Creative topic essay of university of Chicago

"Have you ever walked through the aisles of a warehouse store like Costco or Sam’s Club and wondered who would buy a jar of mustard a foot and a half tall? We’ve bought it, but it didn’t stop us from wondering about other things, like absurd eating contests, impulse buys, excess, unimagined uses for mustard, storage, preservatives, notions of bigness…and dozens of other ideas both silly and serious. Write an essay somehow inspired by super-huge mustard."

Yellow, full of yellow in a big plastic jar, this color is the only first impression of super-huge mustard jar. A plastic jar which is as big as a calf is full of one color, yellow. Suddenly, I had a question, why is mustard sauce yellow? I know mustard plant is yellow. However, it is not as yellow as the sauce made from it. So, what is the main cause of absolute yellow? Sugar? Vinegar? Or other things? And what color would it be when mustard sauce decays? Someone who buys super-huge mustard will know this color but I don't know. Then, what if mustard’s color were blue of black?

As soon as I think about black or blue mustard, I wonder if people would still eat mustard even if it is black or blue, assuming that the taste is the same. I don’t know how other people like but I would not eat black or blue mustard. Chicken nugget with blue mustard sauce is a little bit disgusting for me. I think I can't eat blue chicken nugget even though its taste is the same.

However, am I right? It could be natural response for blue mustard sauce, but there is no change in mustard sauce except the its color. . Actually, the taste of mustard sauce is not related with its color and the usage of mustard source is to eat, not to see. But, I thought blue mustard sauce would not be tasty although I have never tried it. I believe this thought is a prejudice against blue mustard.

There is a lot of 'blue mustard sauce' in society. The colored, the physically or mentally disabled people, the ugly. They are 'blue mustard sauce in society. Many people, who are yellow mustard sauce in society, have prejudices against blue mustard sauce and even discriminate them. We just think them as an aberration from the standard. For example, the colored are considered as potential criminals or and the disabled are considered as not being able to do anything at all.. And a lot of people accept these prejudice or discrimination without any criticism.

However, both yellow mustard sauce and blue mustard sauce are tasty. They do go with chicken nugget. We never try tasting blue mustard sauce event though its taste would be the same as yellow one. Aren't we doing the same thing to the colored or the disabled? Appearance is just a part of one person and we should know that it doesn't affect the authentic character of a person.

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How does the use of genre and writing style support the main ideas in George Orwell's 'Why I Write'

why I write

In ‘why I write’ by George Orwell, Orwell writes about the history of his writing and its motivation. He suggests four motivations, which are sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, political purpose. The writer wrote because of three motivations except political purpose when he was young. However, he had changed and started to write for political purpose which means he wrote because of desire to push the world in a certain direction. In this essay, the writer unfolds his thought by dealing with political purpose and other motivations. He claims that writers should write for political purpose but not abandon other motivations.

The genre of this essay and the writing style support the main idea of it. First, The essay includes two genres, personal narrative and poem. The writer writes about his writing history from his childhood to present. In the writing, the writer has grown up. Also, the writer's motivation of writing and thought about it changed. Usually, people consider growing up as a development. The main idea of this writing is a thought of the present writer who has grown up and developed. Then, the writer contrasts his past thought with present thought. Naturally, his present thought seems more sophisticated, persuasive and reasonable than his past thought. In other words, by contrasting present with past thought, the writer shows an excellence of the main idea. Personal narrative supports the main idea in another way. Personal narrative gives experiences which are related to motivations of writing and relevant thoughts. There are examples of the essay which are motivated by four motivations like 'nature poems' in the Georgian style, Paradise Lost, Animal Farm. It helps readers to understand characteristics and concepts of those motivations. In addition, this genre gives specific reason for change in the writer's motivation and background of the last motivation. The writer mentions a poverty-stricken experience and the job in Burma which made him understand imperialism. Moreover, readers can find that the time setting changes to Hitler, the Spanish Civil War from peaceful era. These experiences and time setting inspire the writer to think about fourth motivation. Then, those give an inevitability of the main idea.

Poem also supports the main idea. The writer quotes the poem and it is a part of genre in the writing. Even though the poem deals with dilemma of the writer, it seems the poem claims writers should write for political purpose because the era has changed. However, the genre of poem includes other motivations especially the aesthetic value and the writer quoted it to show his dilemma. It was effective. Therefore, the poem reveals necessity of political purpose and effectiveness of other motivations simultaneously.

The writing style also supports the main idea. For example, the writer's tone and attitude are confessional in the first part. In the beginning part of the essay, it seems he wrote badly because he wrote when he was young. In addition to them, intended boring description -'He pushed the door~ a dead leaf'- is also used to emphasize defects of the writing without political purpose. However, the writer doesn't only support the fourth motivation in the first part. He says if he escapes from this early influence (other three motivations), he will kill his impulse to write. The writer keeps neutrality and supports main idea.

Word choice in the poem also supports the main idea. It is related with time change, too. 'A happy vicar I might have been two hundred years ago ~ But born, alas, in an evil time.' Before the time changed, it was peaceful time. However, it becomes an evil time (it symbolizes Hitler and Spanish Civil War.) This also gives inevitability of the writing for political purpose.

And in the last part of the writing, the writer repeats the same structure. The structure of emphasizing the importance of political purpose and aesthetic values repeats continuously. It seems inconsistent, so readers could have question about which is more important. However, the writer writes it with consistency. He emphasizes the excellence and importance of both. Because they are important, they are repeated in the last part. However, the political purpose is written in the last line. Therefore, political purpose is little bit more important than aesthetic values in this writing.

To conclude, the main idea is the writer should write for political purpose but should not abandon aesthetic aspects and other motivations. George Orwell used many genres and writing styles to support main idea. As a result, George Orwell succeeded in sending a message that writers should not be naive in the world but also be a politician.

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Reflection on my in-class response to Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner.

The appearance of Nacirema that I assume

 The first impression when I got the paper about Nacirema was embarrassing. This is because Mr. Menard gives a surprise present, surprising essay day. Then, when I read it, I become more nervous because the sentence structure and lexicons in the writing were so hard that I couldn't understand them easily. For example, the difficult expressions like 'incarcerated' or 'thaumaturge' kept me from understanding the writing.

Anyway, because Mr. Menard made us write an essay about it and I thought it was important for my score, I tried my best to understand it. Then, I wrote an essay about it with incomplete understanding. I thought Nacirema's ritual activity was very cruel and barbaric. Unbelievable ritual torture such as baking women's heads in small ovens seems like the scene in 'Saw.' I assumed someone who suppose cultural relativism would claim that we should respect their cultures because each culture is different but not wrong. I thought this opinion has a problem. I thought even though we should respect variety of cultures, the cultures should follow universal natural rights of man. I had tried to write about it in the essay, but failed because of lack of time.

Then, two days after surprising essay day, I had Mr. Menard's class again. In the class, I realized the trick of the writing. 

Nacirema was a backword of American. The description of Nacirema's ritual activity is actually a description of American's routine. Making holes in tooth is a treating a cavity and baking women's head in a small oven is getting a perm. It was really fun but a little bit shocking. I was deceived by the difficult lexicon, sentence structure and the authority of the professor in the writing.

Other than difficult sentences and vocabularies, there are some elements which make me be deceived by the writing. First, The writing describes the writing Nacirema like describing the nature of animals or plants. In the writing, the observer observed Nacirema with the thought that they are different and far away from us. Therefore, I feel their culture is absolutely unrelated to us. It makes me unrealize the truth of Nacirema. Also, the writing style which seems objective and realistic causes me to be deceived. We can find it in the society . When we learn about other cultures, we don't feel that culture and usually just learn by the book. Therefore, we feel we observe other cultures and it interrupts real understanding of the culture.

Furthermore, it was written in 1950's. It is far away from the present so readers can feel sense of difference. Therefore, it makes Nacirema's story plausible because it was past. If it were written in 2000's and Nacirema were still alive, it would be more unbelievable.

In addition to the clever tricks in the writing, I can't deny that my previous thought and education affect my thought in my first essay. I thought Nacirema is barbaric and cruel. I accepted the fake observation about Nacirema in the writing. I think I thought like that because I have read the observation of cultures which is based on the thought of the main current cultures. It means I ha accepted the observation which the observer interpret with the standard of the main current culture. This observation can lead misunderstanding of the culture. For example, to exaggerate, future's people could interpret silicone in present woman's breast as a symbol of deep piety. It sounds absurd and other tribes in Africa also can think that our interpretation is absurd.

After I had read and thought about Nacirema, there were a lot of change in my idea of other cultures and other things. First of all, I started to try to assess other cultures with consideration 'who am I.' To be more detailed, 'who am I in the various society.' Because I had been born in the society, my sense of value and morality are fit for the society's value. Therefore, when I see other cultures, my decision is affected by the society's value. Actually, each society pursues different values and anyone doesn't know which is better or right. So, I decided to not to assess other cultures recklessly without consideration of variety of cultures.

However, although I consider them carefully, still there is a possibility that people from other cultures don't care about us. Therefore, I thought I should consider how people form different cultures think about me. My culture is unfamiliar culture to them. They would try to understand us with their own culture and it also can lead misunderstanding. Therefore, we should consider it when we interact with people from other countries and have different cultures.

In conclusion, Nacirema is very meaningful stuff for me. It teaches me that I should study harder to prevent being deceived by difficult words. Also, my idea and attitude to different cultures changed to positive ways. I become more careful to them and it will lead positive communication between . So, Nacirema was so meaningful.

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