TOW #13 - The Dispensable Rocket by John Updike

Based on history, men and women have different roles assigned to them. Men “were for combat” and hunting while women bore and took care of the children. These roles gave rise to the argument that a man’s body is disposable while the woman’s body is more precious and important. In light of him growing older, John Updike thoughtfully shares his views, using metaphors and personal anecdotes, on the expendable nature of a man’s body and how it affects a man’s behaviors and emotions in The Disposable Rocket.

Updike explains how a man’s body is disposable when having children using metaphors. When having a child, Updike explains how a woman is a “device for retention” while a man, “his body is, like a delivery rocket that falls away in space, a disposable means.” Comparing a man’s body to a piece of a rocket ship that floats off into space, allows the audience to understand the idea of being used and thrown away that Updike tries to portray. The contrast between a woman being for “retention” and a man being “disposable” puts the emphasis and importance on a woman because she is the one who does the majority of the work. A man lacks importance because his “job” is relatively short and fleeting compared to the “job” of the woman.

Once Updike establishes the idea of a man being expendable, he then shares how the feeling of insignificance affects a man’s behaviors and emotions. By giving a personal anecdote, Updike is able to evoke ethos and pathos because the audience sees his first hand account and can feel sympathy towards Updike who feels useless, lost. He describes how all of his life, he would take pleasure in falling down. He describes how many things including “... the pain-smothering adrenaline rush, form cumbersome and unfashionable bliss… Take your body to the edge, and see if it flies.” While Updike seems a little radical and whiny, the audience can sympathize for him as he searches for significance. The intensity of putting his body in danger of injury exemplifies how large his longing for meaning and importance is.

After many years of life, John Updike reflects on his importance as a man and aims to share his finding that men are dispensable, by using metaphors and a personal anecdote. Considering the traditional roles of men and women in society, many arguments can be made yet one indefinitely holds true: men and women are equal; they always have been and they always will be.

TOW #12 blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Have you ever wondered why when you see a snake you jump without thinking? Malcolm Gladwell, writer of Outliers, attempts to answer this question and more for his reader in blink. Gladwell has done extensive research in the area of our brains known as the adaptive unconscious. It’s where we make our split second decisions whether it be jumping from in front of a moving car or concluding that someone is stuck up from a glance at their attire. Gladwell explicitly states his goals: to convince us that quick decisions can be very effective, to teach us when to trust and when to be wary of our instincts, and to convince us that our split-second decisions can be controlled.

As his hook, Gladwell tells an intriguing story about a museum and its purchase of a sculpture. A man sold the museum the “ancient” sculpture; its type is often discovered in archeological digs. The museum had experts come in and analyze the sculpture's authenticity and it passed the test. However, when they showed the it to fellow collectors some first impressions were “fresh” (an ancient sculpture should not seem fresh), repulsive, and “that thing has never been in the ground.” In the end it turned out that the sculpture was a fake despite the months of professional testing ran on it. What this story does is immediately draw in the audience; we want to know what happens. While we don’t yet know how the story ties to the rest of the book, we nonetheless want to know how the story shakes out. As we’re engrossed, Gladwell introduces the subject of the entire book, the power of the subconscious, intuition. From the irony of the outcome of the story we begin to see what Gladwell’s argument is and want to know more because the subconscious is an uncommon topic that many have a vague understanding of.

From other experts, he goes on to give other testimonies on how powerful the subconscious really is. Having read only half of the book, I can’t wait to read how he answers all of our questions.

TOW #11 - Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln

In 1865, the American civil war was was nearing it’s end. With President Lincoln being re-elected, Americans looked to him for guidance and eloquence. In his Second Inaugural Address, President Lincoln addresses speaks of God in order to establish his ethos, which allows him to create an effective homily his “fellow-countrymen”. He calls for all American citizens to do what’s necessary to end the war and establish everlasting peace in an effort to establish a better sense of unity.

Most Americans were Christians who followed the bible, therefore talking about God allowed for Lincoln’s message to be easily absorbed and trusted. He says, “... with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the world we are in… to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Once Lincoln has the American people’s trust in his message, he uses his spiritual tone to let them know what to do in the time of crisis. The major disunity and division in the country was the open wound that his words healed. Lincoln puts the North and the South under one category by mentioning that “both read from the same Bible and pray to the same God.” By uniting the American people through a strong force of religion, he is able to create a sense of hope and show everyone that they are not very different, yet the same in many ways.

Abraham Lincoln was able to spark a sense of unity in a largely divided country by pointing out what everyone had in common, religion. He expertly does this by first establishing his ethos with the speaking of God, and then using God’s teachings to deliver a homily that would strike the hearts of all Americans.