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Beginning of Spring!

Importance of Family Represented in Children’s Literature Separation

What does the representation of separation of family/parents from the child in Children’s literature teach the children reading it?  A common theme among children’s literature is the separation of parents or no parents at all.  Many people have different views on the issue of how the books affect the children reading this.   In this paper, this topic will be discussed.  The theory of:  When separation is involved in a children’s book, it gives the children readers a sense of the importance of what family actually means and helps build the independence of the child. There are many children’s books that have a separation of family. There have been arguments about how it negatively affects children reading the book.  Though there has been scholars opposed to the arguments and think these books help the reader. As in her article, “‘Sweet Sorrow’: The Universal Theme of Separation in Folklore and Children’s Literature”, Laura Bates states, “…the representation of separation in the tales and in the literature provides a useful model for the development of the reader’s own independence” (49).  Children need to learn independence in order to find the importance of what they have (family).  There is relevance to this theory in the three books that will be discussed in this paper: Where the Wild Things Are, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Beauty and the Beast.

First, there is a large amount of children that can relate to the books that have a separation or no parents.  In the article “Understanding Children’s Family Worlds: Family Transitions and Children’s Outcome”, Judy Dunn states, “Increasing numbers of children experience parental separation and formation of stepfamilies” (1).  When children see the books with the children without parents or separated from them, they can relate those children to themselves.  They can show how characters can handle the separation and how that develops their independence. Like in Where the Wild Things Are Max separated from his mom and family and developed into a more mature person by becoming the king of the wild things.  He still came back to his mother because of the love for her, but he came in more open to adulthood.

Second, there is the overall theme of goodness in child independence in Where the Wild Things are.  Max is the main character and even ventures out on his own as his own hero.   Even in his independence, he still ventures back home because he misses his family (mom).  He finds the value of family in his journey. For example in the book Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak states, “And Max the king of all wild things was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all” (29).  As in her article, “Sweet Sorrow”: The Universal Theme of Separation in Folklore and Children’s Literature, Laura Bates states, “…the modern child (and, I would add, adult) needs to find, through imaginative narratives that portray independent heroes, a model for his or her own behavior in the world” (49). Books are a great way to find these models for their own behavior and experience.

Never-the-less, Max does learn from the animals he met on his journey.  Max learns that family is important by meeting The Wild things (animals/monsters) because they soon became like family to Max, but even though there was a connection he still missed his true human family (mom) and went home.  There he found something that represented his mom’s love for him and knowledge of him coming home, which was a bowl of soup that was still warm. In her book Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children, Gail Melson stated, “Animals real, fanciful, and long gone from the earth become a child’s ‘significant other’ for a time” (3).  Animals are in children’s books as an act to remind children that family and love are very important.  As in Where the Wild Things are and in Winnie-The-Pooh the animals act as family.

The next book would be Winnie-The-Pooh, by A.A. Milne and it can be considered a child with no parents in the book. At the beginning there was some adult form of a father coming up with a story for his child.  Though in these stories the child, Christopher Robin, is the only human in the place of Winnie-the-Pooh and he acts as the parent in the book showing his own independence. In the book “Waiting in the Hundred Acre Wood: Childhood, Narrative and Time in A. A. Milne’s Works for Children”, Paul Wake stated, “It might indeed be argued that the child reader can only ever be an implied reader, constructed by, and only existing within (and for) what Seymour Chatman terms the “narrative transaction””(27).  This means that the child reader can be affected and “constructed” by reading books like Winnie the Pooh.

Never the less, Winnie-the-Pooh did have some sort of family in the book.  In Winnie-the-Pooh, the book is set off to what Christopher Robin wants to talk about himself only along with his stuffed the animals (no parents or family).  Though without his father, the stories wouldn’t be told.  Christopher Robin wants to show independence in his stories, but overall it is about a different kind of family thanks to his father.  The stuffed the animals turned to real life have become his family.  Whenever any of them are in trouble he comes to help like a family would. Children could learn a lot from this book by example of Christopher Robin.  Christopher is a good hero and representation of independence.  He grows up in the world of Winnie-the-Pooh by becoming the parent and knowing how to do things and solving problems.  Also, they can learn the importance of togetherness and love/caring for one another as Christopher shows to the creatures/stuffed the animals of the world.

Another children’s book that would relate to separation of family would be Beauty and the Beast, by Madame Leprince de Beaumont. Beauty starts off with a dysfunctional family and then has to leave them to protect her father.  Beauty then has to live with a man/beast she doesn’t know.  During all this time she realizes that she loves her family no matter what they do to her or how dysfunctional they are.  They are family.  When they are apart (Regarding only Bell and her father) they miss each other dearly.  Separation of family in a young adult even would create a realization of importance of family.  This story is told to really young children and would be a great start to knowing the importance of family through Bell’s eyes. 

Another thing would be it shows the independence of a young adult in the story of Beauty and the Beast.  Bell learns to be on her own by being captured and in the end has grown up and gets married.  This shows that the children’s books with separation of family can teach kids about independence. Also, Bell stands up to go and accept the punishment of the beast that her father has done by cutting the rose, which shows independence on its own.  Independence is a great way for children to grow into adults.  These books give good role models for growing up and becoming their own person.

When comparing the children’s books based on learning and emotion, Bell showed more emotion to the separation of her and her family in this book than in Winnie the Pooh or Where the Wild Things Are.   This is due to her past relationship with her family (specifically her father).  Bell and her father had a wonderful and accepting relationship so she missed her father more.  In Where the Wild Things Are, Max’s mother was only in the background but always took care of him even if he was making mischief.  Max missed his mother because of her love but not much for the bond between them like Bell’s relationship.  In Winnie the Pooh, the father was only a part of telling the story so Christopher didn’t miss his father.  Though Christopher did create his own family in his own world and he became somewhat like the father so he still realized the importance of family and love. Even in the article “Understanding Children’s Family Worlds: Family Transitions and Children’s Outcome”, Judy Dunn states, ““Evidence has increased that the quality of parent-child relationships acts as an important mediator between distal risks and children’s outcome following parental separation” (226).  This statement means that the parent-child relationship will affect how much they learn about the value of family, but they still end up learning the importance of family to a degree.

Never-the-less, there is still arguments that the parent-child relationship would be hurt through these kinds of books.   The parent will have no effect on themselves because parents aren’t the ones making the decisions.  As in her article, “Sweet Sorrow”: The Universal Theme of Separation in Folklore and Children’s Literature, Laura Bates states, “there is no reward or punishment of parents at the end of these stories because the children were themselves the agents of their own separation (through conscious choice or through subconscious desire)” (49). Another thing they argue would be there was no punishment for leaving so the children will think it is okay to disappear or leave for a while.  This is not true because the books show so much importance in family and sticking together.  Why would children want to separate from family when they know how important family is?  Children would see how much they would miss their family if they leave by reading these books and what could happen during the separation so they would stay.

Overall, in these children’s books there are three categories that a child goes through to get to realization of importance of family and becoming independent. As in her article, “Sweet Sorrow”: The Universal Theme of Separation in Folklore and Children’s Literature, Laura Bates states, “Three general categories of motifs related to the universal theme of separation…1) Separation or abandonment; 2) Quest and Trial; 3) Homecoming reunion” (49). Through these three categories children learn independence through the main characters and relate to them.  The children readers realize no matter how much they learn about independence for themselves they know how much family is important through the feelings of the characters when they are separated from their family.  This question is what many parents and teachers ask themselves when choosing these books to read that have a separation of family/parent and child: Should they let them read these books based on what information has been provided in this paper?

 

 

Works Cited:

Bates, Laura Raidonis. “”Sweet Sorrow”: The Universal Theme of Separation in Folklore and Children’s Literature.” The Lion and the Unicorn 31.1 (2007): 48-64. Print.

Dunn, Judy. “Understanding Children’s Family Worlds”: Family Transitions and Children’s Outcome. 50.3 (Jul 2004): 224-235. Online. <http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.emich.edu/journals/merrill-palmer_quarterly/v050/50.3dunn.html&gt;.

Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1963/1991. Print.

Milne, A. A. Winnie the Pooh. New York: Dutton Children’s, 2006. Print.

Melson, L. Gail. Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001. Web. <http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XOKHVPptA7oC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Parents+in+where+the+wild+things+are&ots=cNQZzkPHuP&sig=kq202q2cVb7YnnWrbqFNP35CBDA#v=onepage&q=Parents%20in%20where%20the%20wild%20things%20are&f=false&gt;.

Prince De Beaumont, Marie Le. Gutenberg.org. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Beauty and the Beast. Kim Pickett and the Hockliffe Project, Dec. 2004. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7074/7074-h/7074-h.htm&gt;.Beauty and the Beast

Wake, Paul. “Waiting in the Hundred Acre Wood: Childhood, Narrative and Time in A. A. Milne’s Works for Children.” The Lion and the Unicorn 33.1 (2008): 26-43. Print.

Reflection paper on the Research Process

Jaclyn Stine

Professor Goffeney: 8am

23 March 2012

Reflection of Overall Research Experience

For the WE#2, close reading, I first had to read an essay in the class book.  I knew this was a fake idea of the writers and he didn’t truly feel that way, but I still had to read it twice in order to truly understand why he wrote this satire story and what the true meaning of the idea was.   Than when I finally figured out what the author was saying, I was able to write the close reading.  In the close reading I discussed what was the author saying for one side of the stupid argument and its thesis.  Next, I described the actual meaning of the paper and his meaning/ thesis.  It worked out for me when I figured out true and fake sides of the story and made me less confused.  After I figured out the sides I was able to easily write the paper.  It also worked out when I reread the essay because it let me look closer into the reading than I did before.  What didn’t work out well was when I wrote both sides at the same time.  I should have read it first and wrote the first part (fake side) of the paper and then read it a second time and wrote the rest (true side). Overall, I learned how to closely examine the information that was given to me and look beyond what it is saying and try to find its true meaning

Unlike the other WE’s I have done after this one, this WE had nothing to do with my research topic, but it still had some effect on it. This WE helped me write my research paper by looking at my sources I found for the topic, 9/11 Truther’s, and find a way to put it into my writing.  It also helped me look into my sources more and figure out what the authors are actually trying to tell me.  It gave me a better understanding of the sources.  I did practice these skills in my essay, but you can’t really tell because the skills helped me more with the research of the paper than the paper itself.

In my future writings this skill of close reading will help me give a further meaning in my topics and make me understand even the hardest sources I find.  This will help me look closely at my sources and reread it a few times in order to get the true meaning out of it.  It will help me decide if this is a true or false statement of the actual topic as well.

Another WE that I had to do before my research paper was WE#3, which was an annotated bibliography.  I first searched for good and reliable sources that could help me discuss the reasons behind the two theories/stories. Also, I tried to find answers to the questions that I was looking for in the proposal (WE#2).  Then, I read the sources and looked for information that could help me in the overall big research project.  The fact that I looked for sources before I started writing the paper helped with making it a quicker and easier process.  The fact that I didn’t really take into account reading all the material and just skimming through the source did not work for me.  This taught me that I should take the time to read my sources in order to get the full potential of the source for any paper.  I also learned that if I find my sources before I start thinking of ideas for the paper, I will be able to have ideas that fit with my paper and use my sources wiser and not have to worry about finding specific sources of information.

I used the skills that I learned from the annotated bibliography, WE#3, in my paper by looking at the sources I chose and figured out how I was going to use the research in the paper.  This WE helped me with determining the information I was going to put into my essay.  Also, it helped me figure out a summary of all the research I found so I could determine what my paper will be about.   I didn’t specifically use the summary skills in my essay.  I looked at specific examples in the sources and wrote them in my paper instead of just writing a summary of the sources in my paper.

In my future papers and work these skills will be very useful in helping me plan out everything I need to write about.  It will help me do this by helping me understand the research/work topic and all the information I found about the topic.  With the information from the topics, it will help me decide what the paper will look like in the future of my future topics.   It will also help me finish my bibliography a lot sooner.

The last WE that I had to do before I started my research paper was WE#4, which was writing a mini essay. In this WE I had to pick three sources and go in depth with the information from the sources.  First I had to see what the sources had to say about the conspiracy theory and then choose from multiple sources to choose what three sources were best for the mini essay.   I had to have different sources with different views to the sides. What worked well was looking at the sources and figuring out more about them in order to write this WE.  It didn’t work out when I was trying to come up with a source that would better illustrate the topic I chose.  Overall, I learned how to look into the sources I found and come up with some good evidence to a certain side of the story.  I also learned how to make close connections between all my sources no matter how different they are and how different the views are.

Looking at the sources and figuring out more about them in order to write this WE helped me find out more about the sources I was using to write the research paper as well. The process of the WE helped with me making connections between all my sources.  This helped me put my research paper together in a proper manner that the sources information gave me.  Specifically I used the skills of the WE #4 for connecting between the research and use it to connect them to my topic of the essay.   For example, one source was all about the scandals of the government (nothing about the 9/11 Truther’s) and I connected it with the view of the Truther’s on the government holding a cover-up since they already hurt the United States with their scandals.

            In my future writings I believe the skills I learned from WE#4 would help me think of ways to organize the ideas of the topics.  It will also help me with research because I would be able to use mostly any semi-related source in my paper and be able to connect it to my other sources and main topic.  It will also help me further in my life besides writing by helping me connect things together and find the answer to the problem especially with my future career in accounting.  In accounting, when we are wrong I would have to look back and connect the past work to the present work in order to figure out the problem.

If I were to give myself a grade for this class and my work so far, I would give myself an A. I think I deserve this grade because I turn my work in on time and do a good job on it.  I’ve done all the assignments and I believe I have improved in my writing since I came into the class.  Also, I am focused when we are in group discussions and my papers so far have fulfilled all the requirements for them.

Research paper Draft 1

Jaclyn Stine

Professor Goffene

ENGL 121: 8am

15 March 2012

9/11 Truthers:  Conspiracy Theory True or False

            Citizens of New York City are just going through their regular day, noticing a plane flying above them towards the twin towers, but this wasn’t normal because the plane was flying too low.  The next thing they know they hear a crash, the plane just ran into the twin towers.  The twin towers are collapsing, killing many people.   Why did this happen? How did such event happen to the United States? And the most important question, that this paper is mainly about, who did this terrible attack?  The official and accepted version of these questions is that terrorist from Al-Qaeda hijacked four planes of our planes, two of which hit the twin towers, and set off to attack.   Some people do not agree with this version and they have come up with different theories of the attack, which is called a conspiracy theory.   One of the conspiracy theories over the 9/11 attack was that the government was posing a cover-up over the attack.   The group that propose this theory is called the 9/11 Truthers.    What is the true answer to the 9/11 attack and if the official version of the story is correct then why is the government still holding secrets about the attack?  In this paper I will discuss each side of the story:  9/11 Truthers side and Governments side.   I will also discuss the reasons of each side.  If the official story of 9/11 is a lie, than is the 9/11 Truthers theory correct?

The 9/11 Truthers are a group of people who are determined to find the true answers of the 9/11 attack.  The 9/11 Truthers believe that the truth is being actively concealed by the United States government.   They believe that someone hiding inside the government planned the attack on 9/11 or at least allowed the attack to happen.  This group believes the government is withholding information from the citizens of the United States.  The 9/11 Truthers believe that this attack was only an excuse and ploy to convince us to invade and start a war with terror/Afghanistan/Iraq.  There was a lot of information that was not given and told to the American public.  In the website http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf,  Turkel states that the movie Zeitgeist  claimed, “The idea is that the US committed the 9/11 attacks, and made them look like they were carried out by a foreign country, in order to raise support for a war in the Middle-East to protect American oil interests there. The film also proposes that the US either constructed or allowed the sinking of the Lusitania, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Gulf of Tonkin incident in order to enter World Wars I and II, and Vietnam, respectively.” (8).  Not only does the 9/11 Truthers believe the government didn’t tell us the whole truth about the attack, but a majority of the United States citizens believed that too.  As Turkel stated, “A New York Times/CBS News poll taken in 2006 showed that 16% of Americans believed the Bush administration’s story of 9/11 and over 50% felt something was being hidden.”(12).

Many think this group is stupid for believing the theory, but the 9/11 Truthers do believe their theory for very good reasons.  One of the reasons was found on the website, http://tvnewslies.org/html/9_11_facts.html, and it stated the government had been working on a plane defense system specifically for the kind of attack 9/11 was like and it had been functioning properly for many months and then when the attack happened the defense system failed.  The 9/11 Truthers suspect that someone from the inside had control over the defense system and denied it from working on the day of the attack.   Another reason is that the government apparently did have threats from the Al-Qaeda terrorist about this specific event as stated in the website, http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-05/news/bush-s-9-11-secrets/, but the government just ignored them and didn’t do anything to further protect the places the terrorist were telling them about.  In the threatening calls from the terrorist, they stated, “In September 1998, the [Intelligence Community] obtained information that Bin Laden’s next operation might involve flying an explosive-laden aircraft into a U.S. airport and detonating it. In the fall of 1998, the [Intelligence Community] obtained information concerning a Bin Laden plot involving aircraft in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas.  In March 2000, the [Intelligence Community] obtained information regarding the types of targets that operatives of Bin Laden’s network might strike. The Statue of Liberty was specifically mentioned, as were skyscrapers, ports, airports, and nuclear power plans.”  The government could have easily had more of a defense system set up at the points they were stating, but instead the government did nothing.

Another defense of the 9/11 Truthers is not of the present time of the attack but the governments past history of purposely hurting America.  Past scandals of the government would be the Watergate scandal, scandals of the president’s affairs, the government taking away some rights of the people every-so-often, and many more.  Throughout the book, Scandal:  How “Gotcha” Politics is Destroying America, Lanny Davis gives examples of how media has hurt the United States more than it would have without it through further discussion and debates of the government’s scandals and making it more of a big deal.   Davis states, “Today’s scandal culture and the seemingly endless cycle of gotcha politics practiced by the extremist ideologues of the left and the right in both parties have their roots in the political and culture wars of the 1960s and the Watergate scandal that immediately followed them in the 1970’s.” (Davis 1).  As stated in the quote, there have been many scandals in politics in the past and it has more to come in the future.   Since there have been plenty of scandals on both sides of the political spectrum, there is a possibility that there was another scandal within 2001 such as 9/11.  The government has been known for keeping dangerous secretes from the citizens and it could get them kicked out of office, so, as 9/11 Truthers believe, there could be even more scandalous behavior happening that is secretes about the 9/11 “terrorist” attack.

Never-the-less there is another part of the theory of the 9/11 Truthers about what actually happened at the attack cite. Turkel states that one of the theories the Truthers claimed was, “the Twin Towers (in addition to WTC 7, another building in the complex that collapsed due to being struck from significant amounts of debris) actually collapsed as the result of a controlled demolition.” (Turkel 8). In the end their theory was confirmed when Kay, author of Among the Truthers, stated, “World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein publicly admitted that one of the WTC buildings had been “pulled down” by internal demolition.” (7). Since their prediction and theory was proved right, then they could also be right about the other theories.  If the attack of 9/11 was planned by the terrorist group, then why was there a planned internal demolition within one of the buildings before the actual attack?

Even though there is evidence that there is a possibility the government is hiding something and that it could be a cover-up, there are still many people who believe the Truthers are wrong.   A quote from Mark Fenster states, “…that the 9/11 “Truthers” are going through the motions that occur every time a major event happens in American history. The only reason it has become so large and had such an impact is because of the ease of communication, collaboration and sharing of ideas through the highly connected 21st century world.” (Turkel 13).  This basically says that it is common to have a lot of conspiracies over all the big events that go on in the United States and it is not much of a big deal.   Since conspiracies happen regularly, it should not be taken seriously.  Also, Turkel has found it common that in the 9/11 Truthers movement there was a lot of people within it that despised the Bush administration for many other conflicts that are unrelated to the attack and believes that the attack made them hate the administration more (Turkel 13).

To over step the argument of the issue of doing nothing after getting threatening calls from the terrorist group Rice stated to the Village Voice, “She said the warning was “generalized”—no date, place, or method.”(http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-05/news/bush-s-9-11-secrets/).  Also, to further the discussion of the calls, from the website http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf, Turkel states that, “The Bush administration had advanced knowledge that Bin Laden was planning some sort of attack, but had little information and little way to do anything to prevent it. Saying that it intentionally allowed 9/11 to happen is certainly a stretch of reasoning.”(10).   Therefore, the argument for the government is that they did not have enough information in order to take precaution over the threats and areas threatened.  Since there was not enough information for preparing a more secure country, the government chose not to take any precautions in case of an attack.

Many believe that the 9/11 Truthers conspiracy is as stupid and unstable as the other conspiracies within the United States.  Turkel, from the website http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf  claims that, “What is interesting about the 9/11 Truth movement is that, while some members simply question the mainstream account due to problems they see with it and request a fuller investigation, a large and vocal part of the movement is not trying to find out the truth, but to disseminate a truth they’ve already “discovered” based on anecdotal evidence, out-of-context quotes, unprofessional opinions and a sensationalized disdain for the government.” (Turkel 11-12).  So basically, some people believe that the 9/11 Truthers are fudging the official story to their side by over thinking the evidence and coming up with false evidence against the story.  Turkel has his own opinion of what the definition of conspiracies. Turkel states, “Conspiracism is as much a psychological coping mechanism as it is a political ideology or scientific argument.”  (Turkel 14).   This meaning that Turkel believes that conspiracies are just to cope with extreme events but it is not a scientific argument.

Never the less, there are other reasons for people to be against the 9/11 Truthers that are based off of their personal being.  One of the reasons that is against the 9/11 Truthers theory would be just because they are confident in their belief, it does not mean that their theory is true.  For example, Turkel states, “Such large conspiracies, with such large followings, allow for conspiracists to gain confidence and legitimacy thanks to the comfort of the group.”  (Turkel 15). Since the conspiracies are so big and powerful they feel their safe to state what they want and have complete confidence it is right. Henry Steele Commager stated, “We are on the road to a paranoid explanation of things. . . . The conspiracy theory, the conspiracy mentality, will not accept ordinary evidence. . . . There’s some psychological requirement that forces them to reject the ordinary, and find refuge in the extraordinary.” (Turkel 15). Henry is pretty much saying that it is a mentality to be thinking like a conspiracists since they over analyze things and become paranoid about it so they reject it and find another solution.  Through this reasoning, people believe the 9/11 Truthers theory cannot be true and must be based on confidence and not reasonable facts.

Throughout all the information I have gathered for and against the 9/11 Truthers theory, I have gathered a concluding stance on the issue.  My theory is that the terrorist were the ones who were the ones who attacked on 9/11 but there are questions that still haven’t been answered by the government.   So I believe the government is hiding something about the attack and covering-up their failure to the country on preventing the attack.   There may have been an insider within the government who prevented the protection of the country.  I believe the 9/11 Truthers made really good points on the issue and had a more compelling argument, but it might not have been as reasonable as the government’s view points.  The 9/11 Truthers have a very good argument with the issue of the knowledge of the attacks and the government doing nothing to protect the United States from them.  With the issue of the government receiving threatening calls from the terrorist group, they could have maybe intensified the airport security more and all the places and skyscrapers the terrorist mentioned in the phone calls.  It wouldn’t matter when the attack would happen or the details of it, they should have at least made the security of the places more secure than they were, so the government could have done something. But in the end, I believe there is some truth to the 9/11 Truthers and the official story.

Work Cited

“9/11 Facts.” 301 Moved Permanently. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://tvnewslies.org/html/9_11_facts.html&gt;.

Davis, Lanny J. Scandal: How “gotcha” Politics Is Destroying America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print.

Kay, Jonathan. Among the Truthers: A Journey through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground. New York: Harper, 2011. Print.

Ridgeway, James. “Bush’s 9-11 Secrets.” The Village Voice [New York] 5 Aug. 2003. The Village Voice News. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-05/news/bush-s-9-11-secrets/&gt;.

Turkel, Daniel G. “The Significance of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories in Understanding the Sociopolitical Climate of the 21st Century.” The Significance of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories in Understanding the Sociopolitical Climate of the 21st Century (2010): 1-26. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf&gt;.

WE#4: Mini Essay

Jaclyn Stine

ENGL 121: 8am

Professor Goffene

13 March 2012

WE#4:  Mini Essay

            As two planes crashed into the twin towers there were many questions going through people’s minds.  Why did this happen? How did such event happen to the United States? And the most important question, that this paper is mainly about, who did this terrible attack?  The official and accepted version of these questions is that terrorist from Al-Qaeda hijacked four planes of our planes, two of which hit the twin towers, and set off to attack.  Even though the government did tell this to us, there are groups of people who do not believe that was the true story such as the 9/11 Truthers.  The 9/11 Truthers believe that the attack was a cover up from the government and that it wasn’t the terrorist that attacked the World Trade Center.  Many of the government’s claims didn’t add up, but when asked again for the truth, they received nothing.  What is the true story to this attack or was what the government told us to be true?

In one of the websites I found, http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-05/news/bush-s-9-11-secrets/, there were many things that supported 9/11 Truthers and that the government could still be hiding some more information from us about the attack.  It talked about how the Bush administration knew about the threat of Al-Qaeda and did nothing about it.  Al-Qaeda made many threats to the United States all somewhat related to the 9/11 attack. James Ridgeway, the author, had stated, “We do know that despite years of warnings from the intelligence community, the government apparently had taken no steps to protect the eastern seaboard or any other American border from attack.”  So if it was the terrorist who were going to attack then why didn’t the government try to prevent it from happening?  Ridgeway also said that, “…Bush has invoked executive privilege to withhold from Congress this key briefing on August 6, 2001.”  This gives evidence of some amount of information being hidden from America and the world, which supports the 9/11 Truthers belief of a cover-up.  This source uses quotes and actual proof of their arguments.

Another example for the 9/11 Truthers mistrust in the government is that they could have done it themselves to start the war since they are known to create a lot of scandals in the past.  The source I found is a book called Scandal: How “Gotcha” politics is destroying America. In this book it explains all the scandals of the government and how they are not to be trusted since they are destroying America because of it.  Like the first source, this source focuses on the government and how they are not to be trusted.  But it focuses mostly on past events/scandals of the government instead of the current 9/11 attack like the first source portrays.  This book goes into detail of the governments past scandals and how it is destroying America’s people and culture.  This book helps the first source with describing the ways and reasons why people don’t trust the government such as the 9/11 Truthers.  This source looks at the past scandals, which will help me figure out any connection between them and the 9/11 attack.  The strategies they use to prove their point was to look at past information of the government, quotes, journals, newspapers, and magazines of when the event actually happened.

In another website that was considered a scholarly journal was from http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf, it was considered against the Truthers idea and theory all together.  Turkel, the author, states that the Truthers are stupid and that their view is wrong.  The websites goes into detail of the actual attack and the 9/11 Truthers.  This document also is on the side of the government.  It discusses what the first source was stating about the government having knowledge about the attack coming but didn’t do anything about it.  Unlike the first source, Turkel believed the government wasn’t at fault and stated, “The Bush administration had advanced knowledge that Bin Laden was planning some sort of attack, but had little information and little way to do anything to prevent it. Saying that it intentionally allowed 9/11 to happen is certainly a stretch of reasoning.” (10) This article focuses more to do with the 9/11 Truthers than the government like the other two sources.  Turkel showed a different opinion than the other two sources by going for the government and against the Truthers ideas. With the second source this article goes on to talk about why the 9/11 Truthers believe the government could be having a cover-up for the attack.  It does not go into as much detail as the book does in the second source, and mainly focuses on the 9/11 attack and how it could be another scandal. This journal strategies to prove their point was through reports from the United States government, quotes from famous people, Zeitgeist movie, the 9/11 Commissions report, and many more.

In summary, these three sources discuss the government involvement in scandals and in the 9/11 attack.   All three tell different stories:  One about the past scandals of the U.S. government; the other one talks about the government’s lies with the 9/11 attack; and the other one discusses the 9/11 Truthers wrongs of accusing the government.  They all connect to each other by the way the government is involved with corruption and if they have anything to do with the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers.  These sources give evidence for and against the 9/11 Truthers ideas and the “official” story of the attack.  With these sources, the truth will come out about the 9/11 attack within the research paper.

Works Cited

Davis, Lanny J. Scandal: How “gotcha” Politics Is Destroying America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print.

Ridgeway, James. “Bush’s 9-11 Secrets.” The Village Voice [New York] 5 Aug. 2003. The Village Voice News. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-05/news/bush-s-9-11-secrets/&gt;.

Turkel, Daniel G. “The Significance of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories in Understanding the Sociopolitical Climate of the 21st Century.” The Significance of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories in Understanding the Sociopolitical Climate of the 21st Century (2010): 1-26. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf&gt;.

WE#3 Annotated Bibliography

Jaclyn Stine

Professor Goffene

ENGL 121: 8am

23 February 2012

WE#3:  Annotated Bibliography

“9/11 Facts.” 301 Moved Permanently. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://tvnewslies.org/html/9_11_facts.html&gt;.

This website is about what was happening with the air planes before 9/11. This website is basically a news article on the internet.  They were experiencing in Dick Cheney’s war games to prepare for such events as the 9/11 attack.  It explained how the defense mechanisms created for such event failed at the moment of crisis and how this should not have happened. This website will help me understand the points of the 9/11 truthers belief that Dick Cheney or the government had planned for the 9/11 attack to happen. I would use this information to bring evidence to the 9/11 truthers side of my research paper.

“9-11 Was An Inside Job – A Call To True Patriots.” 9-11 Was An Inside Job. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://www.911sharethetruth.com/&gt;.

Basically this website is full of propaganda for the 9/11 Truthers.  Though this website does not give much information at the beginning, if you continue down the page it gives a small description of what the organization of 9/11 truthers is trying to do and uncover.  There is also a small description on why the Truthers believe it was a cover-up and examples to prove them right.  This website will help me understand the 9/11 truthers side a little more and understand their motives more than other websites and books.  I want to learn more about the 9/11 truthers motives through this website.  This would help me better clarify the motives of the 9/11 truthers in my future research paper.

Davis, Lanny J. Scandal: How “gotcha” Politics Is Destroying America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print.

In this book the author, Lanny Davis, uses interviews, personal anecdotes, and historical examples to explain the scandals of the United States politics and media.  Davis goes into how and why the Watergate scandal came to be and how the next presidents add to the scandal of the United States government. I hope to learn of the governments past scandals and if they could possibly lead up to being as big as the 9/11 attack.  This will help me understand the governments side of their past and the story of the 9/11 attack even though this book will not enter into the idea of the event.

Kay, Jonathan. Among the Truthers: A Journey through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground. New York: Harper, 2011. Print.

In this book the author, Jonathan Kay, goes into the 9/11 truthers mind and other conspiracy theorist.  Kay used some interviews within the book itself to explain his points.  Kay mostly focuses on the 9/11 truthers but goes into other conspiracies throughout the book.  He gives the reasons for why people who are in the conspiracy groups are so suspicious of the government and their kept secrets. This book will give me more information about the creations of these conspiracy theories and why they have come to be with in the world.  This will help me get a deeper meaning of the views in the 9/11 truthers organization.

Ridgeway, James. “Bush’s 9-11 Secrets.” The Village Voice [New York] 5 Aug. 2003. The Village Voice News. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-05/news/bush-s-9-11-secrets/&gt;.

This is a website article from The Villagers Voice in the New York Times newspaper.  This was from 2003, two years after the 9/11 attack.  I found this website through the website http://tvnewslies.org/html/9_11_facts.html. This article is about how Bush and his administration had not given all the information found in the 9/11 attack investigation.  It also stated how the government got threats by Osama Bin Laden about planes and that they were going to attack something in the United States but the government disregarded the threats.  This informational website will give me information on the governments side of the story of the 9/11 attacks and it will also support the view of the conspiracy theory of the 9/11 truthers.

Turkel, Daniel G. “The Significance of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories in Understanding the Sociopolitical Climate of the 21st Century.” The Significance of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories in Understanding the Sociopolitical Climate of the 21st Century (2010): 1-26. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf&gt;.

This article is a scholarly journal/article about the 9/11 attack and the conspiracy theory behind it.  This article is in some way against the idea of the 9/11 truthers but gives a logical and descriptive story of the event and of what really happened.  The article also goes to describe the Truthers point of view and explains later in the article why their view is not correct. This article will give me some information that is actually against the 9/11 truthers and will allow me to compare each view of the issue for my research paper.  I would like to know more about how the government reacted towards this event and how they explain the 9/11 truthers are wrong through this article.

WE#2: Close Reading to A Modest Proposal

Jaclyn Stine

Professor Goffeney

ENGL 121: 11am

21 February 2012

WE#2: Close Reading

            For this paper I am to write about the essay “The Modest Proposal” by Swift through the close reading I learned about in class. Swift had stated to eat the babies that are no older than 12 or 14 years old and become cannibals.  If people didn’t know this essay was satirical, they would have thought and felt the same way I did.  This essay made me disgusted in the author, but then I realized that he does not truly feel this way and had a different meaning of this essay that I found out after reading it once again. With the overt thesis that Swift stated, he gives a sort of logical and rhetorical reason to justify his cannibalistic proposal that supports the overt thesis of “A Modest Proposal”.  In the 4^th paragraph or passage of the essay he gives a logical reason to justify his proposal by stating that instead of contributing to the poor population, food/clothing shortage, and beggars of the town, the babies will be helping the town through feeding them with themselves.  This would help Dublin to lower the amount of beggars in the town and the shortage of food since they would be giving food with their bodies and they would never have a chance of ever being a beggar since they wouldn’t be alive.   This would have people agree with his proposal because in truth it would help the city with these problems.   He also stated that it would take away the babies being charged upon the church and parents to take care of them when they are kids.  So the parents and parishes wouldn’t have to worry about taking care of them because the babies will be taken and feed to people as food.  The parents could focus their money and time on actually becoming actual workers and the church would have more money to give to the poor.  Even though Swift did write this essay about eating babies and small children, he did not really mean and feel this way.  As I stated above, this was an overt thesis and not an implied thesis.

The narrator is not really supporting the cannibalistic proposal of eating a child because of some ways of language and strategies he uses to clue on his satirical essay.   This is shown in the 31 paragraph of the essay.  The language he uses in the paragraph by saying “…although perhaps I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it (salt).” This sort of gives an implied meaning to show the readers that some “country” would “eat” our whole nation without “it”.  The words showing a hidden meaning by: country meaning England, eat meaning ruin or take over, and it meaning without any say by the people. This was the last part of the last sentence of the passage.  This sentence made everyone realize that something else is being said since this part had barely anything to do with the writing of “eating babies” which showed the overt thesis to not be true. In this passage of the essay, he hints that England is treating them like slaves that can be exported, but with this he is also stating how we cannot be exported at their own will even though the country thinks so.  He also states, “For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, the flesh being of too tender of consistence to admit a long continuance in salt…”  This sentence hints that humans cannot be continually treated cruelly by England and since our fragile human nature is being broken there soon will be a price to pay for the country of theirs.  The strategies Swift used were to write in a way that only the audience, Dublin’s citizens, would understand and created words that overshadowed the ways England was treating them.  He used irony in his essay that made you understand the true meaning. People would understand that the overt thesis was not true by the irony and understanding of the passage of 31.

Overall, the implied thesis is really saying that England is treating Dublin poorly and cannot just come in and take over while not caring at all about the people.  Also that England cannot just treat the people like slaves without even taking into account the actual citizen’s feelings and not realizing that if they treat them cruelly there will be a penalty for them to pay.  Since Swift is not really trying to convince the readers to eat their babies, the real reason is to explain to the people that we need to stand up to England for treating them this way and how England actually thinks they can treat the readers so poorly.

Reflective Cover Letter

Jaclyn Stine

ENGL 121

4 February 2012

Cover Letter

For my research proposal, I discussed the conspiracy theory of the 9/11 truthers.  The strategies and methods I used while working on my research proposal was answering all the questions with one paragraph for each section. Then I focused on answering the questions one by one and researching each view on the 9/11 attack.  I looked for main websites and articles for the answers to my research proposal paper. The articles had to have relevance to the 9/11 attack and the truthers.  I also looked at Wikipedia for some answers.  I looked through outsiders eyes and had no biases in my paper. The way I answered the questions and combined it into a paragraph worked with organizing my paper.   I had trouble with finding the exact answers for each question asked for the requirement. I had trouble finding nonbiased information, since some people thought the 9/11 truthers were crazy and stupid. I also had trouble finding the right information, meaning different statements of information from multiple sites, on the event and views.  Overall, the paper turned out great.  My paper came out like I planned my paper would look like.

The WE#1 gave me a sense of perspective in the learning process outcomes for this class.  The WE#1 helped show me other views of a subject that I may disagree with.   The WE#1 made me look at the different views of the 9/11 attack and learn about the different beliefs. For my future papers, this “sense of perspective” will help me look at others view on the subject and help me better prove or contradict my view and my papers theme.   The research proposal also gave me a sense of perspective in the learning process outcomes for this class.  The paper made me look up the two different views of the 9/11 attack and seeing the views that are different from my own.  I had to acknowledge the different viewpoints in this paper as well as in the WE#1 paper. Also, a lot of the free writes made me have a sense of perspective.  When we had to discuss and think about different views with the authors of a story in our book, I developed a sense of perspective.  We had to discuss the author’s views even if we did not agree with them.

The research proposal gave me reflection in the learning process outcomes for this class.   My research proposal gave me “reflection” by asking me what I wanted to do for my research paper and how I was going to come upon doing so.  It asked me to reflect on how I am going to research my 9/11 conspiracy theory and where am I going to look. This will help me in my future papers by making me plan my ideas out before I start a subject paper.  This also will help me figure out if this subject has enough information about it where I could write a lot about it with credible sources. This planning and reflecting on the future research paper will help me with figuring out how long it will take to do my paper because if I need to actually interview people, I would need time to do so.