Close Reading Assignment 3

How to Live Without Irony

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/how-to-live-without-irony/?ref=opinion

In the article "How to Live Without Irony", Christy Wampole discusses the irony that, according to her, is infecting society today.  She emphasizes its negative impact through her usage of sophisticated language, detailed examples, and interesting syntax.

From the beginning of the article, Wampole's sophisticated word choice creates a very disconnected and almost scholarly approach to interpreting irony.  When she insists that "scoffing at the hipster is only a diluted form of his own affliction. He is merely a symptom and the most extreme manifestation of ironic living", her usage of medical and scientific terminology, seen in the terms "affliction", "symptom", and "diluted", she creates a practical air to her analysis.  In the third paragraph, she dissects the etymology of "subterfuge" for the reader, again creating a scholarly and learned tone.  Her language further in the article also indicates a more learned tone.  By using words such as "postmodern cynicism, detachment and meta-referentiality" to describe the wide-spread ironic atmosphere, Wampole almost scorns the existence of irony through her own sophisticated language.  Her wording throughout the article borders on pretentious, of establishing herself above the irony, which she sees as unsophisticated.

Wampole also emphasizes her views on the pervasiveness of irony through the detailed examples she uses.  Her examples all relate to our common lives, referencing advertisements and other commonplace items and events we see and experience.  She begins the article by describing the "hipster haunting every street corner and university town", bringing to mind images of the people we see every day.  Her later example of the advertisements which laugh at themselves also bring up memories.  By being relatively open in her description, she allows her audience to select a memory that fits her example, providing a detailed and vivid image.  Her example of her own lack of sincerity also stirs up images that are familiar to many people.  "A kitschy painting from a thrift store", "a coffee mug with flashy images of 'Texas, the Lone Star State'", and "plastic Mexican wrestler figures" are all easily imaginable gifts that many people may have seen or interacted with at some point.  By explicitly describing them, Wampole allows her audience to get a mental picture that provide memories corresponding to her own views.  In using detailed and specific examples, Wampole allows the audience to connect to her article, thus allowing them to perceive her points more clearly.

Aspects of syntax also allow for Wampole's point to be expressed more clearly.  Her use of rhetorical questions bring to light different issues and questions the audience may have either her argument, which she then uses to explain her views and refute the opposition or elaborate on an unclear point.  Later questions also connect the message back to the reader.  By asking questions such as "Do I communicate primarily through inside jokes and pop culture?" and "Do I feign indifference?", Wampole asks us to examine our own actions and thereby determine for ourselves how true her statements are.  She seems to rely on the expectation that many would find these questions pointing towards their own ironic tendencies, but it seems like a safe assumption and allows her point to be quite a distance.  At other points, Wampole uses parallelism to emphasize points in her argument.  At one point, she informs us, "Fundamentalists are never ironists; dictators are never ironists; people who move things in the political landscape, regardless of the sides they choose, are never ironists."  Her parallelism emphasize the characters of people who aren't ironic, thus providing emphasis on the particular characteristics of both those who are and aren't ironic.  Using such syntax, Wampole furthers her points and more deeply ingrains the overall message into her readers.

Through these techniques, Wampole brings to light the pervasiveness of irony in today's society, pointing out its flaws in being so widespread as to be relatively unrecognized as a threat.  Her editorial works to bring the overly sarcastic age to an end and convince the audience to start again with sincerity.

Jane's Struggle: Honor vs. Love

1980. A recurring theme in literature is the classic war between a passion and responsibility. For instance, a personal cause, a love, a desire for revenge, a determination to redress a wrong, or some other emotion or drive may conflict with moral duty. Choose a literary work in which a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with his or her responsibilities. In a well-written essay show clearly the nature of the conflict, its effects upon the character, and its significance to the work.

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a classic and beloved novel about a young orphan, Jane Eyre, who faces down all of the challenges in her life to find happiness in the end.  Time and time again, her determination, honor, and spirit are tested, but each time she prevails.  One of her most striking and memorable struggles was that which tested her moral resolve with love, the love she feels for Mr. Rochester.

Even at the beginning of the novel, Jane's character is seen as strong, both mentally and morally.  From her childhood with her aunt and cousins, the Reeds, Jane is abused.  However, in spite of chaos and fear, she remains, for the most part, mentally strong.  While she is being picked on by John Reed, her cousin, she allows him some liberty, but strikes out and harshly when it becomes too much to bear.  Though her aunt never goes to her defense, she keeps her spirit, one of curiosity and perseverance with her.  Her schooling continues at the Lowood School, where more trouble befalls the students.  They all suffer from deprivation and starvation in the name of piety, causing many of the students to fall ill during an epidemic of typhoid   While others, like her friend Helen Burns, submitted and were ultimately consumed, Jane's morality does not allow her to meekly tolerate the treatment they receive and she fights against the school, first by protesting her innocence in the face of accusations of deceit, and later by being unaffected by the typhoid.  She knows and respects the moral importance of telling the truth, though Mrs. Reed did little to instill it in her.  Her life with the Reeds also taught her that she could win battles and it was worth trying.  In spite of her upbringing, Jane feels a certain moral and personal obligation to stand up for herself and do the best she can under the circumstances, which comes back to cause her future pain.

However, trouble arises when she meets the man who employs her as his ward's governess, Mr. Edward Rochester.  At first, he seems only strange, dark, and brooding, perhaps distracted by some unhappy past events.  As time passes, however, mysteries begin to arise and Jane falls in love with him.  When, following a convoluted process which involves her questioning his feelings towards her many times over, he declares his love and asks her to marry him, she is deliriously happy.  However, trouble makes itself apparent in the form of Bertha Rochester, Mr. Rochester's first wife.  During the wedding itself, Mr. Mason, the sister of Bertha, reveals that Mr. Rochester is already married and Jane is thrown into a personal struggle.  Though her heart wishes to stay with her beloved, her morals and honor insist that she cannot stay.  It would be wrong to continue to live under the same roof as a man she loved but could not have, who had tried to deceive her into marrying him, whatever his reasons were.  In the end, her mind and honor reign supreme and she runs away, retaining her name and her honor in spite of her feelings.  During this pivotal moment, Jane demonstrates the strength of her character and the importance of following what is right rather than what is easy.  Though it hurts her to know that she cannot stay with him, she leaves anyway, because her morals dictate that it is the right thing to do.  Jane's personality, her most defining trait, is illustrated through her taking control of her life and the way she leaves Mr. Rochester.

Through the character and struggles of her character, Jane Eyre, Bronte constructs a powerful message towards women, that they can be strong and take control of their lives, an inspiring message for women living in her time period to assert their own capabilities and make their own life, as Jane did.

Response to Course Material 3

Wow, it's Second Quarter already.  The year seems to have gone by really fast.  But anyway, what have we covered since last time?

The unit on The American Dream has been wrapped up.  That was fun, and I enjoyed being able to analyze it with respect to the different samples of literature that we read from our textbooks.  It allows us to make intertextual connections better, which I always find both enjoyable and informative.  I like drawing connections between different works and doing so often helps me remember things as well.  (It did strike me as amusing that I had to read Two Kinds by Amy Tan.  Again.  For probably the third of fourth time.  In different language arts classes.)  So yeah, that was fun.

What else...?  I've been enjoying those exercises that we have in the beginning of class, both the ones where we have to come up with a sentence that exemplifies the tone word, and when we practice analyzing then writing our own passages from an example.  The latter normally turns into a competition on what hour (normally 6th hour wins, just sayin') can come up with the most ridiculous example, but still...  Again, making things funny makes them memorable.

The only other thing I really remember us doing is watch Death of a Salesman.  From what I've heard, a lot of people have covered it before, in their American Literature classes.  They would probably find that we're going to slowly through it.  Though I took American Literature, in Mrs. Reed's class, we only ever talked about his The Crucible.  I'd never discussed Death of a Salesman before.  In fact, the only mentions I'd ever heard of it outside of this class was for QuizBowl.  I enjoyed watching the movie.  It was a good way of introducing the material to someone who had never read the play before.  Unfortunately, the Stratford trip (which was really fun!) happened to fall over one of those days, so I missed part of the plot.  The close reading should fix that problem, though the discussions that we've had during class have been a little bit annoying when scenes are brought up that I'm unfamiliar with.  I'm definitely looking forward to analyzing it though; if The American Dream was anything to go by, there are going to be a lot of hidden messages to unravel in this play!