A Critique of “Thank You for Smoking…?”
Intro:
The essay “Thank You for Smoking,” written by Peter Brimelow, is far from an influential essay on why people should smoke. Through this essay, Brimelow makes an effort to convince the audience smoking is actually beneficial to your health. I find it hard for people to write about what they think are the benefits of smoking when there are so many obvious reasons why you should not smoke.
The main audience being targeted in this article is those who already smoke and those who are thinking about smoking. One thing mentioned in the article is the fact that smokers are usually lighter in weight. In my personal opinion, I would rather eat a balanced diet and walk daily rather than walk around with a cigarette in my mouth and risk lung cancer.
Inductive or Deductive:
When trying to find if an essay is logically stated, you first must find if it is inductive or deductive. This is an example of an inductive essay. What inductive means is that the author goes from using specific samples to generalizations that are drawn from those examples (McFadden).
Major Claim:
The major claim is usually the topic sentence or main idea in the article (McFadden). Through the major claim, Peter points out that smoking has beneficial factors. He states those who smoke are less likely to get many diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, endometrial cancer, prostate cancer, osteoarthritis, and colon cancer (Brimelow 142).
Another example used in this essay is the author’s comparison of driving automobiles to smoking cigarettes. Brimelow states, “But so is driving automobiles dangerous to your health (over 40,000 deaths a year)” (141). This to me just seems like a completely ridiculous comparison to include in this article, especially when in the prior paragraph he states that there are approximately 400,000 deaths annually, which are smoking-related (Brimelow).
Minor Claim:
One minor claim pointed out through this essay is how smoking helps to relax people, which is one form of a stress reliever (Brimelow). In addition, smoking is said to stimulate alertness, dexterity, and cognitive capacity (Brimelow). It is true these are all things in which people can benefit from; however, these are far from being favorable enough for people to decide to go light up.
Grounds:
Grounds include all evidence, facts, and logic used in supporting claims (McFadden).
The essay “Thank You for Smoking,” written by Peter Brimelow, is far from an influential essay on why people should smoke. Through this essay, he gives many examples as to why “smoking might be, in some small ways, good for you” (Brimelow 141). A lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, osteoarthritis, and different types of cancer are examples of benefits of smoking given by Brimelow (Brimelow 142).
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man was a crucial literary tool in raising awareness of and forwarding the equal rights movement for African Americans when it reached readers of all races in the 1950's. The Cultural Contexts for Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man claims that the novel envisions nothing less than undoing African Americans' cultural dispossession. Ellison's words are indeed an eloquent unraveling of social stereotypes and racisms. He employs allegorical conceptions of blindness and invisibility to dissect culturally ingrained prejudices and ignorance towards African Americans. Ellison also uses IM's settings and characters to reflect America and its stereotypes in order to achieve this goal.
The novel, The Sun also Rises, was written by Ernest Hemingway and published in 1926. It tells a story of the 1920s, also known as the Lost Generation. World War I affects all of the characters in this book and plays a large role in their love lives. In Ernest Hemingway’s novel, Lady Brett Ashley is an attractive woman who uses her beauty as advantage towards men. Brett is involved in many different affairs and has many different relationships. Mike Campbell, Pedro Romero, Robert Cohn, and the most Jake Barnes. Brett is very powerful in these relationships, causing them to be very destructive to both Brett and the men. A group of American and British citizens travel from Paris to the festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain, where their true characters are exposed through their drunken interactions. Throughout this novel, love is a major theme that is constantly affecting all of the characters involved.
The short essay On Liberty was written by an English philosopher by the name of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). In this essay Mill basically talk about the system of utilitarianism to society and the state. Mill attempts to establish standards for the relationship between authority and liberty. He emphasizes the importance of individuality which he conceived as a prerequisite to the higher pleasures the “summum bonum” of Utilitarianism. Furthermore, Mill criticized the errors of past attempts to defend individuality where democratic ideals resulted in the "tyranny of the majority". Mill explains his concept of individual freedom of his ideas on history and on the state. On Liberty relies on the idea that society progresses from lower to higher stages and that this
Smoking is terrible, or science has yet to discover any medical advantages connected with it. You'd have a hard time discovering somebody that would contend against this thought. While most normal individuals comprehend this idea, there is Surgeon General the United States, who has a message stamped on each tobacco item sold in the country. On the off chance that stopping is the point then we as a general public need to go for the proverbial jugular, and that is smoking tobacco is fatal. In promotion crusades and print ads we see numerous obstructions that would ideally keep individuals from smoking cigarettes. From "not being cool" to "yuck, you possess an aroma similar to cigarettes", what's being sugarcoated is the moderate demise that every drag from a cigarette brings on the human
One of the major motifs in Invisible Man is blindness. The first time we’re shown blindness in the novel is at the battle royal. The blindfolds that all of the contestants wear symbolize how the black society is blind to the way white society is still belittling them, despite the abolishment of slavery. When he arrives at the battle, the narrator says “I was told that since I was to be there anyway I might as well take part in the battle royal to be fought by some of my schoolmates as part of the entertainment” (Ellison 17). Although, the white men asked him to come to the battle royal in order to deliver his graduation speech, they force him to participate in the battle royal, where the white men make young black men fight each other as a form of entertainment for them. When the black men put their blindfolds on to fight in this battle, they are blind, both figuratively and literally. They can't see the people they are fighting against, just as they can't see how the white men are exploiting them for their own pleasure. Shelly Jarenski claims “the Battle Royal establishes the relationship between white power, male power, and (hetero)sexual power, the “self-grounding presumptions” of dominant subjectivity” ...
Wright, John Samuel Fletcher. Liberty in Key Works of John Locke and John Stuart Mill. Thesis Deakin University, 1995.
Recent surveys show that 25 % of all American adults smoke despite the fact that tobacco is the No.1 cause of death (430,000 annual) and disease in this country (1). The life of a 30-year older that smokes 15 cigarettes a day is shortened by an average of more than five years (2). Why do people smoke despite the fact that it shortens their life? Why has this practice of smoking tobacco been around for 1000 years? There must be something that the human body or mind gains in spite of the threat of an early death. I realize this craving for nicotine on a personal level because I smoke. Smoker's self-reported motives for smoking include stress reduction and improved circulation (3). That sounds like my reasons. Plus smoking is like a friend that I visit and have a good time with, something that I enjoy being with.
Foley, Barbara. "Ralph Ellison As Proletarian Journalist, by Barbara Foley." Ralph Ellison As Proletarian Journalist, by Barbara Foley. Rutgers University, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
Peter Brimelow’s “Thank You for Smoking…?” had me interested from the title alone. This essay lists a few of the benefits that can occur from smoking. Bimelow is aware of the many dangers of smoking as he acknowledges “the Environmental Protection Agency has claimed that ‘second hand smoke’ is a significant risk for nonsmokers and the Food & Drug Administration is making noises about regulating nicotine as a drug” (The Genre of Argument 141). Brimelow’s essay gives some reasons why and how smoking can be beneficial in some small ways. The message Brimelow is trying to get out is that, “smoking might be, in some small ways, good for you” (141). Brimelow uses words and phrases such as “might be” and “some” to narrow down his major claim. Brimelow’s major claim that smoking can be healthy in some ways. In some studies, certain cancers have been shown to appear less in smokers than nonsmokers. This leads us to believe that smoking may be beneficial in some ways. I think this essay is successful because of the evidence presented along with the narrow major claim.
In conclusion, the two great writing provide great information about the bad effects of smoking and the consequences. Both of them convince people to quit smoking by explaining the harmful effects of smoking and providing examples of diseases. These two pieces of writing also provide a lot of positive benefits and guidelines on what to do to discontinue smoking and make a big change.
Following World War I and the strife it brought to American culture, seemingly good times were felt by all in the roaring twenties; however, the reality is expressed through the negative happenings of the “Lost Generation.” Published in 1926, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises acts as an allegory of the time, explaining the situations of American and foreign young adults of the “Lost Generation." The journey of Robert Cohn, Lady Bret Ashley and Jake Barnes and their experience abroad in France is one of false relationships, the disparaging actions of women and the insecurity of men; moreover, the major issues of the time compile to form what people living in the 1920’s and historians postulate as the “Lost Generation.” As an enlightening tale, The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway’s portrayal of a morally ailing generation. In conclusion, Hemingway utilizes character description and symbolism in order to present the aimless destruction of the “Lost Generation.”
The pivotal character of Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises is Jake Barnes. He is a man of complex personality--compelling, powerful, restrained, bitter, pathetic, extraordinarily ordinary yet totally human. His character swings from one end of the psychological spectrum to the other end. He has complex personality, a World War I veteran turned writer, living in Paris. To the world, he is the epitome of self-control but breaks down easily when alone, plagued by self-doubt and fears of inadequacy. He is at home in the company of friends in the society where he belongs, but he sees himself as someone from the outside looking in. He is not alone, yet he is lonely. He strikes people as confident, ambitious, careful, practical, quiet and straightforward. In reality, he is full of self-doubt, afraid and vulnerable.
The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between breakfast and undergraduate academic performance. This study conducted based on the previous research that only concerning on school students, but little research has been done on college students. Fifty two undergraduate students from International Islamic University Malaysia were responded to and completed a web- based survey. Questionnaires in the survey were adapted from Staub (2000). Participants had to rate their academic performance in a particular area such alertness, participation, attention, mood, taking note and the level of anxiety before test. The survey also asked the Cumulative Grade Point Average to find the correlation between breakfast and academic achievement of students. The results found that breakfast eater correlated with mood and note taking in the class and students who took breakfast more likely to have good rate in CGPA. SPSS have been used to analyze the result. The result suggested that, breakfast may be considered as healthy life style and it can be platform to help students in maintaining their learning strategies.
Statistics show that 400,000 people a year die due to smoking related problems. Experts have proven that smoking damages the lungs and kidneys, but people continue to smoke to relieve stress. This paper will expose the various ways that smoking can harm the people and environment.