Figurative Strategies 2

RWS 600, October 21, 2013

Veiled Intentions: Don’t Judge a Muslim Girl by Her Covering – Maysan Haydar

In the article, Maysan Haydar emphasizes that she wears the traditional hijab, or headscarf of Muslim because she wants to, not because she was told to or forced to, which is what American perception of Muslim girls and women is. Her reason for wearing it is because it promotes modesty in women and not oppression. She defends the idea that the headscarf has allowed her to be treated very differently than most females. Overall, the message she is trying to express is that everyone should be free to wear what they like without judgment. During her claim development, a very interesting quote I found in the reading was when she explains how she feels about wearing the hijab. “As an adult, I embrace the veil’s modesty, which allows me to be seen as a whole person instead of a twenty-piece chicken dinner.” She uses a kind of “Personification” by giving human attributes to “veil.” This figurative language can also be found in the text as follows: “The veil bestowed other experiences upon me that I wouldn’t quite classify as negative, but definitely educational.” “At the heart of my veiling is personal freedom.” She tells us as if the veil is her companion or partner. This gives more persuasiveness to her argument which means that wearing the veil was not forced to the women. On the other hand, I found “Metonymy” in the following statement: “This research includes a pool of female scholars reexamining Islamic texts with a feminist lens,” She replaces eyes with its symbolic image, “lens.”

 From Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, 1848 – Horace Mann

In this article, Mann discusses the importance of education and the role it plays on social class. He argues that all students have an equal opportunity to do with their life what they wish. He explains the importance of education broken down different categories such as physical, intellectual, political, moral, and religious. Mann employs various figurative languages in many places of this article. To begin with, he uses “Simile” by stating that, “The earth, as a hospital for the diseased, would soon wear out the love of life . . .” (111). “Its formula is intelligible to all; and it is as legible as though written in starry letters on an azure sky” (117). He compares the earth with a hospital and describes the legibility as starry letters on an azure sky. This could have an effect in making his explanation clear. Another example of “Simile” is founded in the last paragraph as follows: “Like the sun, it shines not only upon the good, but upon the evil, that they may become good; and, like the rain, its blessings descend not only upon the just, but upon the unjust, that their injustice may depart from them, and be known no more” (119). In this quote, Mann compares the Massachusetts system of common schools with the sun and the rain explicitly and it illustrates the purpose of religious education more vividly. Also, Mann employs “Metaphor” when he discusses intellectual education by stating that, “Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, – the balance-wheel of the social machinery” (114). Mann found the similarity between education and equalizer, and he connects the image of similarity to “the balance-wheel.” I think that analogy of education and the balance-wheel as well as that of the conditions of men and the social machinery are quite appropriate. Lastly, “Metonymy” is employed in the following statement: “He is taxed to support schools . . . because the general prevalence of ignorance, superstition, and vice, will breed Goth and Vandal at home more fatal to the public well-being than any Goth or Vandal from abroad” (118-19). Goth and Vandal were East Germanic people long time ago and were known to be barbarous and destructive. Mann expresses barbarous men in the aforementioned quote by replacing the symbol with related image. This transfers meaning of a word in context more vividly to the audience.

 “I Just Wanna Be Average” – Mike Rose

Mike Rose describes the problems with the vocational education in depth. He explains that his teachers act like they could care less about teaching their students and instead use physical violence or a lack of lesson plans to control them. A remarkable finding in this essay is that the author notes the various personalities of his classmates and teachers vividly like drawing pictures. This descriptive style helps the audience understand the circumstances surrounding the author in his early education. It also illuminates his critical view on education that he intended to disclose. Rose describes a variety of figurative language in many ways. “Simile” is used in the following text: “Spanish was a particularly rowdy class, and Mr. Montez was as prepared for it as a doily maker at a hammer throw” (153). Rose expresses Mr. Montez’s unfaithful attitude effectively by comparing with a doily maker. Additionally, he describes the appearance of students who lose their way in school by using “Metaphor” as follows: “Students will float to the mark you set. I and the others in the vocational class were bobbing in pretty shallow water. . . . But mostly the teachers had no idea of how to engage the imaginations of us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond” (154). He captures analogy between students and floating matter in the water. “Metaphor” can be found in the statement, “You’ll also be thrown in with all kinds of kids from all kinds of backgrounds, and that can be unsettling – this is especially true in places of rich ethnic and linguistic mix, like the L.A. basin” (155). He employs “Metaphor” which is that LA is a basin in order to express the melting pot where all the immigrants mixed and struggled to fit in. The use of the word “L.A. basin” creates a metaphor of all the mixed races.

George Orwell . . . Meet Mark Zuckerberg – Lori Andrews

In “George Orwell . . . Meet Mark Zuckerberg,” Lori Andrews cautions of the dangers of data aggregation via social networks by explaining a variety of examples and statistics. Massive companies track every aspect of our lives online from the things we like or dislike to the web sites we search and the e-mail we send our friends. This results in the threat to democracy and the harmful influence of our future lives. Also, this reminds us of George Orwell’s novel, 1984. That is the reason why this article’s title is “George Orwell . . . Meet Mark Zuckerberg.” Andrews employs “Analogy” in some places to help the audience understand her explanation as follows: “Doctorow compares Facebook’s mechanisms to the famous Skinner box used in psychology experiments. But instead of a lab rat rewarded with a food pellet each time it pushes a lever in the box, a Facebook user is rewarded with ‘likes’ and attention from friends and family each time that person posts more information” (710). “In the late 1960s . . . coined the term ‘redlining’ to describe the failure of banks, supermarkets, insurers, and other institutions to offer their services in inner city neighborhoods. . . . Now the map used in redlining is not a geographic map but the map of your travels across the Web. A new term, ‘weblining,’ covers the practice of denying certain opportunities to people due to observations about their digital selves” (711). Andrews also uses “Metaphor” by calling our characteristic online digital doppelganger, which means German word for a “double” or “look-a like” of a person. “Digital doppelganger” is a really good figurative language because people’s behavior online does not reflect reality offline exactly. The author also expresses it as an offline self or a digital self. In addition, Andrews employs “Repetition” for the purpose of emphasizing her negative feeling about data aggregation by stating, “I care deeply about the type of information I’ve entered. I wouldn’t leave my Social Security number or my credit card number lying on my desk at work where someone could copy it – nor would I send that information on a postcard through the mail. I wouldn’t broadcast my medical condition or my desire to find a new job to the world” (708). This repetition of “I wouldn’t” leads the audience to sympathize with the author’s feeling.