Ad Analysis

The ad I chose is a Smart Water ad starring New England Patriots quaterback Tom Brady. By having Tom Brady endorse Smart Water, the company intends to persuade viewers, most likely those who find Tom Brady attractive or who idolize him as a great football player, to drink Smart Water. This ad utilizes the rhetorical tools of ethos, pathos and logos to persuade people to buy Smart Water.

At first glance, the viewer may not notice the scenery of the football field or may not even see the giant helicopter hovering in the background. The first thing noticed by most women is a well-dressed Tom Brady running with a briefcase in his hand. This is a play on the emotions of most women who find hunky quarterbacks attractive. The company who makes Smart Water knew that by putting someone as attractive to women as Tom Brady, the ad would attract the attention of the women and keep them interested in what Tom Brady wants them to buy. But the sexual appeal of the athlete is just the beginning of the effect of pathos in this ad.

Men who believe Tom Brady to be an excellent football player may feel envy and jealousy towards the athlete. The makers of Smart Water intended for the viewer to think, If Tom Brady is an amazing athlete and drinks Smart Water, that must mean that if I drink Smart Water I'll be a great athelte too! By choosing an active, famous athlete to endorse their water rather than some television star or supermodel, the company pushed for the viewers to think that Smart Water will keep you as healthy as an NFL quaterback rather than the water making you a good actor. Tom Brady's clothing is a hint toward the fact that he believes that the Smart Water helps him in everyday life as well as on the field. This appeals to the everyday person because not every person who views this ad is going to be an athlete, they're going to be everyday working-class people.

Pride and Prejudice...And Vampires?

From the very beginning, the similarities between Pride and Prejudice and Twilight are impossible to miss. Although they were written about two hundred years apart, the resemblances between the two are nearly impervious to overlook. In fact, Stephenie Meyer, the writer of the Twilight Saga,

Selfishness Comes With a Cost

As I read Guy de Maupassant's The Necklace, I couldn't help but notice how greedy Madame Loisel was being about her financial situation. Although she was not born into an overly wealthy family, she was not born into a dirt-poor family either. And despite her husband's efforts to make her happy, nothing was ever good enough for her. She was convinced that she deserved the finest of everything and that she was "born for every delicacy and luxury." Although her selfishness may have bought her a night of admiration, her rush to escape before being seen in the modest clothes of her everyday life proved to put a damper on her capability of acquiring the luxurious items she desired. I believe the lesson this story strives to teach is to be happy with the life you have, because it could always be worse.

Madame Loisel spent her days at home wallowing in self-pity. She was insulted and embarrassed by her poor house, her ugly curtains, worn chairs, and unsatisfactory furniture. Tortured by the displeasing features of her own home, Madame Loisel fantasizes about a fancier house. Having a richer friend, Madame Forestier, from her old school days, Madame Loisel knows how a proper home should look, but is too embarrassed to ever visit her dear friend.

When her husband brings home an invitation to a ball, Madame Loisel is not as pleased as her husband hoped she would be. "I haven't a dress and so I can't go to this party. Give your invitation to some friend of yours whose wife will be turned out better than I shall," Madame Loisel tells her husband. And when she finally gets an appropriate dress, her next dilemma is being "utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear." Given the idea to borrow some from Madame Forestier, Madame Loisel rushes to her friend and leaves with a beautiful diamond necklace.

In her rush to leave the ball before any of the rich men and women saw her in her everyday clothes, Madame Loisel loses the diamond necklace. After searching for days, Monsieur and Madame Loisel are forced to go into debt to buy Madame Forestier an exact look-alike necklace worth four thousand francs. Madame Loisel was forced to live the life of a poor woman rather than living the life of an average woman as she had before. She was made to give up many of the luxuries of her life before to be sure that she and her husband had enough money to pay back their debts.

After ten years, the debt is finally paid off and Madame Loisel decides to tell Madame Forestier of the hardships she had to endure just to make sure that she got the necklace back. I'm sure Madame Loisel was quite surprised to learn that the original borrowed necklace was only imitation and worth five hundred francs at the most.

The selfishness Madame Loisel showed throughout the story reminded me a lot of how many people today are. In the world today, most people make a living the best way they can, but are never fully happy with the results of their hard work. No matter how much money they make, no matter how nice the clothes or furniture they buy, there is always someone with nicer things than them. And so there is a never-ending cycle of people constantly trying to "keep up with the Joneses."

After reading the ending of the story, I decided that it's better to be happy with what you are blessed to have than to make yourself miserable by wanting a life you can never have. I'm sure Madame Loisel would much prefer to have her life of blandness and modesty over the life she had inevitably inherited because of her greedy and selfish ways.

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Of Mice and Men

Analysis of Detail

Throughout his book Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck foreshadows the events of the story in the little details he uses to describe qualities of the scenes he sets. Though they may appear to be simple descriptions of the surroundings of the men, his choice of words tell us many details of the storyline. The quote "the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green" is a perfect example of this. The words "deep" and "green" that he uses to describe the river can also be seen as a parallel to the two main characters of the story, George and Lennie. The word "deep" is commonly thought to mean strong and powerful. Though this could be seen as a parallel to Lennie because of his massive strength, it could also be seen as a parallel to George. George's thought process is much deeper than Lennie's, simply because he is more mature than Lennie. George tends to think deeply and his mind and the thought behind his actions seem to have much more meaning put into them than Lennie would have put into them. As a contrast to this, Steinbeck's choice of the word "green" is usually associated with thoughts of youth, freshness, and nature. In this way, Lennie is "green" also. Lennie is young at heart and George sees him as an equal to a child. His thought process is not as complex as a normal man of his age, and although he appears to be a grown man on the outside, his brain has the capacity and the maturity of a young child.

Another great example of Steinbeck's foreshadowing through descriptive words is in the quote "a path beaten hard by boys coming down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down the highway." The key words in this quote are "beaten", "deep", and "wearily." The word "beaten" is usually associated with thoughts and feelings of being exhausted and worn down. This single word parallels to George and Lennie in the story. Because of Lennie's childlike behavior, he usually gets into trouble doing things that he sees as harmless. As a result, George and Lennie are constantly on the move from town to town looking for work. In this way, George and Lennie's hopes and spirits are "beaten" like the path spoken of at the beginning of the story. Again, the word "deep" can be thought to mean powerful, but it could also mean difficult to understand. Like the deep pool Steinbeck describes, Lennie is powerful but also difficult to understand. His childlike behavior makes him transparent yet intricate on many levels. The word "wearily" generally gives off a feeling of being exhausted or tired. Like the tramps who come "wearily" down the highway, George "wearily" moves from town to town with Lennie, knowing that work could be a hard thing to find. He is continually looking out for Lennie as well as himself and making sure that they always have what they need to survive.

Analysis of Point of View

The third person objective point of view aids in showing how Lennie is unable to make decisions for himself and looks to George for support, and how George is more than willing to give up what he has to make sure that Lennie can have what he needs.

On pages 21 and 22, the quotes "Lennie nodded to show that he understood...In a panic, Lennie looked to George for help," demonstrate how Lennie was unsure how to answer because he knew that George had told him not to say anything, and he nearly always follows George's orders. It also illustrates how childlike Lennie is because he is so unsure of how to answer to the boss when he is spoken directly to. Lennie is so accustomed to following George's lead that he cannot answer for himself when spoken to.

The quotations, "Listen, Small! What can you do?...He can do anything you tell him to do...Then why don't you let him answer?...Say what you selling'?...Why you think I'm selling' him out?", exhibits George's compelling need to protect Lennie and make sure that he keeps his job, even if it means losing the job himself. George acts as a father to Lennie and attempts to shield him from potentially bad situations to keep him out of trouble.

Analysis of Tone

Steinbeck uses contrasting tones of pleasure and joy and of melancholy and depressive to exaggerate the apparent contrast between George and Lennie. In one scene of the story, the quotes, "Lennie cried in triumph." " 'For the rabbits,' Lennie shouted." and "Lennie giggled with happiness." Each of these plainly show the sheer joy Lennie experiences in those brief moments and appear to almost radiate a cheerful tone. In contrast, Steinbeck also uses quotes like "George was quiet for a moment." "He said shakily..." "George shivered and looked at the gun..." "But George sat stiffly on the bank and looked at his right hand that had thrown the gun away." "George's voice was almost a whisper." and "Yeah, a drink" in a serious and down tone. His unsteadiness and shakiness before shooting Lennie shows that he is unsure about the deed he was about to perform and also shows that he knew what he would feel after he shot Lennie, grief and sadness. After shooting Lennie, George is in shock at his own courage to do what he knew had to be done in order to save Lennie a lifetime of trouble and pain, or being shot by Curley. Distracted and fascinated by his feelings of anguish and sorrow, he is oblivious to everything going on around him and agrees subconsciously to a drink with Slim. The contrast between Lennie's cheerful personality and George's obvious worry is made painfully obvious in these last few pages of the book.

Analysis of Theme

Though Steinbeck embeds many themes and morals throughout Of Mice and Men, the theme of one being his "brother's keeper" is an obvious point justified in nearly every chapter of the story. George and Lennie share a bond and that makes George feel like he needs to look out for Lennie.

For example, when George and Lennie are attempting to get a job, George tries intently to make sure that Lennie is taken care of and gets a job, too. When George is asked why he does this for Lennie, he simply replies, "I told his old lady I'd take care of him." (p. 21) George feels compelled to take Lennie under his wing and be his "keeper." Although George would have been much better off if he had never taken Lennie in, because of Lennie constantly getting into accidental trouble, George cares enough about Lennie to make sure that he is going to be okay. In this way, George demonstrates the apparent theme throughout the book of being his brother's "keeper."

Another example of George and Lennie's strong, brother-like bond is voiced in the saying they had together, "But not us! And why? Because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why." (p. 13-14) This shows how George and Lennie intended on staying together, getting a place of their own and looking after each other. When George says, "when his Aunt Clara died, Lennie just came along with me out working." (p. 40) he buries inside the words his pull to take care of Lennie because he has nobody else.

Great Depression Pictures

Upon looking at Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother photographs, many emotions and thoughts swarmed me all at once. First off, seeing the makeshift home they made out of sticks and cloth made me realize just how severe the Great Depression was. Sure, I had heard about it before and heard that it was a terrible time in American history, but, until looking at these pictures, I did not know just how terrible this time period was. The first picture, showing the mother staring off into the distance at an uncertain future, surfaced feelings of sorrow and pity in me. I know that I will never be able to relate to the fear of the future she feels for both herself and her children. The fact that she does not know whether everything will turn out okay for her family or not must be a difficult piece of knowledge to live with.

The last picture, showing the mother and her three children inside their bungalow, made me realize how lucky we are today. Not knowing her story, I cannot tell what the mother's life was like before the Great Depression, but if it's anything like what I've heard, losing everything must have come as a terrible surprise. I cannot imagine what it would be like to live in a home and have everything going okay and then suddenly getting my home and everything I cared about taken away from me. Today, we are very blessed in knowing that we now have government programs to prevent that from ever happening again. May we never have to experience the terrible uncertainty this woman certainly felt.

Use of Animals in Animal Farm

In George Orwell's Animal Farm, Orwell uses animals rather than humans to tell a story that applies not only to post-revolution Russia, but serves as a warning to those who support communism. Using animals to represent some of the Soviet Union's leaders was not only a genius way to make sure that the book could circulate through the Soviet Union without being marked as treason, but also plays on the fact that animals cannot govern themselves. In comparing the communist Russians to animals Orwell shows his support for a non-communist government by showing the readers that the animals not only are unable to govern themselves, but that they also lie to and betray each other in order to put themselves in the perfect positions to run their supposed "equal" government.