Art Spiegelman's Marital Blitz

In the controversial essay, which was first published in the November 1964 issue of Harper’s Magazine, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Richard Hofstadter argues how the prevalence of paranoia in American politics has dominated the country. Hofstadter asserts American politics have been governed by paranoia since the creation of the United States, and it has manifested itself into the minds of both average and intellectuals Americans. He contends that paranoia has played a pivotal role in American politics by fostering fear in citizens regarding issues such as gender, ethnicity, race, and religion—and proclaims the reason fear is heightened in citizens has more to do with the style in which panic is spread than any other factor. Furthermore, the author claims the sole issue dictating American politics is not simply paranoia, but rather a problem internationally caused, primarily, through misconceptions and false imaginations. Hofstadter also explores the affiliation paranoia has to power, to corruption, and to the government. Additionally, he examines the reasoning behind many skeptics and paranoids in the country today and describes the techniques with which they spread panic and hysteria, through methods such as books, speeches, and media. “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” by Richard Hofstadter, demonstrates the critical role paranoia plays in dictating American politics through the utilization of academic diction, anecdotal evidence, logical appeals, an explanatory tone, and chronological organization.

The beginning of any thought provoking essay will hook its audience using a form of pathos. “Two of his sons returned home from the battlefield whole and healthy. The third, however, came home suffering multiple seizures a day”-(Rorabacher). The quote generates sympathy within us making us yearn to see a welcoming outcome and leaving the audience hooked. Eli Hager’s article follows a similar route informing us that “The state of Missouri sent Harris to the penitentiary in Boonvilee, 250 miles from his home and baby daughter”-(Hager). Again we sympathize with the loss of a family, but not all of the articles used grievance to hook us. In the “Quiet Alarm” the audience is informed of a vaudeville performer who performed deadly stunts involving hatchets, pins, and guns on himself to generate shockwaves in the audience. From these examples we identify how our emotions lure us into these texts.

If there is one day I dread most upon its arrival, it would be 9/11. Sure there was an immense amount of strength as a nation represented, following the terrorists attacks, but it also brought a great amount of grief and sorrow. I remember watching videos of innocent people jumping from windows in the twin towers hoping to escape the terror. These people believed there was no one to help and no one to help them. They lost hope. In “Remembering a Hero, 15 Years After 9/11” written by Peggy Noonan, published in The Wall Street Journal on September 11th 2016, Alison Crowther—Welles Crowther’s mom—recalls the courageous actions to save the lives of others, made by her son on this horrific day. Noonan utilizes pathos, ethos, asyndeton, and

Media has an increasing part in public life, provoking emotions and swaying opinions. The power of the media is played out using language which is specially designed to persuade; But it is through rhetoric; ethos, pathos and logos (especially logos and ethos) that it tries to earn some credibility. Webster’s meaning for ‘Rhetoric’ is the art of speaking or writing effectively. Considering this, the tools of rhetoric- ethos, pathos and logos can be seen in the media coverage surrounding the events of 9/11, the Vietnam War and the Beaconsfield Mine disaster. The media at the time of 9/11 swamped the masses and portrayed ethos, persuading the viewers of an American unity, that could not be crushed, no matter how evil the attack.

September 11, 2001 brought many different feelings that were new to Americans. Americans had not experienced something of this magnitude in their own country. Even to this day, America continues to resonate what took place in our culture and in politics. The magnitude is definitely shown throughout many songs, books, and television shows that were created and released immediately following 9/11 (Melnick, 64). They try to illustrate the on-going thoughts of what happened and the attitudes that have evolved due to this tragedy.

People walked through the city of New York as they would on any ordinary day, except fate had a different course of action planned out for America. Being only 5 I can still remember that chaos and frightfulness that swept over America due to an act of terror. On September 11, 2001 the country faced an attack that exemplified the most evil of acts. At 8:46 a.m. a hijacked airplane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Shortly after another plane lunged into the South Tower immediately causing the building to be engulfed in flames. Thousands of people were in these buildings doing anything they could to escape. Burning bodies could be seen jumping from the top flights of the towers. Firefighters and policemen became heroes as they put their lives to the side so that they could bring those trapped in the burning buildings to safety. During all of this a third plane crashed into the Pentagon and for the first time in history all aircrafts were to land at the nearest airport. Approximately an hour after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, they both collapsed along with the innocent lives of those who were trapped inside. Ash and debris filled the city and those fortunate enough to escape. 2,753 people were killed in the collapse of the towers on one of Americas most deadly attacks to date. Not only did this attack take away thousands of lives and break the hearts of families across the country, it instilled a sense of fear and concern for the safety of being an American. The people were in need of a sense of direction to take following one of the Nation’s most tragic measures. After the three attacks it left everyone angry and confused to what was going on. They needed a sense of reassurance so that they knew the country was taking action swiftly and taking the precautionary measures to make sure nothing of this nature could happen on American soil again. He effectively displays kairos, logos, ethos, and pathos to get his message to transpire to America. President George Bush used this event to fuel a speech addressed to the nation that would define his presidency for years to come. How did George Bush’s speech help Americans come

Jess Walter creates a post 9/11 world that balances precariously between real and surreal. It is real enough that the reader is able to comprehend how awful the attack truly was; but surreal enough that the reader feels the same way most Americans did at Ground Zero—confused, frightened, and grief stricken. Remy, the unwilling hero in all of this is exposed to many different forms of grief both public and personal. Using irony and satire, Walter critiques the way public forms of grief were presented as the only viable ways of grieving after 9/11. Reporters wanted to broadcast each and every loss. The government wanted to exploit the grief of the American people so that they could continue what they were doing in

The author uses pathos to appeal to the audience’s sense of open-mindedness about women who make national news. O’Connor tries to get the reader to realize how being human can cause people to overlook certain stories and make them seem unimportant. In her essay she states, “We don’t pay as much attention to someone missing from a community we don’t know or are not familiar with” (661). This quotation symbolizes how sometimes people can be overlooked in today’s news. The issue about who makes national news can appeal to more than just a sense of open-mindedness, it can also appeal to your sense of sympathy. When news reporters get their stories, no one is for sure how long the story can stay lingering amongst people. Earl Hutchinson, a political analyst, states, “When you raise the issue people say, “This is a tragedy and we should do more,” Hutchinson said. “But it only lasts a hot minute.

Growing up as a child, my mom made a habit out of watching the morning news no matter what was taking place in the country. Whether my mom watched the news for entertainment or to see what was significant to her has been left unanswered. Correspondingly, in Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman argues that the news today is entertainment and irrelevant to the people who obtain it. Not to mention Postman’s character, Henry David Thoreau gives an example of Postman’s debate stating, “Perchance the first news that will leak into the flapping American ear will be that Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.” To validate Postman's argument, I watched a 30-minute news segment from News 7, on January 25th, 2017. The section stated that a birth certificate found in the debris left by a tornado that battered Petal, MS on January 21st, 2017. Also, after reviewing several news segments, I found Postman’s theory to be accurate.

Videos of the plane crashing into the twin towers were played on a loop all over television, and photos of the tragedy were printed throughout newspapers all over the world. Specifically, in Britain, The Sun headlined its newspaper with ‘A Day That Changed The World,’ while The Daily Mirror called it ‘A War On the World’ (McLaughlin 191). In America, most newspapers had the word “war” in their headlines, which complies with President Bush’s “war on terror” that he brought up for the first time on the night after the attacks “in an emergency address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress” (McLaughlin

With countless citizens devastated from the confusion and shock caused by the horrors seen when the Twin Towers fell, there became a great demand for help from psychologists who could only help see so many patients at once. Joshua Smyth and Rebecca Helm took advantage of this opportunity to promote a way citizens could efficiently help themselves by advertising a means of self-help using rhetorical strategies. "Focused Expressive Writing as Self-Help for Stress and Trauma," (FEW) written by Joshua Smyth and Rebecca Helm, was published in February, 2003, in hopes that it would aid the many affected with depression after September 11, 2001. This paper reveals a rhetorical analysis to identify

Roxane Gay’s persuasive essay, “The Illusion of Safety/The Safety of Illusion” is about trigger warnings in the media. Her argument in the essay is that trigger warnings in the media give a false sense of security to the people the warnings seek to shield. She explains how trigger warnings are futile because you cannot protect someone from their own self. She also proposes that as time goes on anything can have the potential to become a trigger to someone.

The tragic events that occurred on September 11th, 2001 will live on forever in the history of the United States as citizens shed fresh tears for those lost every year. Hundreds upon thousands of articles have been written since the life-shattering catastrophic event, most of which – unsurprisingly – focus on the politics of the entire situation. In one article, “9/11,” Susan Sontag ruthlessly criticizes the government response following the attacks, making bold claims that they were withholding information from the public and leaving citizens blind and ignorant. Though Sontag is effective in describing a valid argument against the government’s response after the events of 9/11, her success is lost in her failed establishment of ethos in her lacking appearance of knowledge, little fairness toward the government’s side, and lost credibility due to inadequate facts and strong emotions.

When my iPad started buzzing with all of these notifications, I knew that either it was a fascinating rumor about a celebrity or a sign that tragedy had struck once again. Reading the CNN headline, my body shook, I couldn’t believe what I have just read. There just had been a mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert, injuring more than 500 people with the police still looking for the killer. Waking up the next morning, the death toll had already climbed up to 40 people, including the gunman who the police had killed. Sitting down in seventh period, my teacher put up the headline of the attacks on the board, the death toll was up to 58 people making it one of the most deadly mass shootings in our history.

“If the media were not there to report terrorist acts and to explain their political and social significance...terrorism as such would cease to exist” said John O'Sullivan, an editor of the Times of London.1 This is also the way many other people feel about the recent increase in terrorist activity; they feel that the media is causing it. The media is doing this by fulfilling the terrorists' need for publicity.2 Terrorists need media publicity in order to get their views spread to the public.3 Because of this need for publicity, terrorists are committing their acts of terrorism in areas where a lot of publicity will be gained; the United States and Western Europe are the most recent targets. The bombings of the federal building in