In wake of recent political changes and transitions, Romaissaa Benzizoune writes an article entitled “I'm Muslim, but My Roommate Supports Trump.” Clearly, just from the title, this piece targets emotional appeals and is employed in order to draw in an audience that was negatively targeted in Donald J. Trump's rhetoric during his campaign trail. Benzizoune reflects on her emotions and actions following the realization that her roommate is a Trump supporter, and then transfers that experience into a more scholarly-level argument and ends with an emotional call to action.
To start off the article, Benzizoune writes “When she outed herself to me as a Trump supporter,” it immediately insinuates there is a stigma associated with that particular
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label. Traditionally, “outed” refers to exposing a secret, showing that the author was shocked, even appalled; she had found the “silent majority.” The aforementioned term is utilized as a proper noun, in place of the roommate in the following sentences. For example, Benzizoune writes that “the silent majority” sees her head scarf, “the silent majority” touched her face, did her makeup, and watched Gilmore Girls. However, the author is not just referring to her roommate—she is referring to every seemingly-friendly person who has voted for Trump. This “silent majority” live their lives without any obvious outspoken political statements—and that is why Benzizoune is hurt and shocked. In order to display her feelings, Benzizoune makes a powerful statement by writing “We fought; I packed,” immediately after she writes that her roommate, a “suddenly strange girl,” is a Trump supporter.
The lack of smooth transition from one idea to another illustrates the devastating pertinence that being a Trump supporter has to the author. To even further demonstrate the profound effect the roommate's political affiliation has on her, Benzizoune employs the use of figurative language to insinuate the tragic injustice of the situation: “the country slowly fell to red.” Using the word “fell” implies that the country lost a battle, and was taken over by Trump supporters. Following a paragraph of raw emotion demonstrated through syntax and language, Benzizoune transitions into a different style—her article introduces facts and a more scholarly-level argument and …show more content…
explanation. Benzizoune then again transitions back to her narrative memory of the night of the election.
She describes the aftermath of “the ugly truth,” Trump's victory, where “[t]he emboldened silent majority speckled the streets.” Benzizoune creates a sense of militaristic fear by describing how she “was struck by a feeling that their caps were a military uniform, that our country was at civil war, and that [she] was a target.” By writing her fearful sentiments using a precise choice of words, she is encouraging and invoking an emotional response in the target audience. Benzizoune relates the newly-empowered Trump supporters to a military unit that are threatening her ability to safely exist. The author wants to stir up emotional responses and reactions to her story—and Benzizoune's powerful military comparison does just
that. The author argues that her roommate “reflected an 'us versus them' mind-set.” The idea of “us versus them” comes into play as Benzizoune further argues her point of view—a viewpoint which she assumed the majority of her audience has as well. Because of this assumption, Benzizoune steers her writing away from persuading Trump supporters and trying to change their mind, and instead she directs her efforts towards rallying and uniting the crowd of people “who [have] been or could be a target of Mr. Trump, everyone who has been appalled by this election, at the parody of American democracy that has unfolded.” Before this article, the main audience Benzizoune targeted were people who were not like her—in many ways similar to the Trump supporters. However, as of this article, her “audience has changed.” All of the background on Benzizoune's audience is incredibly important to the purpose of this article, which is to unite the minorities and groups of people who have felt similar to the way she felt, which she describes through her experience with her roommate. “I'm Muslim, but My Roomate Supports Trump” is a powerful narrative that details not only the raw, emotional reactions of a minority, but a comprehensive call to action, by emotional appeals. In analyzing the success of the strategies Benzizoune uses to invoke an emotional response and incite a rallying message, it is important to consider the reader. If the author's intended audience is reading the piece, Benzizoune's purpose for writing would clearly be understood and accepted. If not, a person—especially a Trump supporter—could argue that the article is sanctimonious in nature. Either way, Benzizoune uses her personal experience as a stepping-off point for a larger discussion on the forced reality of a Trump presidency, and how minorities and targets of bigotry can come together “to find resilience, inspiration, and hope in one another.”
It is apparent that the topic of war is difficult to discuss among active duty soldiers and civilians. Often times, citizens are unable to understand the mental, physical, and physiological burden service members experience. In Phil Klay’s Ten Kliks South, the narrator struggles to cope with the idea that his artillery team has killed enemy forces. In the early stages of the story, the narrator is clearly confused. He understands that he did his part in firing off the artillery rounds, yet he cannot admit to killing the opposition. In order to suppress his guilt and uncertainty, our narrator searches for guidance and reassurance of his actions. He meets with an old gunnery sergeant and during their conversation, our narrator’s innocence
...display how the average citizen would see war for the first time. Colonel Kelly sees her as “vacant and almost idiotic. She had taken refuge in deaf, blind, unfeeling shock” (Vonnegut 100). To a citizen who even understands the war process, war is still heinous and dubiously justified when viewed first hand. The man who seems to have coldly just given away her son’s life without the same instinct as her has participated in this heinous wartime atrocity for so long, but it only affect her now because she cannot conceive of the reality of it until it is personally in front of her. That indicates a less complete political education of war even among those who war may have affected their entire lives. The closeness and the casualties of this “game” will affect her the most because she has to watch every move that previously could have been kept impartial and unviewed.
Carolyn Forche’s “The Colonel” discusses the lack of value towards human life by totalitarian government and the United States’ stake in investigating these powers and challenging them. The speaker in this poem recounts his experience meeting the colonel to show the audience both the amount of presence of the United States in this foreign setting and the Colonel’s lack of regard toward human rights. Figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, and symbols, as well as the speaker’s first-person point of view descriptions reveal her experiences in El Salvador with a cruel military government. These elements in Forche’s poem successfully convey themes of oppression and cruelty, as well as heavy
In the history of modern western civilization, there have been few incidents of war, famine, and other calamities that severely affected the modern European society. The First World War was one such incident which served as a reflection of modern European society in its industrial age, altering mankind’s perception of war into catastrophic levels of carnage and violence. As a transition to modern warfare, the experiences of the Great War were entirely new and unfamiliar. In this anomalous environment, a range of first hand accounts have emerged, detailing the events and experiences of the authors. For instance, both the works of Ernst Junger and Erich Maria Remarque emphasize the frightening and inhumane nature of war to some degree – more explicit in Jünger’s than in Remarque’s – but the sense of glorification, heroism, and nationalism in Jünger’s The Storm of Steel is absent in Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Instead, they are replaced by psychological damage caused by the war – the internalization of loss and pain, coupled with a sense of helplessness and disconnectedness with the past and the future. As such, the accounts of Jünger and Remarque reveal the similar experiences of extreme violence and danger of World War I shared by soldiers but draw from their experiences differing ideologies and perception of war.
... that turn ideological dispositions of hate into the physical violence inflicted on those that are supposedly representative for that loss. Not the leaders who are responsible for the conflict and involvement of belligerent sides, but simply representatives of the race or the nation participating in this conflict and “presumably responsible” in the death of the soldier.
In this article, Kasam explains her experience being a Muslim American on a college campus and the challenges she her and fellow Muslims face on campus. She explains how she is a club leader at Quinnipiac University for a Muslim group. She claims that there is not a lot of Muslims who attend that University. She also believes that many Muslims at the school are afraid of coming out and telling other people on campus that they are Muslims; keeping a low profile. She provides statistics on hate crimes against Muslims around the world, and she also expresses her concern to her Muslim friends on campus. This article was published in the College Xpress for mainly college students to view. Kasam is a staff writer for the Quinnipiac Chronicle who mainly writes stories about incidents on and around Quinnipiac University. This article will help me explain the various problems that Muslim students around college campuses face
The Vietnam War was not a “pretty” war. Soldiers were forced to fight guerilla troops, were in combat during horrible weather, had to live in dangerous jungles, and, worst of all, lost sight of who they were. Many soldiers may have entered with a sense of pride, but returned home desensitized. The protagonist in Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible,” is testament to this. In the story, the protagonist is a young man full of life prior to the war, and is a mere shell of his former self after the war. The protagonists in Tim O’Brien’s “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” and Irene Zabytko’s “Home Soil,” are also gravely affected by war. The three characters must undergo traumatic experiences. Only those who fought in the Vietnam War understand what these men, both fictional and in real life, were subjected to. After the war, the protagonists of these stories must learn to deal with a war that was not fought with to win, rather to ensure the United States remained politically correct in handling the conflict. This in turn caused much more anguish and turmoil for the soldiers. While these three stories may have fictionalized events, they connect with factual events, even more so with the ramifications of war, whether psychological, morally emotional, or cultural. “The Red Convertible,” and “Home Soil,” give readers a glimpse into the life of soldiers once home after the war, and how they never fully return, while “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” is a protest letter before joining the war. All three protagonists must live with the aftermath of the Vietnam War: the loss of their identity.
In Hedges' first chapter of the book titled, "The Myth of War," he talks about how the press often shows and romanticizes certain aspects of war. In war there is a mythic reality and a sensory reality. In sensory reality, we see events for what they are. In mythic reality, we see defeats as "signposts on the road to ultimate victory" (21), Chris Hedges brings up an intriguing point that the war we are most used to seeing and hearing about (mythic war )is a war completely different than the war the soldiers and journalists experience ( sensory war), a war that hides nothing. He states, "The myth of war is essential to justify the horrible sacrifices required in war, the destruction and death of innocents. It can be formed only by denying the reality of war, by turning the lies, the manipulation, the inhumanness of war into the heroic ideal" (26). Chris Hedges tries to get the point across that in war nothing is as it seems. Through his own experiences we are a...
For a second, the U.S. stood still. Looking up at the towers, one can only imagine the calm before the storm in the moment when thousands of pounds of steel went hurdling into its once smooth, glassy frame. People ran around screaming and rubble fell as the massive metal structure folded in on itself like an accordion. Wounded and limping from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, America carried on, not without anger and fear against a group of innocent Americans, Muslim Americans. Nietzsche’s error of imaginary cause is present in the treatment of Muslim Americans since 9/11 through prejudice in the media, disregard of Muslim civil liberties, racial profiling, violence, disrespect, and the lack of truthful public information about Islam. In this case, the imaginary cause against Muslims is terrorism. The wound has healed in the heart of the U.S. but the aching throb of terrorism continues to distress citizens every day.
Since the beginning of history, human society has centered around war. People throughout the ages have attempted to understand why wars occur, and the effect of war on the people who fight in them. Authors have utilized the power of language to attempt to grasp the struggle and the horror of war, and make it accessible to the public. For example, Hemingway’s “In Another Country” and Bierce’s “Coup de Grace” both provide a glimpse into different aspects of war. Although they both pertain to the idea of war, “In Another Country” focuses on the psychological trauma of war while “Coup de Grace” showcases the horror of war. This is visible in the theme, setting, and characters of both stories.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Romance, Joseph. Political Science 6 class lectures. Drew University, Summer 2004.
In his short story “Chickamauga,” Ambrose Bierce uses juxtaposition to contrast the glorified version of war with the realities of it. Bierce juxtaposes the child’s “imaginary foes” with a “more formidable enemy” otherwise known as “a rabbit”. Being the first time that the reader is exposed to a somewhat realistic version of war, Bierce uses the rabbit to show the lack of courage that the child has when facing an actual foe instead of the imaginary ones that he grew accustomed to. This is indicative of the fact that men crave and glorify war until they experience the realities of it. They are willing to fight for their glorious cause with great courage until they face the dangers and realities of war. In the child’s own imaginative form of
War has always been inevitable throughout the history of the world. The outcomes can differ greatly; it’s usually either a win or a loss. Wins or losses are just definite statements, but photos can represent these statements. Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square” shows an American sailor kissing a young woman right in the middle of Times Square, despite their surroundings. This iconic photo was taken after the U.S. declared victory over Japan in World War II, and was published in Life magazine a week later. John Gap’s (III) photo shows a young girl being consoled at a soldier’s funeral in a local high school gymnasium, later to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. This humble photo was taken during the war still raging in Afghanistan, showing that these types of losses happen quite often, as there are no iconic photos for Afghanistan compared to the photo shot after the win over World War II. Unlike its counterpart, this photo was published only at a local level on a website. Both these photos show a soldier being dismissed to go home from war. Although the two photos share that common factor, the scenario in which the soldier comes home differs greatly. Through these photos, Albert Eisenstaedt and John Gaps III help evoke pathos and give the observer a sense of the pride and the devastation felt of a home coming from war using photographic elements such as framing, focus, and angles.
War is a machine that extracts young men and women from reality. It twists their morals until they do not know what is right or wrong. This level of dehumanization and objectification is clearly argued in Ron Kovic’s Born on the Fourth of July: “He had never been anything but a thing to them, a thing to put a uniform on and train to kill, a young thing to run through the meat-grinder, a cheap small nothing thing to make mincemeat out of” (165). War is the “meat-grinder.” Soldiers only matter because they can kill. War tears apart the people fighting it. Coming out of the war Kovic does not know what to do. He is lost. This aimless feeling is similar to the experiences of Jake and the Gang in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. The protagonist, Jake Barnes, and his entourage wander the streets of Paris and Madrid with no purpose. After war, the real w...
World War I, an event which changed the geopolitical makeup as well as the attitudes of the world, consisted of people killing other people. In fact, every war is made up of people. In the day to day lives of civilians today, whether watching the news or reading a history book, the personal aspect of wars, particularly, is lost to many people. The notion that every soldier is a human being with likes, dislikes, talents, families, and favorite foods would certainly be acknowledged on a multiple-choice test, but practically it seems to be forgotten. Books like An American Soldier in World War I¸ however, help ground the massive geopolitical turmoil involved in a war like the Great War in the reality of humanity. The book’s goal is to look at