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Rhetorical analysis of america needs its nerds
Rhetorical analysis on " america needs its nerds
Rhetorical analysis on " america needs its nerds
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In Leonid Fridman’s passage entitled “America Needs Its Nerds”, Fridman discusses why ‘nerds’ are needed in society. In his passage he develops his argument through comparison. He compares nerds to freaks and athletes to develop his argument that there is something wrong with america’s values.
In the opening two paragraphs of the passage, Fridman brings up two points of view of what a nerd is; his opinion and a dictionary's definition. His personal definition is that a nerd is someone who is “intellectually curious and academically serious.” (3-4). Whereas in the Webster’s New World Dictionary a nerd/geek is “a street performer who shocks the public by biting off heads of live chickens”(6-7). There is a great disconnect between these two definitions.
The persuasive essay, “Individuality vs. Conformity: The Healthy MIddle,” discusses, how there maybe a difference but maybe it is 50/50. He discusses and argues about where is the middle. In addition, he believes that people want to fit in but be different. The author supports her argument by justifying and defining about how it is human nature to want to be liked. In addition, to that people have a feeling of liquid fire going through there veins which is the natural feeling of someone feeling there need for individuality and people want to attain the status. The authors purpose is to persuade the readers, specifically high school students in order to show the healthy middle between conformity
The journey begins at the heart of the matter, with a street smart kid failing in school. This is done to establish some common ground with his intended audience, educators. Since Graff is an educator himself, an English professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, he understands the frustrations of having a student “who is so intelligent about so many things in life [and yet] seems unable to apply that intelligence to academic work” (380). Furthermore, Graff blames schools for not utilizing street smarts as a tool to help improve academics; mainly due to an assumption that some subjects are more inherently intellectual than others. Graff then logically points out a lack of connection “between any text or subject and the educational depth and weight of the discussion it can generate” (381). He exemplifies this point by suggesting that any real intellectual could provoke thoughtful questions from any subject, while a buffoon can render the most robust subjects bland. Thus, he is effectively using logic and emotion to imply that educators should be able to approach any subject critically, even non-traditional subjects, lest they risk being labeled a buffoon.
History has it that the underdogs of our society are ought to win due to their disadvantages. In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell (the author of Blink and Outliers) explores why the disadvantaged misfits were able to win their greatest opposing giants. Gladwell initiates his discovery with the Biblical story of David, an Israeli shepherd boy, who killed Goliath with a slingshot. He explains how the chances of the underdogs increase when they fight unconventionally. In our society, our advantages can limit us to do the average rather than find a new way to battle challenges ; so theoretically,disadvantages play to our side .He starts with the first example, “In Rosewood High school, Ranadive coached a team of girls who had no talent in a sport he knew nothing about. He was an underdog and a misfit, and that gave him the freedom to try things no one else even dreamt of” (Gladwell 67) . This work of literature is not a theory but rather a fact-based research on abnormal neurological behavior of ‘disadvantaged’ people. Gladwell writes about the art of battling giants to prove that misfits and underdogs are bound to win due to their limited material resources and many disadvantages.
Graff begins by talking about the educational system, and why it flawed in many ways, but in particular, one: Todays schools overlook the intellectual potential of street smart students, and how shaping lessons to work more readily with how people actually learn, we could develop into something capable of competing with the world. In schools, students are forced to recite and remember dull and subject heavy works in order to prepare them for the future, and for higher education. “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic. We assume that it’s possible to wax intellectual about Plato, Shakespeare, the French Revolution, and nuclear fission, but not about cars, dating, fashion, sports, TV, or video games.” (Graff, 198-199) In everyday life, students are able to learn and teach themselves something new everyday. It is those students, the “young person who is impressively “street smart” but does poorly in school” (Graff, 198), that we are sweeping away from education and forcing to seek life in places that are generally less successful than those who attend a college or university.
Charlie, a thirty-two year old man with a mental condition was seen as fragile. To further his intelligence level, he attended the Beekman College center for retarded adults. His desired self was to become intelligent. “If the operation works good I’ll show that mouse I can be as smart as he is even smarter” (12). The opposite of the real Charlie possessed the traits of anti-socialism, intelligence, possessing motivation, and being opinionated. “This intelligence has driven a wedge between me and all the people I knew and loved, driven me out of the bakery. Now I’m more alone than ever before” (108). Charlie was not anti-social by choice, he was driven away as his intelligence level rose. Charlie became all he wanted to be and more. He desired to be intelligent that he may attain friends and show his parents and sister that he was not as he was as a child. “If the operashun werks and I get smart mabye Ill be abel to find my mom and dad and sister and show them” (12). Possessing motivation was an observation pointed o...
The society in which these rebellious youth were growing up was one of the pleasure seekers. Dr. Donald B. Louria says "American public is literally enmeshed in an orgy of self-medication."1 Society was pleasure-oriented: the only things that mattered were those that appealed to the senses. When a pleasure-oriented society has too much leisure time, it leads to moral destruction. Simmel, a sociologist, stated "The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces."2
The contrast between the “brave new world” and “savage” world by Huxley highlights the issues of conformity, commodification, and “freedom” of two opposite worlds. This ultimately displays that no matter what society a person is raised in, if they are mentally, physically, or emotionally different from the set standards, they will experience isolation and alienation from society. Not only that, but a person will always desire to be accepted by others, whether it be consciously or unconsciously, due to the fear of being
The geeks grew up during the time of “era of options” which meant unlike the geezers, the geeks were about “making history” by being over ambitious and exploring all opportunities, but wanted balance in their life too. Geeks wanted to “change the world” or make it better place to live in instead of focusing on money. Geeks saw many opportunities for jobs and growth, but loyalty to one company was not something they thought about. Geeks said the main feature of their era was speed. “It was the digital world which was nonlinear and had ditched the corporate pyramid for the flat organization (11).” What had taken the geezers 20 years to learn the geeks could do in a couple of
Kurt Vonnegut paints a picture of American society 120 years past 1961. Society has made a gradual change, but it is a drastic one nonetheless. After nearly two hundred amendments to the constitution, everyone is supposed to be equal in every way. “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” (232 Vonnegut). In this landscape Vonnegut shows that people will never be completely equal, and trying to force equality through controlling individuals will only create a new class system.
Close your eyes and try to visualize a black nerd. The person you’ve probably come up with most likely resembles Steve Urkel or Bill Cosby. But a better, more relevant answer would be someone like Kanye West or Rosario Dawson. Before, being a black nerd was something to be ashamed of because it was associated with being an outsider of the black community and acting white. However in recent years, the subculture has undergone a rebranding and being a black nerd has flowed into the mainstream through artists like Childish Gambino, Richard Ayoade, and Kanye West. This new generation of black nerds call themselves blerds. There is some controversy surrounding the word blerd because of its embrace of blackness and some people believe it is exclusionary.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom, and the enemy of growth. As John F. Kennedy portrays, nonconformists give society freedom and growth. In “Three Cheers for Tacky,” Tacky is a nonconformist. He is told to act like the rest of the team. He doesn’t conform to the ways of his team. By looking at Tacky’s example, one can see how nonconformists affect society.
His article is persuading and declaring a point of discomfort and rebellion against being normal. The use of energetic language makes us feel how personal this topic is, not only because he was being prejudiced, but because it is a matter in which every person should be concerned, not matter what is your hobby or in which way you dress; everyday people is being catalogued. Likewise, despite Zimmerman attaches a tone of indignation and disapprobation, there also exists a tone of pride and affection. This pride is directed towards the embracement of one-self. This “herd mentality” that lead us to behave as dictated by our culture, our society and our school; where “We wanna be stereotyped, we wanna be classified, we want a suburban home” is the major contradiction of punk culture. Punk culture embraces the difference, the oddity and the weirdness in order to exhibit those traits as something beautiful and powerful. Individuality is a human characteristic that should be protected as an unmeasured treasure because it is the essence that make us be who we
The meaning of the word nerd has made big changes since being first used in the late 1900’s. Like education scholar, Tracy L. Cross, I agree that nerds “were generally considered as socially inadequate, shy or overbearing, smart…Nerds were also perceived as being very focused on academic endeavors, physically
America’s greatest problem lies right in front of them. From ages 14 to 30, young American’s are dealt to obtain over 60 years of knowledge in such a short time span. Both male and females between the ages of 14 to 30 years old, are expected to know how to graduate high school, go to college, find a job, create a family, support that family, and have enough money to retire when that time comes. Think of these stages as categories. Each category has subcategories; one being how society portrays to accomplish such stage, another being the negative effects on a student’s health because of the systematic society, and finally my proposed solution to fix this corrupt society. The reason why America’s society is corrupt is because of all of the strenuous
There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till (2).