Self Evident

Normally, I don't like reading poems. However, Self Evident by Ani DiFranco is an exception. This poem has crazy swings in tone and changes the emotions of the reader from part to part. It was very deep, but completely understandable.
After doing some research on Ani DiFranco and reading the poem itself, I was able to get a good general understanding of the type of person she is. She is not afraid to express her feelings in words whatsoever. Controversial/touchy subjects are something she looks to exploit. She seems to have a very strong dream of America and the rest of the world.
The poem would definetly be a good read for any American. However, I feel it would favor Democrats over Republicans due to many stands on random issues expressed in the poem.
Throughout the reading, there are many examples of pathos. Emotions stirred for me as I read the part
"on the day that America
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please"
In this, she attempts to adjust the reader's emotions at the beginning of the poem.
Another example is when she is talking about the actual burning of the towers. This visual through words appeals to emotion.
There are uses of logos as well. She tries to reason throughout the poem that the dream of America has not been realized. She demonstrates through examples that America is not as different as it seems when compared to other countries.
"cuz take away our playstations
and we are a third world nation"
I believe that her rhetorical uses really add to the poem as a whole. Her message is better conveyed using the evident Logos and Pathos.
The media has a relatable influence on how these rhetorical uses influence us as readers. As Logos is used by many corporations while the media uses a great deal of Pathos, we are subject to fall for this use of rhetoric.
My analysis is similar to others I have made regarding works discussed in class in that there has been a great deal of Pathos and Logos. However, I was unable to find much Ethos as DiFranco used first person to describe the poem itself. There was not an reliance on the reputation of DiFranco.

Prompt 1: Facebook Project

So my ideal citizen has been created! His name is Jason Miller, he's one cool dude who set his privacy settings to nonexistent so stalk away!



In my own mind, I have an opinion of the "ideal" citizen. Although this may stray from the common opinion of what American's believe to be an ideal citizen, if I were to pick a random American out of a hat holding say 300 million people, Jason would come out.
Even though I don't consider myself to be a very typical or "ideal" citizen, I believe that I subconsciously took myself into consideration when completing this project. This, however, does not at all mean that Jason is just like me. In coming up with answers to the questions that Facebook asks about a person, I took into account what I believe to be common in America.
I chose a college male student because I believe that I have a good outlook on an ideal citizen in terms of this type of person. The picture of Jason reflects what a typical college student is going through every day-self realization. Jason is a Democrat and a Christian simply because I feel these are both the more common and easily believable traits of a person in today's America.
Jason, as with many male college students, is interested in Dating. As for Jason's activities, I believe this was based on my own opinion of a typical college student. If I were to collect a general list of activities of a college male from Americans, I believe that Sports and Partying would be at the top.
As far as music, I chose some quite popular bands in various genres. Again, I believe that America's ideal taste in music would not range too far from Jason's. Jason's favorite quote is one that many American's know, and has a little humor attached to it. All in all, the most important yet maybe not so "ideal" fact about Jason is that he is now listed as single as of 1:45 A.M.