"Worse Than Wal-Mart"

Similar to the previous reading, the article "Worse Than Wal-Mart," points out the negative aspects of large corporations. The author, Simon Head, argues that Amazon is one of the most abusive businesses around, an issue that many individuals are unaware of. Despite all of their false advertisement about trust and care for both their customers and employees, there is actually a harmful reality behind closed doors. Head writes, "Amazon's customers are principally valued by the corporation as mainstays of the bottom line, and not as vehicles for the fulfillment of personals relationships ... Amazon treats a second significant grouping of men and women with whom it has dealings-its employees- with the very opposite of care and trust." Amazon completely mistreats their employees in various ways that are unacceptable for a professional corporation. Overall, Amazon- like Wal-Mart- is very unprofessional when dealing with other individuals and they do not handle their interactions in a businesslike fashion whatsoever.

"My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor"

Joseph Williams, a once very successful veteran reporter, writes about the daily struggles that he was encountered with at his job in a sporting-goods retail store in the article, "My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor." After being fired from his job and undergoing a series of unfortunate events, Williams finally found employment in a retail store called Sporting Goods Inc. At the time, Williams was basically homeless and living off food stamps, so any sort of paying job was much needed. To his surprise, Williams discovered that working in retail was far worse than he originally expected. For a mere $10 an hour, Williams had to do many unpleasant tasks that were unforeseen when he first got the job, all while losing whatever bit of dignity and freedom he had left. In his article Williams writes, "Of course, I had no idea what a modern retail job demanded. I didn't realize the stamina that would be necessary, the extra, unpaid duties that would be tacked on, or the required disregard for one's own self esteem." He goes on to mention that while working at the store he received little to no respect and he could not even stand up for himself because of fear for losing his job which was barely supporting him. Finally, after spending much time and dedication to a job that was hardly worth it, Williams quit and found a job much more suited for him. Overall, life in the retail world is far worse than one would imagine and yet there is little we can do about it due to today's dire need of employment,

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

With the creation of the internet, life has become far more simple by having the answer to all of our questions right at our fingertips. However, even with easy access to every bit of knowledge we need right before us, has the internet influenced our thoughts and mindset in a more negative way than we think? This is a question that author Nicholas Carr addresses in his article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" In the article, Carr discusses how the internet has distracted individuals from deep reading and intellectual thought as we are more tempted to jump from link to link simply scanning through the pages. On the other hand, in a book there are no ads or other interruptions and we are able to become fully invested in what we are reading. Carr writes, "And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles." This form of education that we receive from the internet can be troubling because it ultimately shapes our process of thought. It tempts us to simply "power browse" and avoid the traditional sense of reading. For example, Google, the ultimate source of the internet for many individuals, is trying to "systemize" everything it does. It strives to control how users find information through search engines and influence the way in which we take meaning from it. By aiming to become the world's "perfect" search engine, Google and the rest of the internet are tremendously impacting the way in which we receive and process information and are ultimately guiding us to distraction.

"Baby Talk Bonanza"

In the article "Baby Talk Bonanza" the author, Sara Neufeld, claims that intelligence stems from the amount of communication that a child is exposed to from birth on. She supports her argument by referencing pediatric surgeon Dana Suskind and her work with hearing-impaired children. After performing a cochlear implant in a young child, Suskind does follow up work regarding the child learning to talk. From her work, Suskind noticed a disturbing trend that children from low-income families were lagging far behind after surgery and saw that their success of speaking was not nearly as high. Neufeld writes, "Their landmark study in the 1990s found that a child born into poverty hears 30 million fewer words by age 3 than a child born to well-off parents, creating a gap n literacy preparation that has implications for a lifetime". These startling statistics were extremely concerning to Suskind and lead to her creation of The Thirty Million Words Project. This social movement deals with the issue that children are not simply born smart, but they are instead made smart by their parents talking with them, and The Thirty Million Words Project strives to promote communication. Although the parents may not have the best education or job, they can still tremendously influence the future of their children by simply having more conversation and asking questions. Even Aneish Newell, a participant of The Thirty Million Words Project, said that by increasing communication with her young children she saw dramatic results. Her four year old daughter was capable of spelling her full name, remembering her address and phone number, identifying and spelling colors, and even counting to high numbers which are many things that other four years olds cannot yet do. Even Newell herself, has found the encouragement to work on her education though this project. Overall, regardless of ones race, gender, economic condition, etc., we all have the power to influence the future of today's youth by simply promoting communication.

Ethan Frome

Author Elizabeth Ammons argues that the story Ethan Frome is actually written as a hidden fairytale. She mainly argues that the story is a reversed fairytale that is twisted to become scary, or in other words, a psychological horror story. She backs up her argument using many supportive pieces of evidence. First of all, she relates characters from the story to commonly known fairytale roles, such as Zeena being compared to a witch. She writes, "Zeena's face alone would type her as a witch. Sallow-complexioned and old at thirty-five, her bloodless countenance is composed of high protruding cheekbones, lashless lids over piercing eyes, thin colorless hair, and a mesh of minute vertical lines between her gaunt nose and granite chin" (147). Second, Ammons associates Mattie Silver as being a princess, which is a character that is essential in almost every fairytale. She argues that the use of language to describe Mattie in Ethan's eyes is extremely similar to characteristics of a fairytale princess. Lastly, Ammons asserts that the colors used in this story create fairytale-like imagery among the reader. Each character has their own distinct colors, which is a tactic often used in fairytales to draw children's attention. These methods of support that Ammons writes about, along with many others, help her in her claim of Ethan Frome as a reversed fairytale.

After reading her argument, I would have to say that Ammons makes many valid points. Similar to a real fairytale, Ethan Frome consists of many similar elements. It tells an interesting story, has a message, and even focuses around a villain and other fairytale characters. 

In my opinion, the meaning behind Ethan Frome is that what goes around comes around. Clearly Mattie knew that Ethan was a married man and yet she still decided to pursue a relationship with him. Not only was he married, but his wife was her own family member who took her in while she was in need. On a similar note, Ethan himself was guilty for committing adultery. Although they both deserve the right to happiness, there are several measures that they could have taken previous to forming a relationship, which would have made the situation a little more permissible. Because of their wrongdoing, fate took its course and punished the both of them for going behind Zeena's back and they both became physically injured. Another significant aspect of the story that I would write about is the weather. The weather itself has a huge effect on the story, and without it, the story would be much different and have alternate outcomes. The weather plays a big role in the story, and can be considered it's own character. Overall, the relationships and weather are two extremely significant parts of this story.  

"Trading Stories"

Throughout her life, Jhumpa Lahiri, dedicated her life to reading and writing, which is where she found her true passion. In the article "Trading Stories," Lahiri tells about growing up in a household where reading material was limited and how she overcame this issue by finding ways to get her hands on books that she was interested in and writing with friends at school. Her fathers books were not appealing to her as they mostly dealt with his studies and her mothers were often in a different language or off limits. Despite this, Lahiri was still able to find ways to obtain English books about American lives. Problem was, these books separated Lahiri from her parents and give her insight into a different kind of world that they were unaware of. This created a feeling of trespassing for Lahiri, however, she was learning and becoming fully invested with these texts. In this way, Lahiri was able to know and understand American lives better and she began making friends at school through common interests with writing. Everyday, whether at recess or at home, Lahiri was devoting every spare moment she had to reading and writing and it was the one place she felt truly comfortable. Literature broke the barrier between herself and the outside world, and with it, she found her real self.

"Twilight of the Books"

In the article, "Twilight of the Books," Caleb Crain points out the startling decline in reading habits in todays generation. Throughout the past couple decades, the amount of time that individuals have spent reading has continuously gone down. Along with the dwindling timespan spent reading, the ability to read has decreased as well. In his article, Crain writes, "Between 1955 and 1975, the decades when television was being introduced into the Netherlands, reading on weekday evenings and weekends fell from five hours a week to 3.6, while television watching rose from about ten minutes a week to more than ten hours." This is extremely alarming because reading is essential to ones education and knowledge, however, it seems that nowadays many individuals are placing entertainment above their own learning. If this pattern continues, and reading falls while television rises, then our younger generations could be at a serious loss.