Essay Post 3

The Lives of a Cell

Lewis Thomas

Man is apart of nature. We were not made separately or exclusively above much of anything in nature, and this is the claim that Lewis Thomas makes. Thomas was an American biologist, etymologist, and poet. The Lives if a Cell is an essay where Thomas reflecting bout man and how he views himself with the animal kingdom and as the superior of all living things on the Earth. While this is what Thomas is talking about, he is actually arguing the opposite in this essay. Thomas believes that man has subscribed to this geocentric and self-centered view of the universe where we believe that we are in control. Thomas wrote this essay to argue the point that all of human kind has to take a step back and realize that our place is not at the top of the mountain. 

This essay was written to any person who believes that man is separate from the natural world. One of the ways that lewis Thomas fulfills his purpose for writing this essay is by going through and breaking down different operations of our body that we have no control over. For example, in the fourth and fifth paragraphs, Thomas talks about primitive bacteria called mitochondrion that break down food and supply the body with energy. But whats unique about this organelle is that it isn’t bases from human cells; its actually an older bacteria that now lives inside of our cells but with separate DNA and RNA. Thomas spins this point as showing how nature even lives within us and helps us function. It’s truly a testament that shows that despite all of our creations and all of our creativity, we can’t do it all by ourselves. 

I think that Thomas got his point across in this essay. His argument at first were a bit ambiguous and broad, but over the course of the essay and by using examples, he narrowed it down to a digestible idea. 

Essay Post 2

Bop

Langston Hughes

Bop is a piece that was written by the man, the myth and the legend, Langston Hughes, in 1949. This essay is about two men who have a conversation one day about a genre of music called be-bop. Langston Hughes is famous for his work and contribution to the Harlem Renaissance, a period in the 20th century when black people and black poetry had become popular in the United States. The purpose of this essay is to inform the audience about the effects racism had on the black community, and how it had become so engrained in the culture, a style of music was named after it. Living as a black man in the forties, it was difficult dealing with police. A character named Simple says it best when he says, “A dark man shall see dark days” (35). Between brutality from the police and segregation from some of the other white people at the time, days were dark for the dark man indeed. This essay was written for people who had heard of be-bop music, but not known the racist origins, so Hughes takes some time out with this piece to break it down. 

The ways that Hughes gets his point across are through the uses of colloquialisms and onomatopoeia. The colloquialisms come from a man named Simple, who is the man one doing most of the talking in this essay. His use of slang words like “Negro” and referring to the people as “folks” (“white folks” or “black folks”) make the conversation more laid back and informal. Some of the onomatopoeia used in this essay like, “bop” and, “‘ooool-ya-koo! Ou-o-o!” demonstrate the sounds that the black people would make and give us an idea of how this was translated into the music style of the day. With all of this put together, I’d say that Hughes efficiently gets his point across. He uses characters like Simple and the various rhetorical devices to the reality of life as a black man, and how this pain was turned into a lively and beautiful genre of music.

Essay Post 1

Robert Frost

The Figure a Poem Makes

This essay is written by none other than the world renowned Robert Frost. He is one of the most well known poets of his time because of his works like The Road Not Taken, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, and Fire and Ice. Frost’s The Figure a Poem Makes is a reflection on poems and his personal take as to what a poem should both be and consist of. Frost argues throughout this piece that poems shouldn't only be beautiful and appreciated as works of art, but that they should also teach the reader something important. Whether it be a small moral or words to live by, Frost believes that poems and all of poetry should be as helpful as it is alluring. I believe that this is more geared towards the poet because Frost is constantly bringing up the responsibilities that poets must respect to call themselves poets. He also delves a little bit into the relationship between a writer and their reader, making the legendary claim, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader” (para. 5). What that line means is that if the writer hasn’t been experiencing life to the fullest, then he wont be able to tell the reader much about life at all. 

Around the time that this poem was released, the world was in a dark place; right in the period of time between the first and second world wars. I believe that Frost only desired to see more people help each other and add their own wisdom to the world. Being a poet of his stature, he definitely has the credibility to make claims such as these. Although this was a bit difficult to read because of the gap in time and style of writing, I do believe that Frost got his point across. At first what Frost says that he wants from poets is vague, but as I continued through the essay, it became clear that what Frost truly wanted was more originality in the field of poetry. He says about poets that they gather their knowledge “cavalierly”, and if theres one thing the world could always use more of, it’s authenticity.