Reactions to Columns

As an introduction to our columnist unit in class, we were assigned to read 6 columns written by various writers about various topics. I think one of the most important aspects of column writing is having an intended audience to appeal to. When you have a newspaper or magazine, you always flip through to find which articles you actually want to read. It's the writer's job to spark the reader's interest.

The first 2 articles written by Mike Lupica were clearly for sports lovers. His Winter Olympics piece was hard to understand. I didn't get anything he was referring to. I guess USA winning against the Soviets in hockey is pretty big. His second article about the Boston Marathon was much better. Lupica got his reader's attention with the emotional attachment to this bombing in Boston. I don't really understand why he classified this event as just a sports moment. Like it's definitely much bigger than that. Overall, I think Lupica could appeal to a large amount of people. His columns are basically summaries of sports events.

Robin Givhan has a much different style. I would guess his audience to be older and more mature. He uses very descriptive diction and formal language. The first article was "An Image a Little Too Carefully Coordinated". The piece is very argumentative. His opinion clear in people's obsession with creating a perfect image. In "What will Kate Middleton's wedding dress look like?", there was lots of fashion language... For example, "...she wore a gown of Brobdingnagian proportions stitched out of ivory silk taffeta..." I'm not sure how many people understand that. Probably not the guys in my class. They probably skipped this article... Givhan's writing is fine, just a little boring to me.

Last of all, there's Dave Barry. I'm guessing he will be everyone's favorite. He's the type of writer almost everybody will enjoy. My favorite was "The mother of all parties". The amount of sarcasm is too perfect. Of course it is making fun of crazy mothers but in a hilarious acceptable way right? Barry's "A ruff and ready playmate" is also very laughable. It has a narrative style, like there's a story being told. The only thing is that dogs are not that stupid -_- "This stimulates the M&M-size clump of nerve cells that serves as a dog's brain to form a thought..." Poor doggy.

Fahrenheit 451 Theme Handout

Elise Wexelblatt, Grace Tang, Serena Troung, Shashank Reddy, Olivia Jounge, Elena Polasko

Theme: Individual self-expression is important.

Timeline:

1. Montag is solely focused on his job and won’t listen to anyone else
2. Montag meets Clarisse and sees how she expresses herself
3. Montag begins to see how pointless and meaningless his life is
4. He feels trapped in society and wants someone to listen to him
5. Montag meets Faber and learns what expression is
6. Montag begins to express himself and rebel against the government
7. He finds people who will listen and he begins to express himself

Quotes:

• “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” (Bradbury 9)
• “We must all be alike. Not everyone free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal.” (Bradbury 55)
• “I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if i talk long enough, it’ll make sense.” (Bradbury 78)
• “He would be Montag-plus-Faber, fire plus water, and then, one day, after everything had mixed and simmered and worked away in silence, there would be neither fire nor water, but wine.” (Bradbury 99)
• “Yes, thought Montag, that’s the one I’ll save for noon.” (Bradbury 158)

How is this theme important to our understanding of the story?
This theme is important because we can see how certain individuals will risk it all to express themselves in a broken society where expression is blocked. 

How does this theme connect to modern-day society?
In modern-day society, we have easy access to expressing ourselves, and that expression is an important part of our daily lives.