Ronald Reagan was the president of the United States of America from 1981 to 1989.  He is beloved by many Americans today, and this is no accident.  Reagan worked hard to control the legacy he would leave behind after he was no longer president, often working very subtly to do so.  One striking example of this is In Reagan’s farewell speech – he repeatedly mentions some form of the word “America,” linking it with other positive concepts such as money, human rights, freedom and the pilgrims.  In doing so he subtly links his presidency to the concept of being American, and then links the idea of being American to everything good in the world. Patriotism is a very strong factor in American culture, and Reagan takes advantage of this. He creates a legacy that Americans would feel emotionally connected to – after all, it’s much harder to feel antipathy towards someone your subconscious has linked to a significant part of your identity.

One of his strongest and most obvious links he creates is between America and freedom. Of course, he is not the first president to link America and freedom. In fact all of the presidents have likely done so multiple times in their presidency. However, he works much more subtly than simply stating something as simplistic as, “America means freedom.” Instead, Reagan brings up an anecdotal feel good story. He sets the scene by describing a boat carrying refugees from Asia to America as being a “leaky, little boat.” This is incredibly important. These refugees have been set up as weak, and almost pathetic. Their boat isn’t only little, but its leaky. Then he says one of the refugees called out to the American sailor “Hello American sailor. Hello freedom man.”   The refugees have essentially been reduced to children, calling out for the adults (the Americans) to save them. This no doubt swelled up the ego of most Americans listening to this speech – they are the saviors and are such good people too – after all they are helping these people who have been set up as being so defenseless. Reagan doesn’t stop there however. He says “Because this is what it meant to be an American in the 1980s. We stood again, for freedom.” This isn’t something that happened in the general history of America – it’s something that happened in the 1980s, in Reagan’s America. He dresses this up by using the words “we” and speaking in the third person, but that’s the real subconscious connection he has set up (Reagan=savior).

1.  Where are you on your draft?  (what have you written and what do you still need to do?)

2.  What is the strongest part of your paper thus far?

3. What is the weakest part of your paper?

4.  What  SPECIFIC questions do you have about your papers?  (“Does my thesis work?” or “How can I make this a thesis?” or “How can I make this more pages?” are not specific questions.)

Introduction:

1. Does the introduction seem relevant?

2.  Are there parts of the introduction that do not seem relevant?

 

Thesis:

1. What texts will the essay focus on?

2. What is the essay’s major claim?

3. What are the stakes of that claim?

4. What method of analysis will the essay undertake to illustrate this claim?

 

Body:

1.  What are the topic sentences for this essay?

2. Do the topic sentences relate clearly to the thesis? (If not, what parts seem off?)

3.  Put together do the topic sentences encompass the total of the argument? (If not, what parts seem off?)

4. Does the content of the paragraph correspond to the topic sentence? (If not, what parts seem off?)

5. Are there aspects of the argument not elaborated or discussed? (If so, what?)

6. Are there parts of the paragraphs that do not seem relevant to the topic sentence and/or the essay as a whole? (If so, what?)

 

Conclusion:

1.  Is there a conclusion?

2.  How much of the conclusion is just a recap or summary of the paper?

3. What ideas for further reflection or thought does the conclusion add to the argument presented?

The concept of escape is the breaking free from confinement or control. Individuals all over the world long for some sort of escape, whether it is from family struggles, money problems, or any arduous and tough situation. Harriet Jacobs, an African-American abolitionist speaker, wrote a story of a slave girl who longed to escape the brutality of her owner. In the midst of her run away to freedom, main character Linda had to remain in hiding, resulting in her lack of verticality. Sylvia Plath, an American poet, shares a poem of a woman who lies on the ground horizontally and too desires an escape, an escape from the world. Both readings share the commonality of the narrators positioning to the ground and their yearning to break free. These two pieces of literature portray many aspects of escape. In one situation, a slave has nothing and craves freedom, compared to a girl who has given up on life and wants to escape. When looked at both pieces together, it is apparent that no matter what one has in the world, there is always some search for freedom.

Despite going through different experiences, Frederick Douglass and Steve Jobs share their stories of struggle to inspire listeners to break free from the chains of unfortunate life circumstances and to achieve greatness.

Eminem’s song “Not Afraid” and Sylvia Plath’s poem “I am Vertical” both use imagery of nature to illustrate where they find strength in verticality; Eminem shows how he finds strength high up through the appearance on high surfaces and supernatural powers in his music video whereas Plath uses imagery of plants to demonstration how strength is rooted from the ground. Seeing Eminem’s video through the lens of Sylvia Plath, there is a disagreement between where strength is found in verticality. The idea of verticality is reimagined in Plath’s poem because it goes against the common idea that strength is found higher up.

Ronald Reagan and Michael Jordan were two very notable individuals of their times. As President of the United States, Reagan was notorious for his Reaganomics ideology. Michael Jordan is dubbed as one of the greatest athletes of all time and is still compared to great basketball players of this era, such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.  Although both of these men were known for the work they did in their respective careers, we know little about the problems and devils they faced as individuals on a daily basis. Some of the innerconflicts which each of these men dealt with are brought to light in their respective farewell speeches and help reveal a similar thought process. In doing so, both of these farewell speeches reveal that the decisions individuals make are influenced by both internal and external factors which may not be aligned with one’s values.