Speeches

The speeches today varied greatly from person to person, but each one had its own aspects, which lent itself to the argument the person was making. In Katie Griffin’s speech, her use of another person’s personal story helped to draw the audience in by creating an emotional connection to the charity. Other speeches, such as the one done by Josh Matthew’s, helped to pull the audience in by expressing many shocking statistics that were meant to win over the audience with shock value. Of both these kinds of speeches, I found the personal stories to be much more influential because of the deep emotional connection it created, rather than the credibility offered by simple statistics. One of the more memorable speeches was done by Steve Dobbs, who helped support his charity by questioning the definition of success and saying that his charity helped fulfill a different version of happiness and success. Perhaps Breanna Elzer, who not only hooked the audience with an initial personal story from a different person, but also “rehooked” the audience by telling her own person story, did the best speech. All speeches, however, had their own pros and cons.

Willy Loman and Individual Opportunity

Throughout the book, Willy Loman constantly elaborates upon his belief that hard work and things such as a “smile and a shoeshine” can help lead to much needed success. He believes in the idea that hard work will lead to success and that his sons have not reached success because they have not worked hard enough. This brings up the interesting point regarding his own lack of success, but Willy does not concern himself with that fact because his delusions lead him to believe he is still a successful salesman. The author of the piece uses Willy and his sons to demonstrate his belief that equal individual opportunity does not truly exist. Biff serves as a demonstration of that, because he has constantly worked hard holding many jobs but has never found what he truly wanted to be and has not earned a substantial amount of money. Through the book, the author carefully uses the characters naïve beliefs in individual opportunity to mock its very existence.

Cora Tucker vs. Willy Loman

Cora Tucker was a woman who constantly valued her community and how others around her were treated. She did not care much for the regular version of the materialistic American Dream and instead focused on a view that, if she can help others and change the world in some small way, then she was successful. She never reached any real materialistic success and lived in a small house by the railroad tracks that shook when the train went by but was still a very successful person. This goes directly against the beliefs of Willy Loman, who believes staunchly in the materialistic American Dream and thinks that the American Dream can be achieved with a "smile and a shoeshine." However, Willy lives in a delusional world and ignores his life as it crumbles around him. The end result is his suicide and he ends his life without achieving materialistic or spiritual/personal success.

Dress for Success

My choice for the persuasive speech we must prepare for AP Literature is Dress for Success. Dress for Success is a non-profit organization that is designed entirely to help people further their own life goals. The work this organization does is invaluable because it allows women to wear more presentable clothes while being interviewed, and many employers look upon the dress of their employees when deciding who to hire and who to not hire. As stated before, Dress for Success is a non-profit organization that could use more help in the way of donations, either of proper suits for interviews or money to buy said suits. The work they do help women to lead productive lives in the work environment and become independent and supportive of themselves and their families.

Cora Tucker

Core Tucker was an extraordinary women who did great things in her time. Though she was never a wealthy person by any means, which would make her unsuccessful by Horatio Algier’s definition, she was still a very virtuous person who fought for what she thought was right. This kind of determination and attitude that she could fix what was wrong led to her to be a very successful person, in a different way. Her outspoken attitude lent itself to the reform of politics in her area and put her in the spotlight, which often left her open to criticism. Through her work, many changes were wrought, including changing the racist demeanor of her local area by getting changes forced upon the area that required the hiring of African Americans. Successes such as this is what made Cora Tucker the great and successful person she was.

Self Reliance

Emerson's version of success is not measured in monetary gains or the power you have over others but rather how little power others have over you. He believed that to be truly successful you would have to shake the influence of others and learn to think for yourself so that you could not be controlled. Those that think for themselves instead of conforming should be informed and we should learn to pay more attention to what the voice inside of us says. I believe that this could be one measure of what success is, but should not be the only measure. It is rather easy for Emerson to just say that success is thinking for yourself, it is another to actually shake the influence of others. Friends, family and peers will almost always have an influence in your life, and being able to fully shake that and do what you believe is right would be incredibly hard, but if you believe in what Emerson says, that is what you must do to be truly successful.

Class in America Blog

While the essay does not say that the wealthy are exploiting the poor that is the general idea I got from the essay. The idea that the wealthy just keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, and they do this because the rich use the poor for cheap layer and the poor cannot avoid this because they are trapped within their class. Though the rich are not expressly exploiting the poor, they are inadvertently doing so by not raising wages of their workers and continually passing their money down an inheritance line, where their kids will have better opportunities for success and will thus stay in the rich class, whereas the poor kids will not have the same opportunities. This data is fairly one sided and shows the increasing differences within the classes in the United States. It states the ever increasing affluence of the wealthy and shows the great advantages they have over the poor while highlighting all the disadvantages that the poor have. Though it is an unpleasant situation and one that could not be easily rectified, it is a current problem within our nation.

Harlon L. Dalton vs. Stephen Cruz

After reading the two passages of reading that were assigned to be read by Tuesday, October 6, and reading the story by Horatio Algier, clear differences were illustrated between the beliefs of Cruz, Algier and Dalton. It was made clear that Algier believed deeply in the American Dream and believed that good traits such as dedication, hard work and compassion for your fellow man would lead to achieving the America Dream. Many, however, would disagree with him, including Cruz, who at first believed in the American Dream and thought that he was succeeding due to his abilities but soon realized that many of his successes were due to his status as a minority. Dalton also disagreed with Algier, saying that the American Dream could not be realized most of the time due to three main reasons. The first was that Algier's stories went off the assumption that everyone was judged solely on their own merits. The second was the illusion in Algier's stories that everyone has the same opportunity to develope those merits, and the third was another assumption that "ultimately, merit will out (p. 279)." He believes that the illusion of the American Dream is harmful to society, which directly goes against Algiers beliefs. These three different opinions offer varying view points on the American Dream and its role in society.

Horatio Algier- Ragged Dick

Within the story, “Ragged Dick,” Horatio Algier constantly stresses the fact that hard work, dedication and honesty will lead to a better life. This is not explicitly stated, however, which makes this an implicit argument. In the story, a young hard working man had begun planning out his future and had set realistic goals about how much he could make, but a turn of fortune, in which he rescued a young child from drowning, made him much more successful. His drive to rescue the child and later modesty about the event led to the father offering him a high paying job in a counting room. The description of the characters modesty, hard work attitude and kindness followed by his success leads to the idea that the American Dream truly does exist and that those who work hard and have traits such as Dicks can be successful. These kinds of stories are truly why Horatio Algier is known for his “Rags to Riches” stories.