In the short story The Coment by W.E.B DuBois, there are many rhetorical devices used to show the racism still present in America. The three main rhetorical devices used by Du Bois were speculative fiction, post-apocalyptic storytelling, and allegory. Speculative fiction is present by using an different reality where a comet struck only New York which makes Jim, our main character, and Julia, a white woman Jim encounters later in the story. By introducing this altered reality, W.E.B DuBois was able to explore how social prejudice would impact people without worrying about a realistic setting. With Post-Apocalyptic Storytelling, DuBois showed how people can come together after a crisis, despite their being a difference in skin color. The use of allegory comes into play by showing the potential unity people can achieve if they were to put their skin color aside. DuBois shows how Jim and Julia navigated the wreckage together without thinking about skin color at the time and managed to later on find other survivors from a different state. Once other white people were found, Julia acts as if Jim did not exist and ignored him completely. This part of the story shows that skin color is the only thing holding society back from equality.
Author: Dylan Budhram
Collage Activity
I enjoyed making the collage, even though I was having trouble with the website originally. I like the idea of collages as it allows you to express yourself and your ideas in ways that would be difficult with words. The use of pictures help your audience see what image you are trying to create and can really feel the emotion you are trying to get across. I liked how there were already gifs and images to use that would help structure my layout for my collage and how it was easy to copy and paste an image onto the collage. My only problem with the collage is that it kept shrinking down my work and some images simply would not work on the collage. If I were to expand on this collage, I would add a border around the edge of the collage and would upload some images that I took myself to show my connection to my topic.
Navigating the “mobile surround”
New York City is known to be one of the “fastest” cities ever. Everyone has somewhere to be, things to do, and people to meet and they dont have time to waste for smaller things. Being a full-time student and a part-time employee, time is something I wish I had more of. Because of this, I need to already have a plan on where im trying to go and what I need to get done as soon as I get there. When it comes to writing, I need to have access to the internet and sometimes a power outlet if I need to charge my laptop. The best place for me, and im pretty sure for any other Baruch student, is the Baruch library. The library offers internet for students, outlets, even though half of them don’t seem to work. and its quiet most of the time. However, we aren’t allowed to bring outside food or drinks so if I’m on an empty stomach, I would reconsider going here. My secound go-to would be the McDonalds on 23rd street. It does get packed pretty often and can sometimes be noisy, but when its not, it is one of the best places for me to get my writing assignments, or anything else for school. They have a decently stable and fast internet connection, and they offer food and drinks, mainly coffee. They also have outlets in the back of the second floor that anyone can use. If im low on time and its getting late, obviously I would go to my home and work there. I don’t have a desk in my room thats big enough to support having multiple books on it, so I would do most of my work in the dinning room instead. Time isn’t a thing that any of us have to spare, so we have to use it to the best of our abilities.
Piece by Piece
James Paul Gee’s Learning principle 23 “Subset Principle” discusses beginning to learn about something minuscule in a broad topic and then working your way up from there. This is how I learn best in almost everything ive challenged myself with. When I tried to teach myself python, I was overwhelmed with how many subtopics there were and did not know where to start. Instead of trfrying to learn everything at its basic level, I decied to crack down on one topic and fully master it before moving on. I learned about the math fundementals in python, how to formulate equations, casting values to different strings, and utilizing user input when creating a calculator. Once I was able to look at a python related math prompt and immediately come up with ways to tackle, I began to focus on the other aspects of the language. Also, when I started cooking my own meals, since food in the city would cost more than my tuition, I had no idea where to start as I never cooked on my own before and the most I ever did was instant ramen or microwaving canned food. I had to teach myself almost everything since my parents are working for most of the day and dont have much time to guide me, but when they could, I tried to memorize everything and replicate it alongside them. The first thing I learned was the mechanical aspect of cooking. I started off by learning the professional way to use a knife and what knife is for what. I always used the same kitchen knife for everything, so learning that each knife had its own use was quite a shock. After I “sharpened” my knife skills and was comfortable with operating in a kitchen, I started learning all the fundamentals of cooking, like sauteing vegetables or frying stuff without my arm. I spent almost all summer and a bit of the fall semester learning how to cook not only for myself, but for my family, and have finally gotten to a point where I can cook family meals on my own. I was very overwhelmed at first, but by picking away at the different main aspects of cooking, I was able to break it down to a comfortable level and work at my own pace, even if it took me a couple months.
