McAdams’sAPCompBlog

The overall point of this article is to go over the six main steps to writing a synthetic essay for the AP exam: read, analyze, generalize, converse, finesse, and argue. It seems pretty obvious that reading the prompts and articles would come first in the process. I didn’t know that we were allotted an extra 15 minutes of time to do this. I’m glad that the article talked about finding my own potential stand on the issue as after analyation because I often try to do this before I even get to looking at the material any deeper. I also really liked the idea of imaginging a conversation between myself and the author to get a broader view on the topic or issue. Overall, I enjoyed this article because I was rather unclear of the process that I would go through to write an essay like this on the final. I wish that it would have began with an introduction to what the synthesis essay is about and would tell the reader if they should use all of the sources or not. I’m still left kind of unclear as to how many of the sources to use or if we’re required to use them all.

After reading this piece, all that I can think of is how silly this all sounds. When I first begun reading, I didn’t realize that it was supposed to be satyrical and when I go to this excerpt, I realized otherwise. “I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelveyears old, is no saleable commodity, and even when they come to this age, they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half a crown at most, on the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriments and rags having been at least four times that value.” It is comical that we would sell children, treating them as though they are pets at the pound. This is only funny because I know that Jonathan Swift is joking. Trying to end world hunger, he proposes that we plump children up to eat them! “Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be
constant customers for infants flesh, besides others who might
have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and
christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about
twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest of the kingdom (where
probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand.” This is one of the many comical exerpts from the proposal. Swift ends the proposal with this excerpt:
“I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the
least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary
work, having no other motive than the publick good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children,
by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being
nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.” I think that this sums up what he’s trying to get across with the whole piece. He pretty much talks about how people don’t do things for the good of society unless there is personal gain– everyone has an internal motive. It’s sad to think that people don’t help just for the sake of being good people, but rather to benefit themselves or make themselves look better.

G.K. Chesterton uses many important strategies in his article. The first that I noticed was that of making allusions to the Bible. By alluding to the Bible, Chesterton shows that he can take influential, important words to support his claim. This also adds to the ethos of Chesterton by showing that he is educated.
The second strategy that I noticed was the anecdotal one. He specifies exactly what he did and tried when painting the ceiling. From this, he believed that people should do similar things– lay in bed for absolutely no reason. It goes from something specific that Chesterton did to something general that everyone can do– giving the reader a logical reason to do that.
Adding on to his ethos, he talks about how he has experience when looking at the situation of using the ceiling and sitting in bed. He knows what he’s talking about and that he knows due to his experiene in attempting many things until he finally did what he is trying to advocate to the audience.

In John Downe’s letter to his wife, he convincingly writes to persuade his wife to emigrate to the United States with their children. He begins the letter by talking about how prosperous his job is and how bountiful the land is, mentioning nothing of having the family join him. He lays a nice foundation first and gets it in his wife’s mind that she should want to be in the United States with all of this success. In the second paragraph, he finally asks her wife and the children to join him. Downe states, “My dear Sukey, all that I want now is to see you, and the dear children here, and then I shall be happy.” He places this strategically in the middle of his letter so that she is already aquainted to the idea of his great lifestyle and when begged to come, she will be more likely to want to. He uses the word “dear” twice in the sentence to show that he really loves both his wife and children and will not be satisfied until they are there with him, enjoying his new lifestyle.

When the issue of abortion is brought up, all I do is wince at the thought of it. Taking the life of an innocent child is cruel of both the “parent” and the person willing to perform this operation. If you use the proper birth control methods, an abortion should not be needed. It doesn’t make sense to me when kids in both high school and college come to an abortion clinic– they should have thought about this before they decided to have sex. If they’re mature enough to have sex, they should be mature enough to take on the consequences appropriately. It is of my understanding that cruel and unusual punishment is forbidden in the United States, abortion does not follow these guidelines. Killing an unborn child is both cruel and unusual! Abortion is not the answer in any situation– be for life, not death.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is the prochoice side. I am all for having choices in life and allowing each and every person to decide what is right for themselves. Taking away the option to get an abortion seems silly– if you don’t want one, don’t have one! You cannot prevent others from making their own choices, it’s unconstitutional and inhibits ones freedom. Birth control is not effective 100% of the time and forcing someone to go through childbirth when they are far from ready seems cruel. There are already so many children in this world that were born to unfit parents and are in search of a home, we don’t want more children to be left in the hands of parents that cannot properly do their job. Being a parent is quite the commitment and it takes maturity to let yourself know that you would not be able to give the child everything that they would need to succeed. Another important issue to pay attention to is rape. If you make getting an abortion oulawed, this would take away the possibility of getting one in the case of rape. After such a traumatic experience, a rape victim should be able to have an abortion so that they at least don’t have to go through having an unplanned child. I’m not saying that birth control methods should not be taught, I am saying that the door should remain opened at the abortion clinics so that people can get what they need.

Claim: While society in America is affected by social forces, other countries with smaller, more defined governments (especially in Asia) tend to be even more conformist.

Evidence: In America, there is much more freedom in the media than in Asia. For example, there would be a firewall against things relating to Tibet in China while in America there are very few online restrictions. If we compare America to the Middle East, there is difference in freedom of clothing. In America, people are free to wear what they want without fear of being shunned. Middle Eastern countries would not allow certain clothing items and would not fit in the culture.

Individualism becomes a conformity in America. Today it is cool to be different, making people want to be different which in turn makes it a conformity– quite the irony.

The Beautiful Union

Marriage is the formal union of two people, given the titles of husband and/or wife and typically recognized by law. Weddings are simply the ceremony to honor this union, varying from highly extravagant to bare-boned. They can be held almost anywhere in today’s culture, the simple courtroom, traditional church, or a place special to the couple. No matter where this ceremony is held, the results are the same—the couple leaves, at least in the United States, having said, “’til death do we part.” The location doesn’t dictate whether these newlywed couples keep true to this vow, the strength of their love does. The two images that I chose are of couples getting married in two different locations on Valentine’s Day, showing that love is the more important common factor, rather than location.
Looking at these pictures, side-by-side, we notice that they are both of weddings. Both of the couples look like they’re in love due to the closeness. The top couple is holding hands and kissing, showing their love and devotion to one another. The background is white, making the African American couple stand out as the focal point of the photograph. In the second photograph, the couple is holding hands, showing their connection. For me, the focal point is the man’s face. Since the bride is looking down, she doesn’t stand out as much as the groom. Even though most of the picture is white, the couple stands out because their white seems brighter than the rest. The two images not only have white backgrounds to contrast the colors present, but are also filled with light. There is obviously a light on in the top photograph, making the room appear bright and in the bottom one, the open windows allow the room to be illuminated. Both of the couples look happy and like they’re enjoying where they are. The main similarity keeping these two pictures together is that both of the couples look like they’re in love. Now that I’ve looked at the similarities, let’s take a look at the differences and juxtapositions.
A price cannot be placed upon marriage, made obvious by the difference in situation and location in these photographs. It is evident in the first photograph that they are of a lower class and the wedding is held in a simply decorated courtroom. The groom is wearing a nice button-up shirt and black slacks, but the sleeves of the shirt are unbuttoned, showing casualty. There is no audience that we can see, showing that they’re the only two people that need to know of their marriage. The second photograph shows a much more elaborate wedding with an audience. From what we can see of the audience, they look happy. Traditional attire is being worn by the couple and shows formality. Much of the photograph is a bright white, showing the purity and peace of marriage, which would probably be a similarity for both of the images.
The first image is of an African American couple getting married at what looks like a courtroom. Looking at a little background, these two people are Greg Claret, 47, and Donna Wallace, 49. Obviously, age plays no factor in marriage; both young lovers and old alike can fall in love. This union took place in a civil wedding ceremony on Valentine’s Day last year in Coral Gables, Florida at the Circuit and County Courts office. The court got a little festive and decorated the wedding room with a red and white altar for the occasion. Love is love and the union of two people in love is timeless.
The second image is of a traditional wedding between Elaine Magallon, 24, and Christian Jorda, 24, held at the Empire State Building in New York. This couple is from Jersey City, N.J. and spent many college nights gazing at the building from across the Hudson River. These childhood sweethearts won this location for a wedding from submitting an essay to Brides.Com. Such a romantic story portrayed by such a beautiful picture.
There is obviously quite the contrast between these images, both portraying the beauty in marriage. The comparison of these two photographs shows that marriage is an act of love and purity, and can be portrayed in many different ways. The first image is of a middle age African American couple getting married in a court room, while the second image is of young childhood sweethearts getting married an elaborately planned wedding at the Empire State building. They are incredibly different, yet so similar. Both images capture how priceless love is and how little can stand in the way of that. No matter where the wedding is held or who is present to witness, the bride and groom are who make it their own beautiful union.

MLA CITATION

Matthews, Bebeto. “Empire Valentine’s Day Weddings.” AP Images. 14 February
2007. .

Sladky, Lynne. “Valentine’s Day.” AP Images. 14 February 2007. .

Strolling to class, unaware of the overloaded juniors and stressed out freshman, Joe arrives right on time– twenty minutes after the bell for class to begin has rung. The teacher doesn’t so much as glance in his direction to scold him for his late arrival, but simply continues on with the lesson, to which not one student is paying attention to. Joe sits through the painful class and heads on to the next one. When he arrives at his creative writing class, he is told that there will be an in-class poem writing session. After having gone through years of pop essays, Joe cannot handle writing yet another one. It would be like sitting through a four hour lecture on the letter “d”. Something must be done, and fast! As the poetry prompts are passed his way, he thinks that maybe if he doesn’t pick one up the teacher will overlook it. The prompts pass him and the teacher notices he did not take one. Scrambling for excuses, he finally spits out “Well, aliens invaded my house last night and I’m still feelin pretty shooken up. So, I took the liberty of excusing myself from this assignment. I mean, you didn’t really want me to write about their visit or how their rocket ship didn’t take off from my backyard until about two hours ago. I really want to write this poem but I’m just so tired and I don’t want to waste your time having to read my lack-luster work.” I thought that I had given a pretty good excuse, I mean maybe I’d get points for being so creative. The blank look on my teachers face, turned to a smile. “Go to the nurses office, I think that you have a bad case of senioritis,” said the teacher.

Even at first glance, this photograph is disturbing. Looking more deeply into what is going on in the picture, it becomes even more frightening. This teenage boy is using the American flag to kill a black man. Not only is he attemping to kill an innocent black man, based solely on the color of his skin, but he is using a sacred item to do so. The American flag is an emblem of importance in the United States and he is disgracing this flag. From the image, we gather that America is killing black people– this boy is just a vessel through which America can be portrayed by. I find this horrific to see and incredible that it could be capture by a camera. The photographer must have been even more shocked than I.

Canady uses visual rhetoric terminology very effectively. In his description of the family portraits, I can see exactly what he is talking about. As for the first portrait by Peale, I think that he does a good job giving a summary of background information, it really tells a lot about the portrait. I think that the emotions and closeness of the family can be seen through simply looking at this portrait, but having the history goes the extra distance.

In the photo, there are two distinct breaks or groups, making it seem like there is a separation between the family and the nurse. Her placement portrays her relation to the family. He talks about how there are two distinct groups not to separate the family, but so that the portrait doesn’t look overcrowded. It is also interesting that he talks about how charming the imperfections are in the portrait. That is something that I have never thought about, but can see where he is coming from and am in agreement. This is the image of a happy family. They’re all getting along and are placed close together to show that they are connected. Everyone seems content and enjoying the company of the family members around them. The children look very pleasant and well loved. He talks about how complicated family life actually is. This picture portrays no argumentation or tension. It is not representative of most family lives. The emphasis of the portrait is on the faces of the family members, which ultimately portrays the closeness and happiness.

As for the second portrait of the Bellelli family, this portrait is very self-explanitory. You can tell a lot about the emotions and family dynamics just by looking at this portrait. The analysis that I did from looking the picture was reinforced when I read the article. What I did get from the article was that they were in mourning, which makes sense when I look back at the portrait. They’re all wearing black and look like they’re in mourning. Each of the family members plays their role in the family and Edgar Degas does a good job portraying this. The emphasis is on the mother– the dignified, serious, dominating mother.

Space is used well by both of the artists. The lack of space shows the closeness of the family, while the abundance of space shows the separation and lack of affection. Looking at the two pictures and analyzing them, I agree with the conclusions that Canaday made.