Summary Of Night Falls And Graffiti Mecca Is Whited Out

In an article written by Cara Buckley entitled “Night Falls, and a Graffiti Mecca Is Whited Out”, she emphasizes clearly the disappointment of majority of people after the 5Pointz building in Queens has been whitewashed as she mentioned in her article “Erasing the work of hundreds and seemingly putting the final nail in the long battle between the building's owners, who plan to erect luxury apartments, and the artists who fought to save it”. She also argues a very common conception to attract people attention in the beginning of the article such as believing graffiti as an act of vandalism. However, most people believe that the conception is not applicable to the 5Pointz Building in Queens due to the uniqueness of its identity that the building

represent a distinctive community from others. The author basically aims to emphasize towards people who did not appreciate the value of art at the 5Pointz, especially those who contributed in favor of whitewashing the building.

While the author actually did a great job in conveying her message by providing many statements from different people to prove their disappointment and drawing their emotional appeals in the article when the building has been whitewashed, the author did not emphasize her credibility in writing an article and thus making her argument become less convincing.

Firstly, it is obvious that the author has a very good sense of logos when writing an article as she composed her writing with countless number of statements from public to prove her argument. In this article, she interviewed more than five people, varied from the street art artists to the owner of the building, to convince the society that most people felt broken-hearted as her when the 5Pointz has been whitewashed. The statements that

she took from the people were ideally used to show their disappointment towards the action taken. For example, the author use the words expressed by Mr. Von Rittern that “I don't understand. How can you erase 12 years of history? It's cruel.”, which audibly portray his disappointment. Based on Von’s statement, it clearly sounds his disappointment because he questioned the action taken by an authority destroying many people hard works after the building has been there for such a long time. The question came out because he thinks about the efforts that the irresponsible authority cannot repay to each people who have put their hard efforts to beautify the building. Besides that, the words taken from Eric Felisbret also clearly portrays his disappointment and pain. He states that “the fact that they destroyed the art before they razed the building, it's a really big slap in the face”. This proves that he was really disappointed and hurt by the authority action by illustrating his feeling through a metaphor of “a really big slap in the face”. The metaphor given was among the best medium that can represent someone’s feeling because people can easily imagine how it feels to be slap in the face and get a clear picture to be in the particular situation. Thus, I can conclude that the author did a very great job in proving her argument.
Next, from the title of the article we know that the author is trying to hint something really heart-breaking has happen. The phrase of “a Graffiti Mecca Is Whited Out” indicates that a big piece of valuable art has been destroyed and thus, makes people feel downhearted with the incident. Besides that, the statements that she chose from most people certainly portray the society’s emotion towards the action taken. “This is not just about graffiti--it's about the unity of people who met here from all over the world,” words taken from Just, a street artist who contributed in drawing graffiti at 5Pointz, really draw people emotion by feeling sympathy towards the incident that has happen. From the words, people will start to think that how could the authority do that to more than 1500 people who have drawn on the building and lead the reader to feel sympathy towards them. The author has really good sense in choosing the best statements that can draw people emotion especially sympathy when most of the statements she chose sound quite sorrowful. Another example that can prove her ability is based on her story of Mr. Von Rittern, who frequently bring many tourists from Europeans to enjoy the arts at 5Pointz. She told that Mr. Von Rittern cried “What?! What did they do?!” as he rush out of a tour bus when he saw the building has been whitewashed. This story made people feel more sympathy to him as one of the place that help him to gain his income has been destroyed. Hence, this clearly proves that Cara is really capable in drawing people emotion in her writing.
While the author managed to provide epitomes of logos and pathos, there still something crucial missing from her article, which is the ethos that signifies her credibility as a professional writer.

Without a good ethos implied in an article, reader will easily feel doubtful on the statement she made. According to the New York Times’s website, it states that Cara is actually a very highly experience person in the newspaper company since she has been working before the Iraq War for Times’s Baghdad. Her expertise can be proven from the appealing hook that she managed to include at the beginning of the “Night Falls, and a Graffiti Mecca Is Whited Out” article in order to attract people attention to read it until the end. Moreover, she also has earned her master from a well-known university, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, which shows she an expert in journalism field (New York Time, 2014). However, this article written by her did not really shows her credibility since she only provides the reader with numerous of evidences, but without deeper explanations explanation on each of the evidence that she provides. For instance, the writer quoted from Marie Cecile Flaguel, a representative from a group that has contributed to the arts in 5Pointz, that “This is the biggest rag and disrespect in the history of graffiti" without explaining what do the words means. This pivotal information or explanation of her quotation should not be simply omitted by

the author since it affects a person comprehension in reading even though a simple topic especially a person who did not really follow about street art issues. As a writer, he or she must know how to differentiate crucial information and insignificant information to prevent reader from getting inadequate understanding from reading the article. Moreover, the words by the owner of the building, Mr. Wolkoff, also seems to vague without her explanation. She quoted Mr. Wolkoff ‘s words, “I am telling you, I did not like what they did--I loved what they did”, without providing any clue what do the words means. The author supposes to define the words that she quoted and gave her opinions on how the quotation works. Without the elements, it makes the article become much more difficult to be understand especially to the readers who are not exposed to higher reading level. Consequently, this evidently shows her weakness in writing that demolish her credibility as a professional writer.
In a nutshell, the author has included adequate elements of logos and pathos in her article to emphasize her idea clearly, but her writing styles did not show her credibility as a white-collar newspapers writer due to her absence of further explanation in each quotation she made. The article entitled “Night Falls, and a Graffiti Mecca Is Whited Out” written by Cara has provided with sufficient evidences to point the fact that people are really disappointed with the action of whitewashing the building. Besides that, the author also included many sentimental statements from variety people to draw the society sympathy towards the incident that has happen. As a suggestion, the author can improve her writing to a better standard by interviewing other people who view street art as an act of vandalism in order to ask their opinion about action of whitewashing the 5Pointz. If she did interview the person who have the opposite view on street art, that might make her argument looks less bias and more comprehensive in variety perspective since there might be a person who did not know how to appreciate the street art but did not agree with the action of whitewashing the building.