TOW #10 The Death of the Moth by Virginia Woolf

      Virginia Woolf, a English writer along with one of the foremost modernist of the twentieth century, composes a symbolic memoir known as "The Death of the Moth" where she ultimately compares life and death. In Virginia Woolf's narration she writes about the active journey in nature of a moth, where the readers learn as the story progresses that she is a parallel with the moth. Through the character of the moth displays the simplicity of the moth, and that acceptance is inevitable when it comes to death. At the time the essay was written Woolf was unfortunately battling a mental illness that made her reflect on her life in a negative way. Woolf reveals her lack of self confidence as she considers the "frail" moth as "pathetic" in life and foreshadows the impending doom that the moth will fate. Woolf creates a moving, yet hopeless excerpt to display the idea that, in her eyes, death is a fight that you cannot win. Woolf utilizes rhetorical devices such as a desperate tone, metaphors, and diction to convey the feeling of pity. Although the moth is at it's end of life, Woolf's uses words like "superb", and "succeed" to illustrate that effort that was made by the moth despite its lack of hope. Overall, in this piece, the character of the moth is a tangible representation of Woolf’s mental illnesses (she battled bipolar disorder and depression) as she struggles and doesnt know how to handle it. 

TOW #9- How to Hook Up Your Home Theather by Wilbert Plijnaar

    The very famous Walt Disney Company is a leading diversified international family entertainment enterprise, known for many classic movies including Mulan, Cinderella, Bambi and many more that we all know and laugh that simply makes us burst into tears out of laughter. Disney captures the amazing and magical  stories behind fairy-tales, folklores, and  fables to turn them into whimsical, humorous movies that light up your home.
     On top of creating dozens of Disney classics, they also produce wonderfully comical short films that give their audience a greater purpose in just five minutes. Wilbert Plijnaar, an employee at Disney and director of "How To Hook Up Your Home Theater" featuring the popular cartoon character of Goofy. Plijnaar in a span of four minutes ridicules the American obsession with new technology and makes mockery of the complexity of setting it up. Through this short film the main character, Goofy, feels the urgency to get a new television set in which he does but struggles in setting it up. The unknown narrator takes the viewers step by step of the process of getting a television: going to the "high tech wonderland", aka the store ; waiting several days impatiently for this  TV to come; finally dealing with the inevitable fury and rage that comes with all instructions. Now, from the intended audience perspective, children, this short is simply a comical clip of Goofy simply being...goofy, when in reality Plijnaar presents the readers with an extreme amounts of sarcastic tone, humor, and satire. The narrator states in his overly happy saracastic voice, "A convenient trip to the neighborhood electronic boutique will fulfill all the average consumers needs" as many are aware that most trips are NOT convenient. With his sarcastic tone his makes mockery of the unhealthy need that people have for the newest products, as it is not a necessity to have the newest technology, like society makes it be.

    Plijnaar seizes the materialistic ways, when it comes to technology at least, of people in hopes to get people to notice the addiction. Almost all of us have wanted that "new" product. Plijnaar manages to take a humorist approach on letting his audience know that technology shouldn't control as much as it does.

IRB Intro #2- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

    For my new IRB I decided to read Stiff: The Curious Live of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, a well-known humorist. Now, typically I do not take too much interest in the science field, partially because I cannot mentally wrap my head around certain concepts, and I don't know how I feel about deceased bodies. That being said, from what I have read, this book seems to take what could of been a disgusting topic/too informative into a humorous approach on human cadavers that informs the readers about the scientific contributions they made. Another reason why I chose the book was because of the titles for each chapter, right off the bat I noticed they were clever and funny, automatically pulling anyone in. Overall, I am incredibly excited to read more of this book!

Tow #8- The Tipping Point (Part Two) by Malcom Gladwell

     Malcolm Gladwell, also a staff writer for The New Yorker, cleverly illustrates to readers what the meaning of the tipping point theory: a magical phenomenon when a trend spreads like wildfire. In the second half of the fascinating book he explains the power of context. The power of context explores the impact of peer influence and community influence, one of the main reasons a product becomes popular. He tells his audience exactly what makes something popular and considered a fad. As he takes his readers through the process he includes subtle hints of humor and sarcasm to make the readers crack a smile. He includes a substantial amount of evidence including presenting his readers with philosophies, case studies, and examples in which an idea or trend faces the tipping point. This allows the readers to better comprehend his theory. Throughout he writes about the multiple causation to make something "trendy"; that its not just society that either builds something up or breaks it down. The book was completely fascinating and allowed a new perspective to be gained from the readers. The Tipping Point is a lively and engaging study of fads that you will not be able to take your eyes off of.