Lost in Translation (post 13)

The reality depicted in Alger's "Ragged Dick" versus the reality seen in Moore's "Roger and Me" are in contrast to each other more than in comparison.  However, the different natures of the two may be able to be held accountable for this.  On the one hand, "Ragged Dick" is a telling of living the American Dream in it's most widely viewed form.  That is to say, it is the tale of someone who goes from rags to riches (or in this case from boot-blacker to what appears to be a financial position).  Its fictitious nature will tend to put a more cliche spin on the work as a whole, and idealism is the key concept that affects The American Dream in this case.  On the other end of the spectrum, "Roger and Me" is a story of a real city and real people who have worked long and hard, only to be shut down in the end.  This is the true reality of The American Dream:  as long as you are classified as the working poor, nothing is for certain.  There is always someone bigger than yourself that can allow you to progress and rise through the ranks, in order to possibly attain a better lifestyle, or they can crush your every chance at improving your current position.  At the same time, corporate America dominates the small business world, simply by crushing it before it even has a chance to become much of anything.

Industry's Finest

From Other stuff I...

Biased Dream (Post 12)

The concept of The American Dream is somewhat of a misnomer to begin with. I say this (and more likely than not misuse the term) to mean that the concept of The American Dream is such wishful, idealistic thinking that when one attempts to pursue it, they become blindsided by the fact that the reality of the situation is so far displaced from the concept that it is offensive. In the society of yesteryear, as in the world of small business that is still somewhere to be found today, traces of The American Dream in its idealistic form can be detected. That is to say that people going on their own to become something to someone, or whatever their definition of happiness is, is still somewhat possible. On the flip side, the ever-increasing prevalence of corporate business makes it increasingly harder for "the little guy" to do something on his or her own without being crushed by the primary cause of the corruption that has made the concept of The American Dream so hard to realize. I would have to agree with Cruz in his opinion of the way in which corporate society is going, on the grounds that the increasing presence of big business in the role of society is undeniable.
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I Don't Want to Sound Arrogant... (Post 11)

The division between the rich and poor, although definitely in existance, is somewhat of a touchy subject in that most people will not want to admit that they belong to any particular class. So, in that same notion, the question is posed "Are the rich exploiting the poor?" The answer here is quite hazy in that a case could be made for either point. In the interests of my own time, i will have to say that, in general, the rich seem to be getting richer, the poor poorer, and very few attempts to create a equilibrium in this imbalance are being made amongst the denial of any problems. This is the juvenile approach to problem solving: ignore it and hope it solves itself. This is all to say that the rich are exploiting the poor by increasing their own wealth at the expense of the poor, who continue to get longer hours and reduced pay through loopholes in the constitution (minimum wage clauses can be tweaked under certain circumstances). In this right, yes, the poor are being exploited. On the other hand, the poor are being completely ignored; they are in a sticky situation that the rich like to overlook in an interest to protect their own assets. Philanthropists are few and far between in this world, and those who you do find aren't going to give their money to help aide the poor directly. Typically, money is donated to causes that won't use 100% of the money to directly aide, rather it is a figure closer to 50% after operating costs are taken into account. So, while those who donate their money in an effort to make a change aren't helping as much as they originally thought. This relates back to the scenario in "The Lovers of the Poor" by (as my memory serves) Gwendolyn Brooks, in which the rich gave a little bit of their time and not a whole bunch of effort to helping the poor, and while they had good intentions, did not inherently make a huge difference. So the division is this: the poor are being exploited financially by the rich, yet the opposite end of the answer is that they are not being benefited either.

Meat Is Murder! (Post 10)

In "A Letter to Jim," Rebekah Taylor tries to convince her friend Jim, with whom she obviously hasn't talked in a while, to become a vegetarian. I personally feel that while she does make a valid statement in her "bridge-building" attempt, that her entire argument is somewhat feeble on the whole, merely because she does not stick to her guns and maintain that vegetarianism is a superior choice. Taken as it is, however, i do agree with her statement that local-bought meat is more humane in that the animals were not suffering near the extent that they would be in a factory farm. However, I would have to rebut that statement as it is not as cost efficient in the long run, because in more cases than not, local businesses will tend to be more expensive. For the budget-minded individual, this is a major factor. While I personally do not eat meat frequently, I would probably visit a commercial outlet to get the food in the interest of my own bank account.

I'm better because I say I am (post 9)

The most blatant psuedo-argument that I have on a regular basis (usually with Mrs. Grunat) is the debate over superiority between Macintosh and Windows-based computers. Let me say, first of all, that both systems have their strong points, and both have their weak ones. There are reasons to use both. However, being as I have been a Microsoft user since I was 3 years old, i will typically take the side that Windows-based computers are superior. For example, for gaming, word processing, spreadsheets, file transfers, and data storage, Windows computers are superior, because they have been engineered to do just that since the conception of Microsoft. However, for video editing, photo work (this one is debatable, iPhoto is crap), music, and general durability, Apple is superior in that this is the direction that Apple has chosen to go. Granted, there is gray area to be found all over this argument, most institutions will come to a consensus that the superiorities are fairly-well spread out. However, there is not one clear defined answer, which is why this is called a psued0-argument.

SAT on crack

Yes, that is what the AP exam is seeming like to me. There are a few things that scare me the most about the AP exam. First and most ominous, the amount of reading seems quite heavy in the sense that they are asking people to read a fairly lengthy, prodigious passage, and make in-depth observations and judgments based upon what you read, all within a highly regulated constraint of time. While several hours may seem like a while now, I'm sure that it will seem like no time at all when one is racing against the clock to find parallels between a feminist perspective on the role of women in 1970's society and the human condition that has always existed. Secondly, I am afraid that the observations, or what I choose to take out of a certain passage, will not be what the intention was, and therefore I would be heavily penalized for "missing the point." Subjective matter of any style makes my skin crawl just the slightest bit, mainly due to the fact that another person (especially when grading) can completely rip your thoughts apart just because they have a red pen and different ideas.