Response to Memoir by Pooja Makhijani

After reading this memoir began to think about the main reason she wrote this article. In my opinion, she wrote this article in order to show the contrast between the beliefs of her mother, who believes that she should attempt to lead a more traditional Indian lifestyle, and herself, who is eager to assimilate into the more modern, American culture. Although I agree with her about fitting in, f I were her I would embrace her culture, simply because it’s different than normal, much like the girl in her class that she meets from Pakistan. This story reminds me of when I was in fifth grade and a student who had moved from Thailand was placed in our class. However, he was somewhat anxious about trying American style food because he had never heard of mac and cheese or hot dogs etc., but eventually he grew accustomed to the American culture in defiance to his parent’s beliefs. Sadly he moved back to Thailand the next year. For me, this experience was very similar to the one portrayed in the book and that’s what I found interesting about this memoir.

Response to Martin Luther King Jr.

In Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “ King talks about his reasons for nonviolent direct action and how that method best suited his purpose of acting against racism. I found it interesting because, to me at least, his rhetorical audience seemed to be not only his followers and his opposing white supremacist groups, but further directed to the “white moderate.” I found this so intriguing because he wanted to spread his message to the average white person, of whom somewhat agree with his beliefs, who have sat around and let this treatment go on without opposition. When King says, “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will,” his tone towards his audience is anger. This quote sums up what I find interesting about this particular work. In addition, I admire his ability to write and be able to speak to so many different types of people and have them all understand what he is trying to say. This ability is what makes him so intelligent, in my own opinion at least. Of all the examples that we have read in class, this one provides the best example of how to acknowledge a rhetorical audience.