Poem

                Michael Lassell’s poem, “How to Watch Your Brother Die” displays a man who somewhat changes his feelings about homosexuality. The poem makes it evident that the man has never liked gay people and even cut his brother out of his life when his brother became gay. When the man realizes his brother is dying he sees that his sexuality does not define who he is; he sees the dying man as his brother, not just a gay man. I think that dying makes everything different, as shown in this poem. The poem states, “Realize the scar will be all that’s left of him.” The man tries to hold on to his brother with any string possible. He sees how he lost time with his brother through arbitrating him.

The man is able to forget how he judged his brother and focus on what is at hand. He realizes that love can be found between anyone, not just a man and woman. The poem does a good job explaining that the brother’s lover really loved him. The poem says, “Watch the tears well up in his eyes.” The poem showed that no one loved the gay brother as much as his lover did. The poem also says that same sex love can be stronger than the traditional type of love by stating, “It’s just like a wife, only the commitment is deeper because the odds against you are so much greater.” This quote makes a lot of sense. The adversity that gay people go through is unmatched and must really bring them closer because in many situations, like the one in the poem, everyone abandons you, even your family.

This poem relates to the homosexual boy in “Glee” named Kurt. I am not familiar with the show at all, but from the episode we saw in class it seems like Kurt’s relationship with his dad is a bit distanced due to his sexuality. His dad does seem to support him, but he tells his son not to do his duet with Sam because it will ruin Sam’s reputation. Just by saying this I feel like Kurt is being unfairly treated by his dad, and therefore their connection is not as good as it could be.

                I actually really liked this poem. I have trouble understanding a lot of poems, but this one kept a clear and distinct message and allowed the reader to comprehend everything.

Journal 6

The Humane Society is very smart in their techniques to get animals adopted. People (with souls) cannot bear seeing animals in pain. Pathos is obviously the main technique used in the Humane Society commercials. Many people cannot even watch the Humane Society commercials because they are so sad, but even the viewers who cannot watch the commercials get the point. The commercial stirs up feelings inside of us and makes people feel the need and duty to help animals. The commercial also uses logos. The commercial expresses how you only need to pay $19 a month in order to save lives. When given in that context, it entices the viewer to help out. It is a small price to pay in order to help for the helpless animals, which will otherwise be put to sleep. The music in the background of the commercial also brings about a very sad and depressing tone, grabbing the viewer’s interest. The commercial also uses a fair amount of ethos. The Humane Society intelligently put a celebrity in the commercial, providing credibility. Putting the celebrity in the commercial lets everyone know that anyone and everyone should help. Celebrities are not too good to help starving animals, so neither are you. Also just seeing the hurting animals provides credibility because you can see the animal’s pain first hand. The Humane Society commercial uses logic, credibility, and emotions to effectively persuade the audience.

Book vs Hypertext

                After doing the WR reading and reading the hypertext I think that I prefer reading straight from the book. I feel like reading books is something parents have their kids do to keep them off the computer and away from the TV, the hypertext combines technology with reading and takes away from what reading is all about. I felt the hypertext left out a lot of things that were in the book. Although the pictures in the hypertext were very cool and unique, I feel like they take away from your imagination. When reading about architecture I feel like we should create crazy exaggerated pictures in our mind, but with the hypertext you can’t really do that. For example, I read the WR version first and had pictures of what things looked like in my head, but then when I read the hypertext all of my imaginations got kind of shattered.

                The online text also makes it hard for me to stay focused. The links were distracting and I felt like I needed to read them all in order to get the full story. Reading the links made this assignment really drag itself out and made it a bit miserable because there was so much to read. Also, when doing any type of work online I have trouble staying focused on my task. I find myself going onto other sites like Facebook or Youtube constantly and my assignments take forever. I would definitely prefer just reading out of the book so I can stay on task and get my work done.

                I do not think that Miller and Broumas writing would be as effective in a hypertext version. They give a lot of description and I think that pictures and links about other things would really take away from their work.