Friday, January 28, 2011
Baldwin vs. Thomas...
James Baldwin and Michael Thomas both write, in the essays you've been assigned to read, of a death. They orient their personal narratives about some kind of spiritual growth around this premise or prompt. However, the way in which they use the theme of death, the manner in which they wage some kind of argument based on the way it impacted them, and the styles they use to articulate this argument are subtly different. How would you describe the rhetorical stance and style of each author based on "Notes from a Native Son" and "I was not Michael Jackson"? 300 words.
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In James Baldwin’s essay "Notes from a Native son" he uses a different rhetorical style than Michael Thomas in "I was not Michael Jackson". Baldwin’s recount of his experience with his Father’s death provides and includes his experiences with segregation ant the civil rights movement. Baldwin explains his father’s experience with slavery and the hatred instill in him due to the inequalities he experienced. He approaches the story of death in an emotional manner that pulls his audience to connect with death not only on its definition. Baldwin cleverly ties the concept of his father’s death with that of the death of his internal hatred against slavery. While reading the story, Baldwin’s message isn’t easily conceivable. First he relates his father’s sickness as the sickness of the hatred within him against all whites the situation of segregation, and he cleverly links his father’s death with this hatred. He uses this to reveal his message that the hatred living amongst us all has the power to kill and destroy us. I found his rhetorical skill very interesting and clever. While Baldwin’s style uses a serious, heart wrenching situation of slavery and hatred to explain his point while Michael Thomas uses a famous, legendary, and very popularized individual and the musical realm to address and expose his points. Thomas uses an approach that relates to a pop and musical audience by explaining his experience with Michael Jackson’s music in detail. His approach is not as serious as Baldwin’s. He explains MJ’s death as a tragic loss that was prompted and caused by intense scrutiny from his fans, and relates it to his personal experience of the loss of his brother. The similarities between his brother and MJ thread from their childhood to their age of loss. His brother lost his freedom at the expense of the one person he cared most about.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between Baldwin and Thomas' work is the way they went about their writing. Baldwin's writing is more intnse and hard. He is more aggressive in his writing. In this particular story he talks about his father's death but also about himself and the things he had to go through to better understand his father and why he was the way he was.Also why his father had so much hate for the people that he did. He also came to the conclusion that he had to let go of the hatred that he had for other people because it was only hurting himself at the end. Thomas comes across as more pleasent. He isn't as aggressive. In his writing he talks about how Michael Jackson's death made him realize that his brother deserved more of his love and gratitude than he was actually recieving. Both authors learned something at the end of their essay. It was something for the good that they learned. They both learned about the hate that they had. They focused on this hat and they realized that it had to end. Their writings were extremely different but yet they were the same.
ReplyDeleteJames Baldwin and Michael Thomas both have very effective writing styles to ensure the reader the satisfaction of connecting to the plot and adding a life changing meaning to their works.
ReplyDeleteJames Baldwin writes beautifully in "Notes From a Native Son" by giving the reader various ways to connect to the words. Baldwin writes about his father's illness and writes about his bitterness about segregation and racism by implementing the pathos writing style excellent. He uses historical references to make his arguments stronger.
Michael Thomas' writing style in "I Was Not Michael Jackson" is significantly different than Baldwin's. He utilizes pop culture to and light-hearted childhood memories to influence his readers to have sympathy for his relationship with his brother.
Both writers use pathos to connect to their readers by using personal memories but both do it in a very different manner. Baldwin is more serious and Thomas has a more light-hearted way of writing.
Both authors use great rhetorical style to get their points across to their audiences. James Baldwin's style of writing felt more educated and sophisticated (this could just be because it is an older more traditional style of writing). Michael Thomas uses a more current, relatable style of writing that is more drawing to his audiences.
ReplyDeleteBaldwin also uses a lot of logos to prove his points. Yes, there is a lot of pathos to make his essay emotional and have effect on his audience but more than anything, I felt myself reading about facts. It was a good essay but because of all the logos at some points his essay was rather boring. All the talk of New Orleans and how blacks were not equal was repeated too much; he only had to say what he needed to say once or twice in order for his audience to understand his point.
Aside from too much logos, his use of ethos and pathos were great! There was not very much ethos in the essay but what there was was incredible. His paper is not on the quantity of how long it is but more the quality of his writing and the meaning behind it. As a reader, I could tell that it was difficult for him to write about the experience and that it really came from the heart (that or he's just a really persuasive writer).
Thomas' work was my favorite out of the two readings, mostly because I can relate to his subject. I remember the day that Michael Jackson died, I listened to his music as a little girl, I listened to Jackson 5 (and still do) and knew where the writer was coming from.
Although the underlying theme of his paper was death, he had a way of making his paper fun to read. It was not a sad or depressing paper, like Baldwin's. He used a lot of ethos and some pathos but not very much logos, which I liked a lot!
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ReplyDeleteJames Baldwin and Michael Thomas both have writing that just a voice to them that stands out to their writers. In both essay it has effective ways of keeping you interested in what they have to say. They both have a way of sharing what they want to say by going through events in their life and sharing what had been in the past. Everything that they share just opened my eyes. Both used a way of writing that had to do with death and the writing kept the readings interesting.
ReplyDeleteBaldwin and Thomas seemed to have things held in against others. They held whatever they felt inside and was just bundling it all up. It came down that both had things they needed to share as if it were anger and frustration they were holding in. Thomas had a confusing start to me but as I kept reading I understood what he was getting through an event that happened, a death that opened his eyes to what he had been feeling and regret he was feeling the way his words flowed all together in the sense that it went from a death to childhood memories to the anger he had toward his brother.
Baldwin on the other hand had childhood memories and the death of his father that just opened his eyes to what he had been feeling. He seemed to have anger held up inside that he just had to let out after his father had been gone. You never know what you have had or were holding in until that something or someone is taken from you and you just so happen to open up to all the events that has happened in your life and childhood.
Things you share with your childhood with your family and friends seem to make you realize what you really felt for that person or for what memories you had to songs or movies or different events that has happened. No one can make things come out only you can.
-Jay C
James Baldwin’s “Notes Form a Native Son” and Michael Thomas’ “I Was Not Michael Jackson” these two authors wrote using death as a theme, however their personal narratives differ. James Baldwin speaks of own experience of how his father’s death impacted him through what I thought of as a pathos and logos point of view. While Michael Thomas wrote through Michael Jacksons death in order to bring his personal experience. Baldwin gave us facts and had many emotional charged sentences in order to keep readers interested. He made the reader sympathize in order to understand what he went through at the time of his father’s death, his struggle, what his message came to be. Moving into Michael Thomas’ personal narrative he went into a rather different approach than did Baldwin. For you see, just form looking at his title “I was not Michael Jackson” you can tell he went with an ethos or credibility approach to his personal narrative using Michael Jackson’s death in order to bring forth his message. It was sort of a bandwagon approach to have you immediately connect to his story, being the fact that we too had an experience with Michael Jackson’s death. Having that said, he still uses pathos as well in his writing; they both however have similarities to each other’s personal narratives. They both use death obviously to portray there message to the reader. Another thing I noticed not sure if its right but, they both have a compassionate and down to earth tone to their writing. Even though Baldwin’s personal narrative is more aggressive than that of Michael Thomas’ personal narrative. Now having that said I felt that both of the stories were great I was interested while reading there personal narratives and felt as if it was kind of hard to tell the difference in their rhetoric style of writing.
ReplyDeleteJames Baldwin's writing style appears to be a more educated, formal style of writing as Michael Thomas' seems modern and down to earth. Personally, I think Thomas' writing style is liked much more because I feel like people can actually relate to the author. However, both authors make an appeal to pathos, emotion, as they are dealing with death, and dealing with a relationship they would like to re-do, but cannot.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if James Baldwin writes more eloquently, and the way he shares his thoughts feels sincere, but when I read Michael Thomas, parts of his writing feel almost cheesy. I understand he is a successful and talented writer, but the way he writes is just not what I enjoy. Baldwin, to me, seems more likable and doesn't try to win over audiences, which actually helps him. Knight appears to be trying to tend to the mainstream and write something that is generic and to me, boring.
What the authors do have in common, however, is the missed opportunity at fixing a relationship with a loved one. Baldwin could never get close to his father, as his father was a bitter man who was hard to get along with. Meanwhile, Thomas missed the chance to connect with his older brother, who ended up getting into trouble with the law and could not find success in life. Baldwin makes the appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos much more successfully than Thomas. His words flow as if they are poetry, yet they flow so effortlessly. Both authors deserve respect because writing about such difficult life experiences definitely isn't easy. When we did the exercise where we wrote about how the death of someone we loved changed us, I was struggling to put my emotions into words. Although I enjoy Baldwin's essay more, both authors do an excellent job of illustrating their emotions.
-Alp Yazirdag
There is a subtle difference between the rhetorical styles of both Michael Thomas and James Baldwin. I feel that since both authors are closely similar in their approach to reach out to the audience, it is difficult to recognize the actual difference between their rhetorical stances. However, what I caught from Michael Thomas’ “I was not Michael Jackson” was a more personal approach. Thomas uses the Jackson 5 as a connection between himself and the audience. Most, if not all, people who have enjoyed music in their lives know who the Jackson 5 were and how their music impacted the industry with a bang. I felt and understood Thomas’ essay more than Baldwin’s piece for the simple reason that I could relate to what he was saying. Baldwin, though, takes on a more emotional stance, describing feelings of hatred and disgust that many people have also experienced in their lives. His writing is straight and cut to the point. It is because Baldwin writes in great description in his life that the reader is able to comprehend the context behind Baldwin’s purpose. The comparison to Thomas’ essay shows that each author has an emotional attachment to a certain death in his family. Immediately, because of the effect death has on a human being, the reader is emotionally affected. Baldwin and Thomas are able to catch the reader’s attention using this rhetorical technique. Regardless, although death is a powerful event that drives the mood of certain pieces of writing, it can get uninteresting. It is for this reason that I find Michael Thomas’ essay to be greater in terms of rhetoric. His piece is much more appealing due to his down-to-earth style of writing.
ReplyDelete- Eddie
In James Baldwin essay “Notes from a Native Son” he uses the same approach of rhetorical style and theme as author Michael Thomas did in his piece “I was not Michael Jackson” which were pathos, logos and death. Baldwin’s writing had a variety of pathos and logos feel of hatred toward the many events that was occurring during his times such as the resentment of the segregation that was going on and expressing his feeling about his father's sickness and pouring his emotions out about them both. Baldwin felt so bad when his father died because they did not share a good relationship with each other, but it was not until his father had died where Baldwin’s anger began to build up. Baldwin also uses Logos to describe all the historical events that went on during his time. As compared, Michael Thomas uses pathos and logos as well in his piece but on a lighter side, he was calmer than Baldwin was in his essay. Thomas took a logos appeal by comparing the pop star Michael Jackson’s death, he used this occasion to bring out his pathos appeal by thinking about his distant brother who was incarcerated. Michael went back into time when he was younger to when he shared time with his brother as a child and explained where he began into disliking his brother. After hearing about Michael Jackson’s death, Thomas ran thoughts about how his brother was in jail, knowing it has been years since he communicated with him it was unsure if he was dead or alive. Observing these pieces draws a conclusion that life is too short and unexpected to not love someone who is close to you because you never know what is going to happen to that person with any second, so love anyone as there is no tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteWhile both Baldwin and Thomas use emotions to have a better connection to their audience, their writings differ through their tone and style of writing. Both writers use pathos in the writing however Baldwin tone is straight forward and blunt, as opposed to Thomas use of imagery and in depth descriptions. Baldwin describes his life with his father in a string of simple memories infused with some historical information, such as the Detroit riots. Thomas, on the other hand, begins his writing with a haze of confusion. When I first began reading his article, I thought that Michael Jackson was his brother. It was only until you reader farther into the text do you realize that Thomas combined the memory of his brother and Michael Jackson in order to recall the events in a more poetic manner. Baldwin combines emotions to add the same sting of emotions as Thomas, but uses more of a informative tone.
ReplyDeleteBoth also use the act of death in their writings, but each having different themes. Baldwin uses his father's cold stance to him as a child and death to express the theme of anger and frustrations African Americans faced before and during the Civil Rights Movement. Thomas uses the death of his brother to support the theme of sacrifice and devotion for the people you care about in life.
Although both use the concept of death to express different themes, both writings have a slight tone of frustration with themselves. Baldwin's frustration with the man his father had shaped him to be, angry at others for treating him based on the color of his skin, finally explodes in the climax of his writing when he smashed the mug against a mirror. Thomas' frustration seems to be felt in the beginning but slowly diminishes away as he remembers his brother and his death.
-vivusz
Although both authors talk about a death experience and the affect it had on their lives, they convey their stories very differently. In James Baldwin's essay "Notes from a Native Son" he describes his experience as more negative and aggressive. He talks about how his fathers death impacted his life and you can see how he has so much anger and hatred he had built up inside him. For example in the story he says, " I saw nothing very clearly but I did see this, that my life, my real life, was in danger and not from anything other people might do but from the hatred I carried in my own heart". Both pathos and logos are used in this story. You can clearly see the emotions and the facts that are conveyed. In Michael Thomas's " I was not Michael Jackson" he also describes how a death impacted his life. Although it was a celebrities death he was greatly impacted. He describes his experience totally opposite from how James Baldwin does. Unlike Baldwin, Thomas is not angry but more sympathetic. He talks about how growing up to the Jackson five related to his family. He felt that his brother was Michael because they both experienced hard times. After finding out about Michaels death he realized how he misses his brother and should be there for him no matter what because one day he might lose him and may live with regret. In addition, Thomas uses pathos as well but is more pleasant then aggressive. Both these authors are greAt but have completely different writing styles, which is not a bad thing. Either way they both had the theme of how death impacted their lives and the affects it left on them.
ReplyDeleteAlthough both texts mention death, Baldwin uses the death of his father in "Notes from a Native Son" to show how his father's attitude still lives in him and Thomas uses the distant death of Michael Jackson in "I Was Not Michael Jackson" to parallel this with his broken relationship with his brother. Both authors also appeal to their audience's emotions, but in Baldwin's essay, the emotion is bitterness and sadness shown by the use of figurative language and in Thomas' emotion of nostalgia is made apparent by using word choice that would characterize a picture.
ReplyDeleteBaldwin's figurative language helps depict the emotion of bitterness in the text which helps the reader see that the attitude of his father has lived in him as well. This is seen in the second paragraph of the text where it says "As we drove him to the graveyard, the spoils of injustice, anarchy, discontent, and hatred were all around us." Because of Baldwin's use of the word "spoils" it suggests that these extremely negative things: injustice, anarchy, discontent, and hatred, were at a gross excess amount around him and these inflictions were put on him without his consent. This idea put in the context of the story, his father’s funeral, further emphasizes the sadness of this situation. This same sadness also works over the text to develop bitter feelings in Baldwin as his father’s attitude overtakes him. This is seen when Baldwin tells of when he planned on attacking a white waitress when he was angry one day. The waitress tells him that her restaurant doesn’t serve black people and he describes that phrase as “ringing in my head like a thousand bells of a nightmare.” This simile brings the audience into his feelings and emotions. To have so many bells ringing anywhere at once would cause a lot of noise and ruckus and confusion; a thousand bells ringing at once somewhere will cause damage. The fact that these rings would consist of a nightmare shows that the extreme injustice, anarchy, discontent and hatred have caused Baldwin’s own mind to be shaken by noise, confusion and freight. In the context of the story, this shows his father’s attitude festering inside of Baldwin because he reacts violently to the situation.
Thomas uses characterization of pictures to evoke nostalgia in a reader when reflecting on how his relationship with his brother died in a sense like Michael Jackson did. “There’d been, even in my young life, too many blotchy prints, ghost images, lost moments.” For Thomas to characterize his life as one would a picture helps the reader to see that he is thinking back about a certain captured moments of his life. However as he says in his quote, these moments are now lost which help bring out the feeling of nostalgia. Thomas speaks of another specific time again when he says “But we’re in that blurred time – ’73 to ‘75’ – before they life the duplex rental across the street from the railroad tracks, and before my father left home for good.” First, there could be feelings of longing about the past because this marks a peaceful time in his family. However, the fact that he says that this time was “blurred” suggests that these times were very brief and rushed by even though this wasn’t desired. This also reflects what one feels about the life of someone once they die. Life actually becomes a series of pictures and lost memories because that is all that is left of the dead person. This is probably why Thomas mentions the picture of him, his brother and two cousins in this text, because these relationships are dead.
These two authors had texts involving death. Even though the deaths meant different things to them and it played a different role in their texts, it was used with a rhetoric strategy to evoke their audiences with a certain emotion.
Although both Michael Thomas and James Baldwin decided to reveal aspects of their family life, their method of doing so differed in a few ways. For example, Michael Thomas decided to use a pop icon's sudden death in order to draw in the audience. Immediately, I was captivated by the mentioning of Michael Jackson's death because a news story I could relate to. As the reading progressed into Thomas comparing his family to the Jackson 5, I was still enthralled because of the connection I felt to the author and to his analogy. His use of one of the most popular entertainers of all time made his story more relatable because of the relevance to our time period. Also, although it did contain some negative elements, the story was for the most part lighthearted. Thomas even interacted with the audience by posing questions about nostalgic memories in order for the readers to stay connected.
ReplyDeleteJames Baldwin, however, uses a darker tone in his narrative. Both authors attempt to recall events, yet Baldwin's is a memory that is more painful to think about. His voice is the opposite of lighthearted, as he remembers his father's mental issues and his struggle with living in a racist community. By using the topic of racism, Baldwin also appeals to the audience; however, it is most likely a topic the readers do not feel comfortable revisiting. This appeal is still very intriguing, but has a much more somber mood than Thomas's narrative. Another thing to point out is the passion in Baldwin's essay. Thomas's writing had a lot of passion, but was not as powerful as Baldwin's because it did not deal with such a heavy topic.
Michael Thomas has shown his distinctive writing style and rhetorical stance in the essay “I was not Michael Jackson”. Michael’s tone is not as intense and focus and sweeping as James Baldwin. The event in Michael’s essay started out from the news of the death of Michael Jackson that reminds him of his older brother. Michael is not so much like James Baldwin as in writing about civil rights and equality but more into the struggle of his family in the past. By including the use of pathos in their works, both authors were effectively strengthening their arguments. James showed more of his emotions in his actions and Michael showed more of his emotions in his thoughts. Also, Michael represents a voice of the new generation, an evolved generation’s perception toward race. In his tone, we don’t see a lot of injustices or inequality compared to James Baldwin’s works. Both authors use the death of a person as their focal point to bring out their arguments. James argued about the inequalities and injustices that his people experienced. Michael reminded us to appreciate those who sacrifices for us, just like his older brother’s role of the man of the family.
ReplyDeleteMr.T
The authors; James Baldwin and Michael Thomas both wrote about how they experienced death in their lives. James Baldwin refered to the death of his father. Michael Thomas refered to the death of celebrity; Michael Jackson. In Baldwin's essay his description of his father's death was emotional. A way of him grieving was the feeling of regret. He did not have a great connection with his father. By the time he passed away Baldwin realized how much he knew about him and missed. The way he remebered things was the same way that Thomas did about his childhood. Thomas compared himself and cousins to the "Jackson 5". Their name was "Cousin 5". The only music they knew of really came from the great group of "Jackson 5". I thought that was a cute name. He compared the death of Michael Jackson to the non relationship he had with his brother. His brother was now 46 and in jail. Thomas stopped talking to him. The way he used death did not seem as sympathic as Baldwin was. Thomas was disoriented with his brother's life. He did not care if his brother was dead or not. The death of Michael Jackson brought up the memories of the great times he had with his family as a child. Why does death always bring the good memories up? Those memories probably have not come for years. I can relate to death bringing up memories because when my cousin recently passed away I always think of the fun times we had at church and just being around each other all the time and how he would look out for me. I believe both authors captured the importance of cheishing the people you know and may or may not love because you never know when they will move on to a better place. Also Baldwin and Thomas wrote about death that occurred to them for people that were not close to them. I enjoyed Thomas' essay because it was more live for me.
ReplyDelete-Sweets92
Both contain dramatic deaths which affects the main characters in different ways. In James Baldwin’s essay, he uses a different style compared to Michael Thomas story. Baldwin writing was more intense and hard but it makes since to the time it was taking place. Life back then was much more different for Africa Americans since no one treated them equally. Many suffered throughout those years because of the segregation but at the same time it was also changing because of the civil rights movement. Before that happened, many were affected by the segregation. It caused many to mistreatment with one another. Some Africa Americans were full of hatred which would cause some to undergo through extreme violence. For example, in the essay “Notes from a Native Son” the son never really understood why his dad was full of violence and hatred. He thought that was just his personality. But eventually, at the end, he realized he had become exactly like his own dad. He was full of hatred for whites and finally figured out that must have been the same way his father must of felt. Another small thing that could have made their relationship better between father and son was the horrible communication they had one another. Both son and father didn’t really communicate so that could have been something the son must of have regretted at the end.
ReplyDeleteIn Michael Thomas “I was not Michael Jackson” his essay is different compared to James Baldwin. His essay is more like an important admired figure with triggered memories from the past. It happened when he heard Michael Jackson was dead. He must have been one person he admired throughout his years as he grew up. He remembers how jealous he was of his older brother because he thought he was much better than him. Never actually thought how his brother felt and what he had to go through with all the responsibility on his hands. But when he learned to truth, he was proud of his older brother for maturing at a young age to take care of the family. His brother had to sacrifice his fun time during his childhood to start taking care of those he loved. He had finally realized he not chosen to take the responsibility but it was almost an obligation of having too since he was the oldest son.
My thoughts on both were that they had plenty of pathos appeal that made it very emotional in their own unique way. That is what made them successful to the point. Both authors truly did an excellent job of giving their pieces of work emotions to make it much more successful and intruding.
Michel Thomas and James Baldwin use different kinds of writing. In James Baldwin’s writing, “Notes of a Native Son”, he talks about the death of his father and the experiences he had living with his father. In the writing he describes his father being embittered all the time. He said that living with him was a nightmare because of the way he was around his family and himself. In the story he is always talking about the racism he felt and even his father called him “Niger”. The child inside of him in part was happy that his father had died because that way he could not hurt them anymore. In James’s writing he uses personal experience and he expresses how he felt with everything that happened to him with anger and desperation. At the end of his writing or story how ever you want to call it he explodes form the anger towards his father and the people who are racists. The only way he found to let his feelings out was by launching the base towar the lady and breaking it. He was tired of everything that was happening and everything that he had bottled up just spilled out and made a big explosion of emotions. For Michel Thomas’s writing, “I am not Michael Jackson”, it was quite different. In his writing he used something that triggered his memory and it took him back to his childhood. Michael Thomas used Michael Jackson as the key to the awakening of his past. He says that when he had heard that Michael Jackson was dead his thoughts jumped rapidly to the lost of his brother. At first I was a little confused because he said that he hated his brother because the job that was “assigned” to his brother he could have done a better job and for that his brother ended really bad. His brother had so much pressure that he ended up in jail but then dead.
ReplyDelete--huesos
Baldwin and Thomas both have different styles of rhetorical stance and styles. Thomas who uses death as a theme to show how the impact of a superstar like michael jackson could make you think about stuff that you have not thought about in a long time. Well the point of his story is that he wished that his relationship between him and his brother would be better and does not think about it until he hears the news that MJ is dead. He remembers all the things his brother did and how he really didnt like him and how he has nothing to do with his brother being in prison. After all that he knows what his brother must of gone when he was growing up and trying to be a father figure to all of his family. We is not as strong like baldwin when he uses the theme of death to show what he felt about his father. BAldwin shows how his father treated his whole family. HE understood why his father acted like that because he was sick. THen you could start seeing that he starts getting mad at his father for all the things that he was doing to the whole family. HE shows that he had alot of emotions against his father. Baldwin used more anfer than Thomas. Thomas felt more against forgiveness while baldwin did not. Both stories were meant to be emotional to let the reader know the main that they have gone through there life in with their famalies. Another difference is how Baldwin hits you with the sadness in the begining of the story while Thomas shows anger in his story. You finish ready both stories with some sympathy for both the authors one for showing how his father was and the other one how the death of the king of pop made him realize that his brother atleast tried.
ReplyDeleteBoth writers James Baldwin “Notes from a Native Son" and Michael Thomas “I’m not Michael Jackson” use the similar rhetorical stance. The use of pathos is used extremely in both essays. Each of the essays are written as a in a story manner, which are pass tense stories of their childhoods. Even thought both stories are relating back to their childhoods, their theme is “death”. In James Baldwin’s essay “Note from a Native Son” the way the theme of death relates back to his stories is through the death of his father, from this it makes James Baldwin writing in his essay more hard and strong to make the reader feel his emotion. This emotion is all throughout the story and its time period. These key things make James Baldwin essay different from Michael Thomas’s essay. In Michael Thomas’s essay he provides a sure amount of pathos also, but the story setting witches off between time periods. Goes from Michael Thomas childhood to the present time. Going back to his childhood the story includes his young brother who goes by Michael Jackson due to their childhood game. The theme of death comes in to play with Michael Thomas little childhood, Michaels little brother didn’t experience a good childhood like their idol Michael Jackson. This killed Michael Thomas inside to see his brother like this and also killed his own brother. These two were the same in the theme area but both had a different way of exposing their theme.
ReplyDeleteI would say both "Notes from a Native Son," and "I was not Michael Jackson," would be categorized as ‘emotionally analytical.’ The reason I am saying this is that they both would analyze their story by taking themselves out of the equation but then also bringing in the emotional, ‘tug at your heart-strings,’ feeling by then putting themselves back into the essays and adding a human element. The things that James Baldwin and Michael Thomas did differently were actually pretty large, even though the main theme of both was death. Baldwin made his about his father and how the death of his father, actually made Baldwin a little closer to him. Thomas on the other hand, chose a death that he could relate to even though he wasn’t really related to Michael Jackson, and used a window to look upon his relationship with his brother. Baldwin’s narrative was more of a happy ending then Thomas’s article, which in the end is more of an ending to the little of a relationship that he and his brother had. Their voices were also different; Thomas’s voice in the narrative was well disappointed, not really angry, almost disconnected from it, viewing it through that window rather than confronting it head on. Baldwin’s narrative was, I believe a little more emotional because he really was thinking ‘out loud’ on this essay, you can clearly tell it is his voice on that paper, clearly emotional, but also thinking about every emotion that presents itself in this narrative. They both make good arguments as to whether it’s time to move on from that person or even after death that it’s good to understand that person. This is why I say both these narratives are emotionally analytical with just some differences that make both of these essays stand out.
ReplyDelete-Rachelle Star
Baldwin and Thomas have two very different styles of rhetoric. Although both African American authors write about death and the way that death has affected their lives, in both negative and positive ways, the emotional and rhetorical responses that they hope to bring forth from the reader differ greatly. Baldwin discusses the way in which his father’s naturalistic hatred forced him to distance himself from the family that loved him and the world that moved along without him. Baldwin did a great job of connecting the death of his father with the death of racism itself, and the true destruction of segregation. His rhetorical usage was believable and almost harsh. Realistic usage and description of events in a categorized and direct way give credence to his ideas and show that he feels a strong attachment to the progression of those ideas. Thomas uses a different form of rhetoric in his writing, finding it better to use moderate humor and deep personal description rather than historical depiction and recognized fact. Thomas tries to connect to our pathos, and gain an emotional response through personal reflection. His use of a media icon, with whom we all have our own feelings about, allows him to immediately connect with the reader, and through his coercion of emotion the reader believes and connects to his ideas.
ReplyDeleteJames Baldwin and Michael Thomas both address the perspectives of African Americans in United States. However there are differences that make each piece of writing unique.
ReplyDeleteBaldwin’s Notes of a Native Son focuses on his experiences of racism in the 1940s. His writing is more open to the audience, it is almost a speech. The audience, who are supporters of the Civil Rights—the Northerners and African Americans, can connect to his story to a personal level because of pathos, ethos, and logos he used throughout the story. He appeals to African American audience with similar experiences they probably had. He includes the Northerners with ethics. Then Baldwin finally unifies all of them with logos. Because Baldwin has to bring everyone together, he uses formal language to be a charismatic leader who can stop the racism.
However, Thomas mainly discusses about his relationship with his brother and how Michael Jackson play a key role in his family. Instead of having a conversation with the audience, he narrates his story. The targeted audience can be from any ethnicity and race and from anywhere around the world which is why he puts his brother and Michael Jackson as his main topics. He builds a relationship with any audience with the stories of his sibling. Then, he specifically connects to the audience who loves Michael Jackson, a symbol of African American pop culture, and his music. Thomas also uses pathos and logos, however less ethos than Baldwin does. In his story, Thomas uses daily vocabulary words to appeal to people’s personal lives.
Although they have different styles, tone, and structure of writings, Baldwin and Thomas both use one device to explain the epiphanies they had from their experiences: logos. At the end of their stories, they explicitly tell the audience what they have realized. They build up the stories to give the same understanding they have reached for the audience.
-mihwacita(Briana Choi)
In James Baldwin’s essay, “Notes from a Native Son” he uses rhetoric language to describe his father’s death and the affect it took among him growing up. James Baldwin’s approach is more serious than the writing of Michael Thomas. Baldwin includes historical events such as the riots in Detroit to remark history during the time of his father’s death. The mood of the whole essay is dark and unjustified because of the way Baldwin describes himself being discriminated. Baldwin is pushed to the limit of the emotions of hate which makes him break at the end of the story. James Baldwin comes to a realization that he wishes he had spoken to his father more because he sees that his dad was a good man. What life lessons Baldwin teaches is to not hold emotions inside because one day they will all come out and in a drastic way. In Baldwin’s essay he writes, “I did see this: that my life, my real life, was in danger and not from anything other people might do but from the hatred I carried in my own heart”(Baldwin 81). As for Michael Thomas’s essay, “I was not Michael Jackson”, Thomas uses rhetoric writing as a light reading. More people can connect to Thomas’s essay than Baldwin’s because of the widely known icon used in “I was not Michael Jackson”. The news of Michael Jackson’s death triggers a point in Thomas to bring up memories he had growing up with his brother. Thomas uses the way of Jackson’s death to tell his story referring to coincidental thoughts like his brothers and him dancing and singing to Jackson 5. Thomas along with Baldwin had some trouble with growing up in a since of a father figure. Baldwin never talked to his father and Thomas’s brother was the one who had to take over like a father. Both stories showing a life lesson found in themselves.
ReplyDelete-Noelle Writer
As I compared the James Baldwin readings and the Michael Thomas reading I denoted the different styles of dialects performed in the writing. For example on the James Baldwin reading the author utilizes the death of his father, expressing the rain that he felt because he lost his father and most of all because he regrets the time lost that he, would have had with his father since he didn’t talk with him as much as he would of liked to. On the other hand Michael Thomas used the death of a famous person like Michael Jackson to first get the attention of the reader then “drag” his/her mid into reading by comparing the death of Michael Jackson with the death of his brother who hated by the way. So we have two authors expressing their experiences with different feelings, thought one author regrets the tragedy and the other does not even have a minor effect do to the great rage that he cages against his (Michael Thomas) brother. In both stories hate was expressed. James Baldwin expressed how he grew up to store hate against who were racially abusers provoking instant rage. On the other hand Michael Thomas expresses not just hate but resentful rage against his big brother. Each author expresses their story or experience with the death of a family member, though each one to their own purpose. James Baldwin explained how his father felt and further on tells us how he came to understand why did his father accumulated so much rage against those who were pretty much haters in racial aspects. He soon revealed his provoked true feelings and intended to hurt a girl waitress at a restaurant. Michael Thomas unwrapped the reasoning of how is it that he came to hate his brother so much. His brother was assigned the responsibility of the “man” of the house, since his father decided to leave them. Michael Thomas explains how he thought that his brother had no potential to take that responsibility so he just simply build up hate against him.
ReplyDelete--arc
In Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son", he addresses the in a serious but understandable way. I immediately understood what Baldwin as talking about at the end of each paragraph. I understood the effect that his father had on him, both dead and alive. On the other hand, Thomas' "I Am Not MIchael Jackson" confused the hell out of me. The things in which he wrote were the least bit of my confusion, the effect Michael Jackson's death had on him is what was confusing. I get that the death made him think about his big brother, David, bu t then again I did not.
ReplyDeleteBalwin and Thomas seemed to have used pathos and logos in their given stories. Baldwin in his story, seemed to have been in it more than Thomas was in his. Speaking of how his father died and how he had never had the chance to actually speak with him and understand him, he was distraught by it after his fathers passing. Thomas was more talkative about his family or his brother their relationship. The targeted audience for those that have read either one of the stories was mainly those with hearts and those that can relate to the overall message that was conveyed. The overall message was to never hold anything inside, let it out when given the chance. Otherwise, if you keep things bundled up inside and never express it, it can consume you.
ReplyDeleteBoth Baldwin and Thomas use emotional appeal to strengthen their rhetorical stance. Baldwin's “Notes from a Native Son” draws readers in with specific facts about events that were going on during the time period. With these facts, Baldwin brings forth a sense of emotional attachment in people and allows them to connect to what the characters of the story were feeling. I believe that Baldwin's rhetorical style is both dynamic and forceful. He behaves matter-of-factly with the audience by always telling them the truth and this, to me, reinforces his credibility. Baldwin's clever use of pathos is a core part of his rhetorical style as it sets him apart from others. I feel as though Baldwin is not afraid to state what it is he is thinking.
ReplyDeleteMichael Thomas “I am Not Michael Jackson” was a little harder to decipher at first, but after a second reading I think I began to understand his style a little more. I could only relate to two or three things from this essay. To me, Thomas style of writing distances himself from the audience. First he uses a title that stirs up some confusion with readers. I personally thought that I was going to read an article entirely on the author not being like Michael in his own life and manners. Instead, he uses the legendary pop icon to tell about his disturbed relationship with his brother. One thing that I do give Thomas credit for is that his essay can appeal to a larger audience. I feel that more people can relate to not having been there for someone or not appreciating someone to the extent that they should have.
Both authors do a great job by providing context revolving around the main characters. Each take us on an emotional journey with the main characters in hopes that we, the audience, can better understand where the characters are coming from. For example, Baldwin starts off telling about his younger years and explains what had happened with his father. He tells of his teenage years growing up and not fully understanding why is dad was filled of such hatred towards white people. As Notes from a Native Son continue, we see a change in the main character and by the novel's end he is a completely different man. We understand how he became filled with the same rage that consumed his father and because of the background Baldwin provided us with, we get the character's views and most important why he sees things as he does. Similarly, Michael Thomas also provides context for which we can better understand him. He talks about growing up and resenting his brother for taking on a role Thomas felt he was better scripted for. This allows readers to see why Michael feels so strongly about his older brother David.
In Baldwin's "Notes from a Native Son" and Thomas' "I was not Michael Jackson" I found several similarities on their writings even though they were written in a different time periods. In both stories there was a similarity with the topic of death. Thomas's text told the reader about the death of Michael Jackson while Baldwin referred to the death of his father throughout the text. I also noticed that both authors demonstrated in their writing a since of regret for someone they wished they knew more about. They both wrote about their family life and the memories and experiences with them. Even if they were good or bad experiences that helped support their rhetorical stance. These similar themes and ideas in two different writings show how some topics are timeless.
ReplyDeleteMichael Thomas and James Baldwin wrote biographies of their experience. “I’m Not Michael Jackson,” written by Michael Thomas speaks of Michael Jackson, and James Baldwin wrote, “Notes From a Native Son” speaks of his father’s death. These two biographies were written because of their experiences with a person who died in their lives that seemed to be a symbol of their lives.
ReplyDeleteFor Michael Thomas the death of Michael Jackson was impacting and made him recall his childhood memories with his brother and cousins. Michael Jackson seemed to be the knot of his brother and him with keeping their relationship together. When Michael Jackson died, Thomas realized that he was in need to communicate with his brother and not let something small get in his relationship with his brother divided still.
A father to someone is very important and big in his or her lives. Although, for James Baldwin he heard of his fathers death when he was away from where his father lived. Getting the news of his father dying was no instant heartbreak for James Baldwin. He usually speaks of his childhood life, his father when he was young, and later on in his father’s life while on his way to go with his father. Baldwin reflects in his father’s past and how he use to react.
The differences in both of these biographies are most likely depicting in rhetorical styles. These both biographies and stories show that each of the death that occurred in their lives meant something. For Michael Thomas he has realized that he could not be mad at his brother for something little. James Baldwin seems to realize at the very end that he should have spent more time with his father. For both of these authors they used a term for their readers that had to do with imagery. Baldwin used imagery upon imagery to express the past that his father and him used to be. He made his readers see a picture of a photograph of James seeing his fathers in photographs. Michael Thomas mentions and lets his readers see how his brother and him connected with Michael Jackson. Picturing them dancing and singing to the Jackson 5 for his audience, which were his parents.
From both of these readings I liked Michael Thomas biography, because I seemed to actually picture it because of the current lives that I have lived. James Baldwin was a biography that had more tension in his biography, which made me like it. Although, he spoke of too much information repeating it bored me.
First I must say, that both Michael Thomas and James Baldwin are excellent at what they are doing, they rhetorical styles are different, yet they masterfully conveyed their audience to listen. No piece of writing is better than the other, they are written from two different eras, and each written for a specific situation at the time. James Baldwin’s “Notes from a Native Son” displays how Baldwin feels toward the struggle of a black man during he time of civil rights movement. He rhetorical style is that he uses a sad mood, like the death of the father to connect the end of the son’s innocence towards slavery. The son is now a new generation eager to learn on what is out there in the world, never understanding why the father was so protective and thought so wicked of the world. As a result of using pathos, this pulls in the audience, to what Baldwin is talking about because everyone can relate to death, and then Baldwin cleverly ties the death of the father and how the son soon learn about the hatred between black and whites, the segregation and the evitable urge to kill or destroy when one is cornered by evil.
ReplyDeleteMichael Thomas on the other hand, uses a much more simple approach, more modern, easier to relate to kind of writing. The reason why is because he is writing for the audience of today, and yes slavery is studied in school everyday, but no one can truly say they relate the subject with full emotions. What can they relate to? Music, almost everyone today listens music; therefore Michael Thomas uses the late Michael Jackson as a rhetorical style to convey his audience of his point. Thomas explains in the essay his encounter with Michael Jackson’s music in details; he relates the death of Michael Jackson to the death of this brother in his mind. The music industry has slowly forgotten about Jackson, his fans scrutinize him until he day he died for what he did, but no one enjoys the fact that they still have the King of Pop here. This relates to Thomas, he never cherish that he had a brother. One never really cherishes something until it’s gone, but lucky for Thomas his bro is still alive.
Manila06
Because I am rather biased and I prefer the writings of Michael Thomas, I will take this as opportunity to be the outsider looking in. Firstly, I must begin by saying that I enjoy both writers styles greatly. When reading any tale, I find it easier to connect to a work of literature that involves metaphorical content. I think that it is imperative for the writer to connect the reader to what he is trying to convey. In both cases, the author does so beautifully.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is intriguing to see what a time frame does to the content of writings. You would never catch James Baldwin writing about Michael Jackson because that was out of his time frame, just as you would never catch Michael Thomas writing about the struggles of racism and the discrimination of being gay. Therefore the audiences evolve just as the writings evolve and often it becomes hard to relate to things that are dated in terms of relevance to the audience. It is saddening to say but we as readers could never fully grasp what Baldwin is trying to say because he has such a targeted audience and we could never understand his experiences because things like his struggles do not happen in that extent in todays time. The best grasp that we could garner is but a tiny bit of what his writings conveys.
On the other hand, Michael Thomas has a relatively youthful audience that can relate to his analogy of his brother being Michael Jackson. It makes the fact that he has a message more prevalent in our minds because we can say "Hey I know Michael Jackson". Therefore, he catches the readers attention more than per say, a writing by Baldwin that has a more seasoned and researched grounding.
A topic like the death of a pop star would effect a reader more because we have memories that coincide with something like that. Personally, I do not have an experience with being refused service at a restaurant because of my skin, but I do have experiences with Michael's music. Something as trivial as whether or not a person can relate could be the deciding factor in whether a readers finds your reading enjoyable and insightful. In conclusion, I find Michael Thomas' approach of playing on memory more affective than Baldwin's historical approach. Maybe I am mistaken in my pursuit of being able to relate. Maybe that's not so important. But for me, it is.
-M.J. Clyde
James Baldwin and Michael Thomas' writing styles are incredibly similar yet subtly different. They both broach the same response and feelings. However, they do so in their own specific style. James Baldwin comes with a more emotional, personal approach. He draws us in with the gut wrenching statements regarding his father's death. Utilizing this pathos method, he appeals to his audience through emotion. Considering that everyone experiences emotion, there is no circumventing relating to his story in some way. At least one event will hit you full throttle because you have felt that emotion numerous times. James Baldwin's style is also very aggressive. He does not get his point across by yelling and screaming. In fact, he is considered aggressive due to the frequent use of pauses and silences. His message is more clear than Thomas'. Michael Thomas has a more modern way. He utilized Michael Jackson's death to convey his message. Although using someone he didn't know to tell his story, he still managed to create a very personal story. Both of these authors has amazing writing styles and I enjoyed the readings. =]
ReplyDelete-Special K
James Baldwin and Micheal Thomas are very deep in their writing. Also metaphorical and very visual. In James Baldwin's essay, "Notes from a Native son", I felt like Baldwin's essay was convincing and very believable. He tied the issues of his father’s death with the of the death of the hatred and or digust he had against slavery. He also talk about the issues he had with the segregation situation with the whites relating that with his fathers sickness and thatreally toched me and gave a really visual picture. I found his rhetorical approach to writing very interesting but also kind of arrogant and aggressive. With Micheal Thomas, his rhetorical writing was more pleasent. He isn't as aggressive. In his writing he talks about how Michael Jackson's death made him realize that his brother deserved more of his love and gratitude, than what he got from him (Micheal Thomas). He made use of pop culture and a couple of memorable childhood memories to influence the reader to have a form of sympathy for the relationship that he had with his brother. He kinda has the same subtle and welcoming approach to a bad news just like Chris Abani. James Baldwin and Michael Thomas both have very effective writing styles. There is this form of reader the satisfaction of connecting to their plot of writing.
ReplyDelete-FresshDWizzy
I really enjoyed how both authors went about explaining anger. Like most other students I took a liking to Thomas' writing style. He took an event in history and related it to his own life. However Baldwin's style is intriguing. Even though I happen to favor Thomas' writing over his I enjoyed how he didn't blame his anger on another person. He could've easily blamed his father for his anger. I think that speaks a lot about his writing style. He doesn't go for the obvious stance. You could tell it was really thought out. Now, Thomas clearly doesn't go for the obvious but the writing seemed so spur of the moment. So impulsive, yet still well put together. I feel that's another big difference between authors. Great reads from both authors in my opinion.
ReplyDelete-B.O.M.B.
Both Michael Thomas and James Baldwin use death as a stepping stool on their spiritual ladder to growth as human beings. However they both use this theme in two different ways to convey their point. Thomas captivates his audience with the death of a beloved pop star, Michael Jackson. Thru the death of M.J. he vividly depicts the very dysfunctional relationship that he had with his brother David while growing up. It is through this depiction that we learn of the also estranged relationship he also had with his father. Once we learn of this we then see that he begins to blame his brother for some of the mistakes made by his father. Thomas hates his brother David growing up and relates his brothers failures and mistakes with the King of Pop. Both of them having so much to begin with and so many opportunities now squandered away.
ReplyDeleteJames Baldwin on the other hand blamed his problems mostly on his father and the mistakes made by him. They both seem to have held other people at least partially responsible for problems in their life. Unlike Thomas Baldwin reflects on the death of someone he knew personally, his father. And he has the realization that most people have, “The don’t know what you had until it was gone.” Both writers explore their personal lives and experiences to find this sense of remorse for their past and relationships.
H2A