course, all they do is prepare feasts for their huge families with countless children. Its a good idea to elaborate on how large these feasts are, just describe them as their obsession, that’ll do the trick. Don’t forget to describe your typical Jordanian character in detail, with their tan skin and dark hair. Sure, let us completely ignore the large number of ethnicities living within Jordan and the physical differences that come with them. I mean lets be real, they don’t even speak English, so they will never know. Now, more on the typical Jordanian character, since they have no exposure to the superior western culture, they are always dressed in national clothes. Don’t waste too much time researching specific national dress, just pick a few that come up from the google images search ‘Arab clothes’; its all the same thing. If its a male character, make sure to highlight his rough nature, and his obsession with power. For a female character, keep in mind that she’s not allowed to work, and she’s definitely not involved in countless projects in a variety of fields. You might want to use some reference to Islam and how “extreme” it is, because thats always something your audience can understand and relate to, maybe nod their head as they solemnly recall 9/11. And while you’re there, you may want to mention how their religion asks them to starve themselves for a whole month!! Wow. Also, lets forget the fact that Islam is not the only religion in Jordan and that a large percentage of its population is actually Christian. Lets look at society, actually, you don’t even need to focus on this aspect since you can just describe it as chaotic and based on all the money they have. Jordan does have oil, right? Or was that the other country next to it? Who knows these things. Anyway, just mention that they have a lot of money and that they do absolutely no work, because obviously they don’t have the skills to develop themselves as a nation. Note: if they get defensive and start to mention the numerous projects that many Jordanians are working on, just remind them of what really matters, their simple, traditional lifestyles. After all, they have no sense of organization within their society. By the way, is Jordan the one that has all the cool ancient Roman sites? If it is, then maybe its worth a visit, and while you’re there you can take some photos for your cover page. Just make sure to drive out to the most remote spot with some good models so you can properly capture all the things you talked about in your highly authentic book. Well done. 

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Paper Two: Things Fall Apart

Prompt: Show how and to what effect Achebe makes use of myth, legend or other stories and tales. 

Through the description and development of events in his novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe makes use of myths and legends to assist in the establishment of the Igbo culture. Throughout the novel, proverbs and stories play a large role in the culture. They set up a strong establishment of oral culture they relied on in order to communicate their values and traditions throughout successive centuries. He uses them in order to familiarize the reader with the different practices and traditions of the Igbo people. They allow the audience to relate with the characters and to appreciate the culture for its richness of language. By further emphasizing on the oral culture universal among the clansmen, Achebe is able to add a greater sense of realism to his audience and immerse them more within Igbo land and add an element of empathy to the African characters who were so desperate to hold on to the last traces of their culture.

There is a clear appreciation for speech and the art of communication that is demonstrated throughout the novel using the character’s saying. Okoye is a character well known for his speaking and is held in high regard as an orator; it is clearly stated that “Okoye was a great talker.” He achieves this reputation with the use of profuse proverbs, which allow him to skirt around the subject before addressing it. Proverbs are a valued part of the Igbo culture and described as “the palm oil with which words are eaten.” Also, Unoka was well known for his speaking abilities which allowed him to put off the paying of debts. Through his use of proverbs and his ability to go around the subject when confronted, he was able to avoid paying back debts. He often told stories to Okownko, who did not appreciate these stories and regarded them as womanly. However, for the Igbo culture in general, his speaking abilities were what made him distinctive. This was because he was able to use words to his advantage and do what he wanted. 

 

Stories are also a major part of the novel, especially bedtime stories. We know that Nowye preferred his mothers stories to his fathers, and this establishes the stories as the emotional aspect of the society. Without such stories, the culture may seem too rigid and unbelievable. Instead, they are constantly referred to in order to highlight how prominent stories and tales are.Through this, the audience will be able to relate to the characters. It establishes them as a realistic group of people with flaws and therefore we can fully appreciate them as an audience. As the novel progresses, and negative consequences are inflicted on the people of Igbo land, the audience can feel empathy for them. 

Myths and legends are also a large aspect of Igbo culture, especially the stories told by the elders. The Igbo people can pass on their ideals and traditions through this form. This allows Achebe to establish the Igbo culture as one that is passed down through generations and strengthens the culture as a whole. By creating different stories which take into consideration various aspects of life, we can appreciate the Igbo culture and perhaps even relate to it. These stories are often used to explain aspects of nature. An example of this is the tortoise story told to Ezinma by her mother, which is used to explain the rough texture of a tortoise’s shell. This shows us that storytelling plays a major role in the Igbo people’s understanding of the world. Further, this story can be considered symbolic of a larger message which Achebe aims to communicate in his novel. It may be symbolic of colonialism as the tortoise asks the birds to adopt new names, which can be considered parallel to customs and traditions. 

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Things Fall Apart Memoir

I lived in Umuofia for a very long time and to me, the Igbo culture is one of the strongest cultures. I have great pride in it and its values, customs and traditions. And it cause me great pain to have lived to see it fall apart; I never expected to see such a great culture reduced to such a dismal state. I knew the arrival of the Christians would not be for a good cause. And I was right, all they did was tear us apart. We were wrong to let them stay, they influenced our children and took them away from their culture. And what culture could stay strong when its own children do not agree with its teachings but with the teachings of a group they knew for only a short time. We could not even agree among ourselves, generations disagreed with each other. They used the education they had as a weapon against us, they tricked us with their religion. We should have fought harder from the beginning, had we not let them stay in our village this would have not happened. Instead, we have to deal with the consequences forever. It has all fallen apart, they were able to find every tiny crack in our society and use it to their advantage. I have seen it with my own eyes with Okwonko, he lost his son to the Christian school, and then he was reduced to nothing. He took his life as he saw how we lost control of our own culture. The Christians took total control, and now we are powerless in our land. 

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Paper 2 Analysis: Things Fall Apart

Prompt: Discuss the significance of social status in Things Fall Apart, and comment on its contribution to characterization.

There are many prominent themes in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, and while they are all placed for different purposes, social status is one that touches on several aspects in the novel. Most significantly, it plays a major role in the development and portrayal of characters, most notably Okonkwo. Perhaps the most important value to him as a person is acceptance and approval from his community. From this, we can recognize the importance of social status and class within the Igbo community and the novel. Further, social status is reflective of other things within the community such respect and power.

Power is of major importance to the Igbo community and this is correlated with social status. Within the community, gaining titles will increase one’s status and therefore give them more power. Aside from titles that are achieved through winning wrestling matches or are bought, wealth had a huge impact on social status. Men who were successful at planting and harvesting yam were seen as of higher social status. Further, those of higher status were usually the ones involved with the decision making, signifying their importance. Therefore, most members of the community aimed to gain higher social status. There was great respect for those of higher status and this is reflected in their traditions such as that of the breaking of the kola nut. There is also great respect for the elders of the community and this is associated with their social status as well. Overall, social status was a major part of everyday life and often to reach higher levels was the goal of most members of the community.

In terms of Okonkwo, social status can be considered as his obsession, which ultimately led to his downfall. Throughout the novel, his main goal is to become of a higher status and gain power. His main fear was to be like his father, who had a poor social status and was generally regarded as lazy. In contrast, he aimed to become successful at farming and to be a character of influence. We know that Okonkwo did many things only in order to gain acceptance and keep his social status. He often did not believe in these ideas however accepted them only to maintain his place within the community. This can be seen when he is expected to make a sacrifice after breaking the week of peace. Okonkwo obviously did not have much respect for the week of peace to begin with, however followed his community’s wishes in order to keep their acceptance. This is reflected again when he leaves to his motherland after accidently killing a young boy, he is not fully convinced of the punishment however follows it anyway. In the end, when Okonkwo was seen as someone of lower status and could not regain his community’s acceptance, he chose to take his life. This leads us to understand that he felt as though he had reached the lowest status and found no value for life.

In conclusion, we can see that social status in the Igbo community is reflective of power, which is an important aspect to them. It, many regards, shapes their every day way of life and it’s a crucial aspiration for the people. This is highly reflected in Okonkwo’s personality, as he values his placement in society rather favorably. 

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Okwonko Character Analysis

The main character in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart Okwonko, is a complex character that was created in order to further enforce the themes in the novel. He is portrayed as a tragic character with his major flaw being his inability to accept change and weakness. This was a result of his father's failure and lack of strength and success in their community. He did not want to follow this path and instead was fully directed to becoming strong and accepted within his town. This flaw ultimately led to his downfall, which can be identified as his act of suicide at the end of the story. After returning from his motherland, Okwonko attempted to regain the power that he had before leaving. Since he was not able to achieve this, he could not live and thereby killed himself. This further proves the idea of Okwonko not being able to accept any change or failure. 

Overall, this character was created in order to make sure that the novel was realistic and relatable to the reader. Had the main character been without flaw, the audience would not be able to relate with him. If he had been a fully bad character, the audience may not sympathize with him at his downfall. Therefore, it was important to strike a balance between a perfectly good character and a fully bad one. This would allow the audience to better appreciate the Igbo culture and to relate to them, which is the aim of the novel. By creating this relatable character, and having him represent the community, Achebe will allow us as readers to understand and appreciate this culture that we may not have full knowledge of. 

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An African Voice Discussion Takeaway

Chinua Achebe's interview, "An African Voice," provides great insight on the impact of his literature as well as the ideas behind his work. When assessing Achebe's replies, we can infer many things about the implications of the literature in this field. One of the most interesting concepts that were discussed in this interview was that of a "universal civilization". During the discussion, we looked at the idea of our worldwide community becoming united despite any differences. First, we looked at the extent of this possibility with the existences of many different languages which each carry its own culture and ideals. However, a universal civilization should not be about a lack of differences, but rather an understanding and acceptance of these differences. It is true that English is the most dominant language nowadays and this allows it to transfer the culture of the countries that speak it. This is always true for some language and culture however unity can be achieved despite the existence of a dominant language. Therefore, we concluded that in order to achieve this idea of a universal civilization, differences should be understood and accepted. As a result, we could agree that this is not an achievable idea in our world. Another concept that we focused on was how African literature allowed us to expand our idea and perception of African life. Through works such as "Things Fall Apart", we are able to understand the lifestyle of the African person through their eyes. This contrasts with the negative portrayal that is created by Western literature. We discussed how African literature is a form of expression which allows the people to define themselves. This is a very interesting concept because it means that the African people were able to use the same tool that oppressed them in order to define themselves and break the stereotypes they are placed within. Further, they allow others who have also experienced colonialism to connect to their work and to express themselves through it. It is interesting how one thing can be experienced through similar ways despite the many differences. And perhaps this relates to the idea of a universal civilization, however in a negative way. In this situation, all the differences are set aside where they are able to agree on the impacts of colonialism. 

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Paper One Practice – Political Speech Analysis

Text Link

The text I will be analyzing is a political speech by Adolf Hitler, which was delivered in January 1940 at the Berlin Sportspalast. We know this text is a speech because it uses second person in order to address the audience. Further, as it is a text spoken by a political leader, Adolf Hitler, we can further ensure that it is a speech.

This speech is directed towards Hitler’s “comrades” as mentioned in the speech repeatedly, however we can infer that this is the German public. This can be done in order to show unity between him as a leader and his public. Words like “our people” are used several times during the speech, which further shows that he is addressing the public. We know that it is directly focused towards the German public because it alludes to them and their wellbeing several times. He does this by talking about things such as the “German future” and referencing “our German people”. The purpose of the speech is to create a sense of unity between the German people and to cause them to support him as a leader. This speech was given in 1940 and therefore during WWII and after Germany had declared war on several countries. Hence, Hitler would be attempting to persuade the German public to support him and stand with him against their enemies. Overall, the speech was delivered in order to further rally support and convince the public that his decisions were the correct ones.

The main focus of the text is the idea of France and Britain hating Germany within the frame of WWII. It begins by highlighting the difficulties that Germany endured after in their victory in 1939. Then it goes on to reach its main part, which is the relationship between Germany and other countries. The author defines this as hatred towards Germany from the other countries. There is particular focus on the idea of Germany attempting to avoid war. This gives further emphasis on the idea of other countries hating Germany. He then goes on to discuss the idea of Germany being on track for their victory in the war. The whole of the text is simply discussing ideas related to WWII and the current state of Germany.

The tone used throughout the speech is a very formal, powerful one. It constantly uses statistics and numbers in order to continue to back up the ideas. There is a lot of reference to political ideas and therefore this would make the tone of the speech even more formal. The vocabulary is formal with sophisticated words however is clear and fully understandable. The speech also carries a lot of words of call to unity and action, with things such as “to ensure the defense of the Reich.” These types of words create a mood empowerment and unity. By using these phrases, the speech appears to draw the public together in one mutual interest. Because this is a speech that is related to war, it can be considered as one that has a sinister mood. However this does not overpower the mood of unity that was initially created. There is also a mood of strength and power in the speech, which is a result of the strong, concise tone and diction. Finally, it has a rather instructional tone where it is asking the public to believe in the speakers’ ideas and to follow them. Since this is a political speech, it is important for the words to have an instructional tone to them.

When looking at literary devices, there are many instances, which allow the author to further strengthen his points. Logos is used in the speech where Hitler refers to statistics in regards to the armies they are against in this war. More importantly, there is a great use of Pathos throughout the speech where he attempts to project unity between the German people. In instances such as “made us strong, internally strong” there is a reference to the strength that was created within the German population. This focus on Pathos is further enforced in phrases such as “the German people wanted only to live in friendship and peace with them”. Additionally, there is use of rhetoric devices within the speech. A metaphor is included where Hitler refers to the declaration of war as that the “Western powers decided to drop the mask behind which they are hiding.” This metaphor allows us the reader or listener to fully comprehend the extent of the action and to focus fully on the idea. There is also a juxtaposition of concepts in regards to the “Bible-studying Mr. Chamberlain” and the “atheist Stalin”. This was done in order to contrast the two sides strongly in reference to war and war aims. By using these contrasts closely together, Hitler is able to fortify his points about either by giving the listener something to parallel each to. Near the end of the speech, there is an occurrence of the device of anaphora with phrases such as “Germany will live… Germany will emerge victorious.”

In summation, the political speech is a text type that is often full of different literary devices and follows a certain structure and tone in order to fulfill its message. This speech by Adolf Hitler does the same in order to accomplish its aforementioned aim. The targeted audience is clearly the German people and it attempts to project unity and call for support. This is done through instances of Pathos, Logos and rhetoric devices such as metaphors and anaphora. By using all these devices, the author is able to ensure that the text is a successful, powerful one that undertakes the set aims of the political speech.  

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The Tempest Practice IOC

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1RzIF3v6xYHZGxJcnotMTN2QlU/view?usp=sharing
Act 5, Scene 1. Lines 62-96

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The Language of Power

In her article, The Language of Power, bell hooks reflects on the idea of standard English dominating language in the United States. She looks at the way African-Americans lost their unique languages and were forced to speak English. She goes on to talk about a very interesting idea where African-Americans went around creating a unique form of the language that was forced on them. This gave them a sense of identity and allowed to show resistance. Instead of completely disregarding their unique languages, they were able to include them into English. This empowered them as a group where it set them off as unique. Despite that they all had different languages, they were able to create a unique twist on the English language that set them apart. This is an interesting form of resisting oppression and speaking up. It shows that they did not lose their identity and give in to the oppressor's way of speaking. It empowered them as a group and allowed them to create a stronger sense of community. Her quote "This is the oppressors language, yet i need it to talk to you" communicates a very strong message. It shows that they were forced to speak English even though it wasn't their language. This is because they had come from different areas with different languages and then separated. Therefore they had to use English in order to communicate with a common language. This is what empowered them to create their own form of English, to avoid complete surrender to the oppressor's language however still communicate. This is a great form of empowerment which was very interesting to me and one of the most important take aways from the text.

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Linguistic Imperialism through Popular Culture

Linguistic imperialism is defined as the "transfer of a dominant language to other people.” This can be done in a number of ways and there are many modern threats to the preservation of language. This allows English to become the dominant language rather than the many other languages previously spoken. One of the ways that this is done is through popular culture. Popular culture defines the mainstream ideas that are created through movies, media and other forms of expression. Pop culture is used in order to define which language is the one to use in order to stay relevant, modern and accepted. This has a great impact on people, especially the youth where they find the need to be a part of this culture. It communicates that in order for one to stay relevant and be wanted, they should speak English regularly. This means that the youth will prominently speak English in attempt to become a part of this culture and to conform to it. As a consequence, the younger generation will speak their mother tongue less and it will become weakened. For example, younger mothers increasingly prefer to teach their children English. They believe that this allows them to excel in their learning and overshadows their learning of their mother tongue. Further, it causes them to think of their mother tongue as inferior and one that does not allow them to progress. This can all be a result of pop culture’s definition of English as the dominant language. Using popular culture to define the language of power is one of the most useful modern threats. It appears as though people are willingly using English as there are no economic or political barriers. However, it is the way that reaches the everyday person, making it more powerful and widespread. 

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