At the beginning of the 1918 flu epidemic, many people were uncertain about the causes, effects, and circumstances that influenza revolved around. People were scared, and research on the sickness was nearly impossible due to the fear of the unknown. When people saw the frightening numbers of deaths, which finalized at around 21 million in four months, which took place around the entire world, no one would want to face the deadly virus themselves. John M. Berry, an author and historian, published the book The Great Influenza in 2004 to highlight the scientists of this time and the research they withheld. Barry uses rhetorical devices, including anaphora, allusion, and analogy in his book to emphasize the greatness behind scientists and their …show more content…
Like the people who were quarantined in fear due to the fear of the effects of influenza, scientists were also faced with the fear head-first, with no knowledge of the subject. Barry exclaims that having uncertainty will not achieve any of their goals, and to be seen as something greater than just a scientist. They had to be certain about their work. His word choice in this paragraph holds power, meaning, and assertiveness that teaches the reader about what many of the scientists who studied influenza in this period faced. The uncertainty of the virus was the main restraint for scientists, and for one to take the chance is what sets them apart from the ordinary. Likewise, Barry alludes to the findings of Albert Einstein, one of the most well-known physicists in world history in the late 1800s. While he may have been best recognized for his theories behind energy and mass, Barry studies that "Einstein refused to accept his theory until his predictions were tested, one must seek out such findings" which set him apart from others, allowing him not to doubt himself when things go …show more content…
In this situation, alluding to Einstein and his greatest studies allows for clarity, and honesty in the test of his ideas. Without the evidence that even the most well-known scientists may have struggled with, there is no evidence to back up the reasoning behind his claim. While many scientists may be searching to become famous, to become a well-known historian like Einstein, Barry knows they have to be honest with themselves and their work first before reaching the next step in their journey. In comparison to his earlier ideas, Barry recognizes the difficulty of continuing one's journey with uncertainty by using an analogy to recognize the greatness behind a single mistake in a scientist's work. All scientists "probe in a disciplined way." A single step can take them through the looking glass into a world that seems entirely different, and if they are at least partly correct their probing acts like a crystal to precipitate an order out of chaos, to create form, structure, and direction. A single step can also take one off a
Contemporary writer, John M Barry, in his passage from Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, seeks to communicate the extraordinarily perplexing river that has a life of it’s own. Barry illustrates the incomprehensibility and lifelikeness of the Mississippi, and how that makes it so alluring, by establishing it as far superior to all other rivers.
It became apparent in 1918 during a flu epidemic that certain traits were lacking in the scientific community necessary to research for a cure. In a passage from The Great Influenza, John M. Barry implements exemplification, diction, and didactic figurative language in order to depict the works of a scientist and the common obstacles encountered. Barry also characterizes scientists as those who possess the traits needed to accomplish their goals.
Luckovich’s editorial cartoon on H1N1 was published in October of 2009 and the cartoon is in Luckovich’s classic scribble sketch style. His cartoon alludes to H1N1 and the vaccine scares that caused avoidable sickness and death. Luckovich was in favor of vaccinations and he shows in his editorial why they are important. He directed his editorial cartoon specifically towards parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids due to rumors or lifestyle choices. His cartoon’s overall point is if you don’t vaccinate your children they will get sick and die from a preventable disease. The editorial was published after a major outbreak of a devastating strain of H1N1 that killed and hospitalized many, it spread quickly because of people who refused to vaccinate
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred during the midst of World War I, and it would claim more lives than the war itself. The disease erupted suddenly without a forewarning and spread rapidly across the globe. It seemed as though all of humanity had fallen under the mercy of this deadly illness. Influenza had very clear symptoms as described by William Collier in his letter to The Lancet. After a patient seizes their temperature can run up to 105° or more while their pulse averages at about 90 beats per minute. The high temperature and low pulse are frequently combined with epistaxis (nosebleed) and cyanosis (blueness of the skin). The epistaxis is caused by the high temperature and the cyanosis is caused by a lack of oxygen due to the decreased pulse (Kent 34). The author of Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919, Susan Kinglsey Kent, provides a brief history of the pandemic and documents from the time period. Many of the included documents show how unprepared and unorganized governments attempted to contain and control a disease they had never experienced, and how the expectations of the governments changed as a result of their successes and failures.
Scientists are constantly forced to test their work and beliefs. Thus they need the ability to embrace the uncertainty that science is based on. This is a point John M. Barry uses throughout the passage to characterize scientific research, and by using rhetorical devices such as, comparison, specific diction, and contrast he is able show the way he views and characterizes scientific research.
Albert Einstein declared, “The most important thing is to never stop questioning.” Questions help extend our knowledge by opening our minds to change and new possibilities. The excerpt talks about the mindset that scientists need to become successful and the process they go through to make new discoveries. In The Great Influenza, John M. Barry educates citizens of the everyday challenges that scientists face through utilizing rhetorical questions, cause and effect, and contrast.
Science is a study that can be viewed and interpreted in various ways. Some believe science to be based on facts and specific results, while others believe it to be based on creativity and spontaneity. In his account of the 1918 flu epidemic, The Great Influenza, John M. Barry characterizes scientific research as work that requires creativity, spontaneity, and intelligence through his use of rhetorical devices such as allusions, metaphors, and rhetorical questions.
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.
...vercome, there is more of a chance to capture such great discoveries. People need to realize that if they never take the time to stop and look around, appreciate the small things in life, they might miss out on important details and or moments that the world has to offer. Scientist didn’t obtain their greatest discoveries by looking at the world with a closed mind. During the months of September through Novemeber, the leaves start to fall off the trees. It is obvious its fall, but what else is occurring? Gravity. Albert Einstein discovered gravity by watching and ordinary object fall. At that moment he became a scientific unscrupulous observer.
Polkinghorne asserts that “scientists are motivated by the desire understand what is happening in the world.”(551, Polkinghorne). As a physicist himself, Polkinghorne understands the desire to understand the world, even shifting careers to become a priest to better his understanding. Science asks how things happen, and does not attempt to answer every question. Questions asking why go ignored, as if they are not necessary to fully understand the world and the life that lives here. Science alone
“The Influenza Pandemic of 1918.” Billings, Molly. Stanford University Virology. June 1, 1997. retrieved from http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/
The subject of death is one that many have trouble talking about, but Virginia Woolf provides her ideas in her narration The Death of the Moth. The moth is used as a metaphor to depict the constant battle between life and death, as well as Woolf’s struggle with chronic depression. Her use of pathos and personification of the moth helps readers develop an emotional connection and twists them to feel a certain way. Her intentional use of often awkward punctuation forces readers to take a step back and think about what they just read. Overall, Woolf uses these techniques to give her opinion on existence in general, and reminds readers that death is a part of life.
One of the most virulent strains of influenza in history ravaged the world and decimated the populations around the world. Present during World War I, the 1918 strain of pandemic influenza found many opportunities to spread through the war. At the time, science wasn’t advanced enough to study the virus, much less find a cure; medical personnel were helpless when it came to fighting the disease, and so the flu went on to infect millions and kill at a rate 25 times higher than the standard.
Kolata, Gina. Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Cause It. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. Print.
Informative Speech Scientists Einstein and Heisenberg A. Introduction My Speech is about the scientists who had the main influence on our current time and have shaped our contemporary view of the world (Also called in Theology the "Zeitgeist"). I have chosen two of them who are in many ways just opposites. One is extremely famous and the other is almost unknown, except to specialists. The most famous is, of course, Albert Einstein.