Bart Simpson: The Prince of Irreverence

Bart Simpson: The Prince of Irreverence, written by Douglas Rushkoff, stars off immediately with what his entire essay is about, "The Simpsons is the closest thing to a national media literacy program." To start out with his thesis immediately is a good thing mostly because the thesis itself is very interesting. This is good for his argument because it instantly draws readers in. The structure used in the essay also strengthens his argument. To begin he tells who the Simpsons are and how they began, useful for anyone who is unfamiliar with the show. Another stylistic choice that Rushkoff makes is to use certain episodes to back up his points. For example, Rushkoff claims that The Simpsons satirizes certain aspects of media and uses an episode where Bart drops a radio into a well and fools Springfield into think a boy has fallen down there instead. Citing episodes is especially helpful to the point of this essay because it shows that Rushkoff really know what he's talking about. If he can identify specific episodes, out the very many that have come out over the past 20 years, to prove his argument, then he shows that you can trust what he says. All of these choices in style help to provide an overall effective argumentative essay.

Happy Valentines Day? ...no such thing.

This picture, taken by and starring my sister, is titled "Happy Valentines Day." Looking at the picture, one would see that the title is ironic because the point, or argument, of the picture is that she isn't having such a Happy Valentine's Day. The photograph comes to this argument in several ways. First, the focus of the picture is the iPod. Its playing a song called "No One Loves Me and Neither Do I." That pretty much says it all. With Valentines Day being what it is, a time of love and a time to be with lovers, she feels that no one loves her and in return she doesn't love anyone else. This is the only part of the photo that is in focus and in color, red cleverly being the predominant color because it's the color everyone associates with love. This color of love being surrounded by a depressing, out of focus grey reinforces the argument that the subject is out of touch with the happiness of Valentine's Day.

The argument mocking Valentine's Day employed by the title of the photo and song is furthered by the subject's expression. She has this sarcastic and almost melancholy face that says, "Yea right, Happy Valentine's Day." Obviously, she doesn't feel that way. If she did, there would be more colors and her face would be happier, in general the photo would taken on a cheerful tone, not the doom and gloom sadness that it oozes now.

Going on the expression that "misery loves company" I would say that the target audience for this photo would be all of the other Valentine's Day loners. They understand how she feels and as such would be drawn to the picture in a kind of mosquito-to-a-zapper fashion because, lets be real, with the abundant happiness that permeates such a day, they probably wish they were that mosquito.