Wallace, in the early stages of the piece, mainly develops his ethos by simply describing the area and the festival itself, illustrating the festival as "joyful and lucrative and loud" with "attendance over 100,000". He even notices the "free pamphlets with recipes, eating tips, and Lobster Fun Facts", proving his knowledge of everything involving the festival. In the next few paragraphs, Wallace goes on to explain the entomology and eating history of the lobster to his audience of high class eaters, again proving his validity and understanding of the topic over his already knowledgeable audience. Later, Wallace writes that he isn't "trying to give... a PETA-like screed here", separating himself from a group that most likely isn't supported by the readers of the essay. Thus, he establishes himself as a neutral speaker who can, and should, be trusted.

Wallace's use of ethos eventually allows his use of logos to further strengthen his argument. By successfully establishing himself as a voice to be trusted, Wallace is able to lead a scientific discussion about the human and lobster "cerebral complex", and eventually disprove the Main Lobster Promotion Council's claim that lobsters have "no cerebral cortex, which in humans is the area of the brain that gives the experience of pain." Wallace also utilizes deductive reasoning to argue how the consumption of lobster is unethical. He begins with the general statement that "the... criterion [if an animal is in pain] is whether the animal demonstrates behavior associated with pain", and then smugly points out how "it takes a lot of intellectual gymnastics... not to see struggling [and] thrashing... as just such pain-behavior."

Much of Wallace's argument ultimately relies on pathos, relating the lobster's pain to a human's. He vividly describes "ways to kill your lobster", including "driv[ing] a sharp heavy knife point-first into... the midpoint between the lobster's eyestalks", then relates this to the third eye on a human's body, forcing the readers to visualize such a violent action on a human rather than a lobster. Throughout the piece, also, Wallace repeatedly personifies the lobster, reporting that the lobster "cling[s]" to the container, "like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof". By describing the lobster as an emotional, aware being, Wallace is able to disprove the argument that "lobsters' brains [can't feel]", successfully questioning the ethics of consuming lobsters.

In "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space", Staples utilizes numerous paradoxes to both support his argument and invoke thought in the reader. One such paradox is "accustomed to but never comfortable". Staples, by writing this, illustrates the difficulties that African Americans, like Staples, are forced to live with. Most people are able to interchange the phrases "accustomed to" and "comfortable [with]", however Staples draws a strict line between the two. By separating the two above phrases with "never", Staples emphasizes how his life is completely different from the life that most people live. Furthermore, Staples  could've wrote the phrase "but never comfortable" as a non-essential phrase - a phrase that can be taken out of the sentence entirely. However, he decides to include it as an essential phrase, reflecting how the situation that Staples is trapped within is universal for all like him. It is impossible to escape such racism, rather, it is a fact of life as is food and water.

The last sentence of the piece also acts as a paradox. The reference Staples makes refers to how hikers who hike in dangerous areas commonly wear bells to safely warn bears of their presence. By comparing his whistling to the hikers' bells, he implies that he is required to act careful around "bear country", or white society, and that he does this to ensure his own safety. However, unlike the hikers, Staples constantly lives in his own "bear country" and is thus required to always wear his figurative "cowbell" to stay safe from his "predators", or white society.

Form Meets Content

Ms. Valentino mentioned the idea of "form meets content" several times over the last few weeks and "Shooting Dad" appears to contain many instances in which the sentence structure and diction of the piece matches its content.

One of Vowell's purposes is to illustrate how truly similar she and her father are despite their differences in opinions regarding politics, guns, etc. As she describes her and her father's differences in the first half of the piece, the sentence structure seems to foreshadow her eventual realization that she and her father are more alike than she thinks. Vowell says "All he ever cared about were guns. All I ever cared about was art." The parallelism and repetition of the phrase "All he/I ever cared about" hints at their similarities. Despite the slight difference between the sentences at the end, guns vs. art, the majority of both sentences are the same. This indicates that both Vowell and her father are largely the same - both have an intense passion for their respective arts. The only difference between the two is what they're passionate about. Vowell later describes a similar situation when she writes "available flat surfaces were buried under a million scraps... available flat surfaces were buried under piles of staff paper". Again, Vowell repeats the beginning phrase, "available flat surfaces were buried under...", and leaves the end of the sentence to describe their differences. This parallelism and repetition serves to emphasize their likeness - like the sentence structure, the father-daughter pair parallel much of each other. The fact that their differences are forced to the end of these sentences reflect how their disagreements are relatively insignificant

In "Champion of the World", there are many instances in which it seems that the group of African-Americans willingly conform to the identity forced upon them by white society. Joe Louis, the savior himself, is given the nickname "Brown Bomber". This nickname, as innocent as it seems, defines Joe Louis by his skin color, and combined with the negative stereotypes associated with blacks at the time, forces Louis to act a certain way. Louis's fighting style is even described as "mad", a stereotype attached to African-Americans. Louis's nickname contrasts with his opponent's, who is unnamed throughout the chapter. This can be interpreted as an example of how blacks were restricted by their skin color and forced to fit a certain mold, while whites were allowed to find their own identity. Despite the obvious negatives of the nickname, the group at the Store willingly address Joe Louis as the "Brown Bomber".

Furthermore, the group's diction enforces the negative stereotypes that they're fighting against. Before the fight, someone says, "Joe's gonna whip that cracker like it's open season." As open season is defined as "a period when hunting restrictions... are lifted", this person insinuates that Joe will beat the white contender as if Joe's a hunter and the contender prey, rather than both as human competitors. This serves to enforce the stereotype that African Americans are savages and "only a little higher than apes." This stereotype is again furthered when the narrator states that "if the Brown Bomber's victory was a particularly bloody one they would order peanut patties." By suggesting that the group would celebrate more if the victory was "particularly bloody", the narrator again enforces the stereotype that her own race is uncivilized, a "lower [type] of human [being]".

Religion and God

In The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, religion is portrayed as an ideal that has completely lost its appeal and is dominated by dreams of wealth and class. The small village of Fish alludes to the Bible and Christianity in many ways, including the 12 "disciples" that inhabit the village and their near worship of the train that passes their village. Thus, the village of Fish can represent traditional Christianity or religion. However, Fish is small, barren, and abandoned - similar to a ghost town. The Washington estate is the exact opposite - extravagant, large, and always occupied. The fact that the Washington estate was built up by selfishness and greed and at the same time is more successful than Fish indicates that traditional religion has been cast off in favor of a new "religion" - the worship of wealth and materialism.

This is further illustrated by the symbolism inside the Washington estate. Braddock holds prisoners in a small chamber dug underneath the ground. These prisoners attempt to persuade John to let them free or join them in the prison, paralleling mythological greek demons from Hell that attempt to charm mortals to join them. Even at one point, a prisoner shouts "Come on down to Hell!". Thus, this underground chamber is Hell, while the Washington estate above represents Heaven. Furthermore, Braddock represents the new God of wealth and materialism that has overtaken the traditional Gods. He has complete power of anyone that enters his world, or his estate, shown by not only the prisoners, but his restrictive control over Kismine's actions and John's life. Furthermore, when Braddock attempts to bribe God with a large diamond, there is no response, suggesting that God no longer watches over the world. Braddock's worship of wealth and materialism causes God to abandon him, leading to his own demise.

One of the best passages throughout the Great Gatsby in my opinion is in chapter three, when Nick describes Gatsby's smile for a full paragraph. Early on, Fitzgerald establishes Gatsby as an extremely persuasive and charismatic character, writing that Gatsby had "one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it". This creates an expectation for Gatsby's persona as someone who is trustworthy and noble - a persona that is quickly broken down as Gatsby is exposed as a bootlegger. Furthermore, Fitzgerald utilizes numerous dashes when describing Gatsby's smile, writing "[Gatsby's smile] faced - or seemed to face - the whole eternal world for an instant". The dashes set off reality - "faced" -  with illusion - "seemed to face". Again, Fitzgerald hints at the uncertainty of Gatsby's past and the numerous lies he creates to reach a relatively mundane goal.

Gatsby's smile also reveals that he doesn't see an entire situation clearly, only noticing what he wants to see. Fitzgerald writes: "[The smile] understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the imperssion of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey." Gatsby is shown as such a strong optimist to the extent that it begins to hurt him. His optimism forces him to constantly attempt to relive the past. He believes that simply because he loved Daisy five years ago, she would simply return the love when he returns. Furthermore his optimism causes him to fail to register that Daisy is married and has a child, driving him to pursue a dream that is already dead.

Illusions vs Reality and Gatsby's Books

As discussed in class, the Valley of Ash represents many things, such as a place of absolute poverty, hopelessness, and sin. It is also interesting how the Valley of Ash is placed in between New York, a place where Gatsby seems to be the most successful, dreaming up several glamorous plans, such as meeting Daisy for the first time in years, and the West Egg, Gatsby's home where he forces himself to constantly remind himself of his reality without Daisy. Thus, New York represents a place of dreams and illusions, while the West Egg represents a constant reminder of reality. The Valley of Ashes represents the middle ground that exists between illusions and reality, foreshadowing the illusions that Gatsby creates about his own past. The eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg on the billboard are first described to the reader in a manner in which it is not clear that the eyes do not actually belong to a person. Fitzgerald creates an illusion for the reader, describing the eyes as "gigantic" and "looming" without referencing the billboard for more than three sentences, causing readers to create their own image of these strange eyes. However, Fitzgerald quickly returns to reality by writing that the eyes are on a billboard. These eyes act to foreshadow the illusions that, like Fitzgerald, Gatsby creates himself over a long period of time and will suddenly fall apart.

Gatsby's own books in the West Ham also indicate the lies that he created about himself. Owl-Eyes says that Gatsby "didn't cut the pages", suggesting that the multitude of books in his library are for show only - Gatsby doesn't have any intention of actually reading the books. Furthermore, the books are held in a "high Gothic library, paneled with carved English Oak", showing Gatsby's aristocratic background. However, Gatsby may not actually be from such an aristocratic background, suggesting that Gatsby's self-made foundation, like the Gothic library and the books inside, may simply be a large sham.