Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Library of Babel” is an interesting narrative that utilizes genre conventions to achieve a rhetorical effect. By mixing elements of science fiction, fantasy, and philosophical fiction, Borges creates a story that challenges readers’ perceptions of reality, knowledge, and the universe.

Use of Genre Conventions

Science Fiction and Fantasy Elements: Borges creates a universe similar to science fiction that functions with an almost mathematical precision. The library reflects the idea of parallel universes or multiverses, which are examined in science fiction, with its seemingly endless collection of books. A sense of reality is added to an otherwise fantastical environment by the detailed descriptions of the library’s rules and organization. Readers are encouraged to think about the nature of infinity and the boundaries of human comprehension by this blending of the tangible and the abstract.

Metafiction: Metafiction gets its name by Borges’s frequent blurring of the lines between reality and fiction. Borges takes part in a type of literary that at the same time accepts and challenges conventional storytelling norms by crafting a tale that self-consciously reflects on the nature of books and libraries. This style raises questions about the nature of fiction itself in addition to giving the story another level of depth.

Rhetorical Effect

Encouraging Reflection on Interpretation: Borges’ narrative encourages us to reflect on the nature of interpretation and meaning-making. The librarians’ various theories about the library’s purpose and organization illustrate the human tendency to seek patterns and impose order on chaos. This serves as a commentary on the subjective nature of interpretation and the ways in which we construct meaning from their experiences and surroundings.

Since January, I feel like I have become a much better writer. I am more confident in my writing now. Before, my writing often lacked depth, but now it has more substance and clarity. I have learned to write in different styles which has improved my overall writing. For example, the narrative allows me to write more freely and casually because it is based on my own experiences while the research argument is more formal writing since I have to use facts and statistics to prove my points. I also found the peer reviews to be helpful because sharing my work and getting feedback from classmates allowed me to see my writing through different lenses. Overall, I really liked this class and I will definitely use what I learned in future writing classes. 

Taking the English 2100 course benefited me in many ways. I learned a little bit of everything in the class for example, I learned how to use different ways of writing, I also started to have a better understanding of how to use Discord, and learned how to create AI images by specific commands. In this class, I learned about the comet, which I consider a really interesting post-apocalyptic and racial story. This class helped me learn more about different writing styles and made me realize that I’m not alone and that Google is in fact making us a little stupid. In class, I learned how to actively annotate to better understand a paper. I appreciated how helpful and patient the professor was. In this class I learned to receive constructive criticism and to have a better use of transition words. I enjoyed this class and will be putting into practice the skills I learned in the future.

This is my second time taking eng 2100 and I was supposed to be on top of everything as for this semester nothing would get in the way like it has last semester. But unexpectedly health related stuff happened to me again this semester and I am in jeopardy once again. Overall this class was amazing from the time I’ve been here from the humor to the lessons. I like how easy going this was class was with the interesting lessons you taught . I feel like this class would’ve made me such a better writer because of how engaging the class is and how understanding the professor is. I usually dislike English classes but this class to me was fun and I enjoyed it.

I feel that I have definitely grown as a writer since January. I have learned many tricks and proper grammar or techniques that I may not have known in the past. The most useful tool to me has been hypothesis, which I already am using while writing research papers for other classes. I’m not a big annotator generally outside of occasionally highlighting, but after using hypothesis for this class I find myself doing it more which is very useful. Overall this has been a very engaging and useful class which was a fun surprise because going into it I just wanted the credit and to move on. But after a whole semester gone I can safely say I enjoyed the class and can definitely use the skills I have learned going forward.

Since January, I feel that I have grown as a writer and have learned numerous tools to help myself. Within the course, we have learned many ideas to help broaden my thought process when reviewing readings and completing papers. I personally enjoyed the use of hypothesis and annotating texts and allowing the class as a whole to annotate. I feel that the use of being able to read other classmates’ thought processes on a piece of the text provides me with another point of view about something and opens my mind to exploring a new idea. The use of annotating has provided me with entirely breaking down reading with something I find interesting or something I’m not unsure about. Before, I used to read through the text and not fully understand what I was reading; however, with the help of annotating, I have grasped reading articles better. It is something that I plan to continue moving on when reading a text. All in all, my time throughout the semester has been enjoyable and has allowed me to grow as a reader and writer, which I plan to use throughout my time.

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.

I particularly created my mind map showcasing different subjects that I would be interested in. That I would consider fun for my essay. I used Canva to put it together and like the collage from our last assignment, this was fun working on. I like putting this together because of the liberty I have to choose the format I want to use and the subjects I would want to research.

Using this mind map I separated each subject I would write about, and under it, I added some information as to where the course of my writing will go. I picked subjects that I feel that are gripping for the audience, and that would keep me interested all the way to finishing my essay. All the subject I am debating between are linked to social media and I wanted to do it this way since I believe that we are all attached to it somehow.

using this mind map helped me to put all of my ideas into the sheet so that I don’t forget any and that I can do deep research about each, and come to my conclusion. I am the kind of person who forgets most things if I don’t have them written down so this was a really helpful activity.