Point of View: Shooting an Elephant

Shooting an elephant by George Orwell is based on his experience as a police officer in Burma, India. He uses in his narrative essay a deal of techniques in order to transmit his main point. He uses persuasive techniques such as symbolism. As a colonial police officer he was a symbol to Burmese. He was able to maintain control because his power. The second technique that he utilizes is several metaphors. For instance:
“seemingly the lead actor”
“an absurd puppet”
“he wears a mask”
“a conjurer about to perform a trick”
“posing dummy”
He uses these metaphors in order to describe a people, represent the scene as a theater where cultural characteristics play a fundamental role. Finally, he handle with irony when he explain that he was forced to shot the elephant, but if anything went wrong and then he describes what was in his mind in an irony manner. In summary, I liked because the event happened is represented with persuasives arguments using convincing techniques.

Television Addiction

Marie Winn establishes a comparison between drug or alcohol and television habit. Winn draws this habit as a destructive addition. But, I think that is not the same consequences. Drugs and alcohol provide a biological destructive response. The negative effects of drugs do not compare to the negative effects of television. Physical harms are involved in drug and alcohol addiction. Although drugs addiction and television habit are dissatisfied by fall into the same habit and return and return, the painful consequences are not the same. And both activities offer an escape from the difficulties daily life. In other words, it can blot out the real world as a Winn describe in her essay. Definitively, nobody die because the excessive hours in from of TV. Certainly, television habit causes adverse results such as distorts time and social relationships. It represents a lose time that is a negative effect. But, the physical side effects are not the same in drug addiction and television habit. My point of view is that the key of television habit is the negative impact caused because the current content television. It is disastrous and harmful. This main point is not addressed in her essay. I think it is a strong argument and appropriate reason to convince people that television habit must be harmful and destructive addition.

Observations: Two views of the Mississippi

This essay provides a magic description about the great river. He recalls a memory about his reflections of a beautiful sunset, the fading sunlight, and the delicate waves of the water. He feels that he had made a valuable acquisition. But, at the same time he had lost the grace, the beauty, and the poetry. He could not longer appreciate the beauty of the river when he becomes a riverboat pilot. After that, he only could see the dangers of the different details. Through this new experience, he learned several signs of the river that would be vital for the safety of his steamboat. I believe that it is a real situation that happens in every situation. People associate magical qualities for the first impression to something unknown. Then, all magic qualities could or could not be true.

Desmond Morris and Visual Sings

Desmond Morris describes three territorial levels: tribal, family, and personal. Each level is associated with different symbols that give us an idea of security. First, on the tribal level that consists in nations, clubs, unions, gangs, and associations. The sings are territorial boundaries-lines such as forts, posts, and great walls. Also, can be emblems such as flags, military uniforms, anthems. Morris also points that each of modern pseudo tribes sets its home base where it exists a powerful feeling of security and importance. Second, the main symbol in the family territory is the bedroom. It is our most territorially secure. A garden fence or a wall is a mark of boundary lines. Design, colors, wall paper create the characteristics that identify specific family home. Third, personal space is the space surrounding a person. The author states if our personal space is trespassed, we feel threatened. We use personal markers to maintain a distance that feels comfortable to us. Morris illustrates his essay with excellent examples.