Phoebe’s Site

1. Which images from Lameris poem resonate most with you, and why?

The beginning really sticks with me because it’s not like focusing on some big thing but only little things. 

1. What is the poet’s argument here? What does she want us, the reader, to consider? and what is your response to her argument(s)?

The poet’s argument is about how we don’t do these little acts of kindness enough to each other because we aren’t in a tight knit community anymore. I agree with them but I would add that we in our American society don’t have enough time because we are a fast and on the move society.  

2. In what ways does “Small Kindnesses” interact with ideas or themes from prior course readings? Be specific as you make multiple connections.

I think it does majorly because all of our themes have been empathy and kindness and interaction between communities. Like with Brian Doyle’s short story and how there were little simple acts of kindness given and shown for the hawk and the community. 

3. In what ways is this a “pandemic poem”? How does your experience living through the Covid-19 pandemic impact your understanding of this poem?

I think my experience with covid has made me more concerned for others’ health and well being. And this poem made me think about empathy and how helping others and even saying “bless you” has its own historical meaning of being like well. Especially living with someone who is at extreme risk of getting sick and possibly dying from covid and who is just like in the last few weeks finally leaving the house, I think patience and kindness and empathy all add and interact with each other. 

4. Read the poem aloud to someone not in our class, or send it to a loved one, then have a brief discussion about it. Write a couple specific sentences describing the interaction (including the person’s initial reaction).

My mom’s reaction was that she said she likes it because it’s about the little kindness people still give to each other, especially if it’s in New England. 

I think over the course of this class in the reading response area. I have started to read more closely, and have more thoughts of my own concise, and deep thoughts. I think that being able to read other peoples work and our own critically and come to our own conclusions are very important, because if we didn’t think for ourselves then where would we get as a society. Writing a reading response also helps me learn what I am writing about and to think it through by summarizing what I thought about it and how I can utilize it in my writing.  Like when I was reading responses for my second essay in my English composition 110 course. 

I had to analyze two articles written about empathy, one by David Foster-Wallace who gave a commencement speech called “This is Water ” about awareness and even though he does not name it, but empathy. The other reading is called “Is Empathy Overrated?” and it is by Paul Bloom, a psychiatrist from Connecticut. He talks about how empathy isn’t good and that it has possible dangers that are harmful to the public. Honestly, if I hadn’t written out what I thought in a reading response; my high school self would have had a lot of issues introducing those two articles and what it was about to you (the reader).  But some real physical evidence of critical reading and writing in a response would be from one of the reading response questions for DFW assignment. 

“ 1. Find one DFW quote that evoked a strong response. Paste the direct quote from his piece, then write a few sentences in which you challenge or support his statement.?

“It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

“This is water.”

“This is water.”

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.”( This is Water, David Foster Wallace). He’s saying that it’s hard to notice what people could be going through around you because you are focused on you. I agree with this and I think it’s really insightful and intelligent the way he explains it because everyone can relate to looking out for ourselves since day one. Some of us aren’t aware of everything in easy terms; it’s not on our radar yet or it won’t ever be.  

2. How do DFW’s main points interact with those of Paul Bloom (from our last reading)??

I think that they interact in the way of that spotlight or choosing to see something or even think about others and how they are feeling and what they could be going through. “ (Carrona).

 In this previous quote from my homework I’ve shown that I have put aside the time and mental and critical effort to think of my own ideas that wouldn’t have become my own analysis if I hadn’t deeply read the articles presented. The reading responses helped me organize my own thoughts that I had started while reading. Making sure I wouldn’t lose them in my line of thought. 

1)My essay’s most notable strength I believe is my conclusion, because I feel it ties the essay together in a way that delivers my message to my reader. In this quote that shows what I did in my essay…”Having and showing empathy is social to its roots; it’s choosing to be social and to interact. We choose to be aware when we need to empathize with someone else. It is a choice to know what is going on in their lives. Also it doesn’t necessarily mean we will feel the same kind of “pain” they are feeling. We could totally not understand the experience they have shared with you.  If we didn’t have empathy then we wouldn’t have a social structure in our world as humans. If we didn’t have empathy we wouldn’t have any kindness because you must understand to be kind to someone, we wouldn’t have respect enough to listen to someone else. Empathic awareness is in no way “overrated”. “(Carrona, 6). In my quote from my essay it wraps the points I made throughout it up very cleanly. Starting with more of my ideas and not quotes. 

2)The techniques I used for primary sources like DFW and Bloom. Where nejsayer and barclay paragraphs and as sandwich paragraphs which worked a bit better. But I did use my secondary source (chen) to help with a nejsayer against Bloom’s ideas. I also did use more of my ideas and I used some of my personal experiences that helped with my point, but I tried not to silence any other point that was made on Bloom’s part for the nejsayers. 

3)I think that connection in the barclay paragraph makes it flow through personal experience and using the evidence to help prove your point and makes it just make more sense. And it made the sources that say different views help with my thesis. I thought this was more of showing a perspective that helped connect it to the source. 

4)  My second essay thesis is more evolved and more evaluated then my first one, because my second essay has more depth to it than the first one. The second one also explains my thoughts better and it is adding to my ideas. “I think that social media is helpful in keeping friendships until we see our friends again. “ (Carrona, 1(essay one)).  You can see in it that it’s very short and only gets in so much. Whereas in my second one “I think that it is important to have empathy and awareness of what someone else is feeling because it is how we communicate as a society and without it everyone wouldn’t be kind or understanding. Imagine everyone walking around all angry because no one else is aware of how they’re feeling or what they have been going through because of no interaction. “(Carrona, 1(essay two)). I add a bit more to it and make more of why I think what I said for my thesis versus just saying a slim thesis non thought out with more of my ideas. 

I see that I rely a lot on words like, according, here, when, through, though, it, how, which. In this paragraph and quote introductions. I have a very blunt and repetitive writing style that doesn’t different with my repeated words or phrases. I think the revision really helped solidify what I am thinking, and ties the quotes together. This gets my point across better with the transitions. 

Revised 

Furthermore Bloom talks about how we only empathize with people and experiences that we like and anything different and strange to us isn’t worthy of our empathy. According to Bloom, “But for us mortals, empathy really is a spotlight. It’s a spotlight that has a narrow focus, one that shines most brightly on those we love and gets dim for those who are strange or different or frightening.” (Bloom). I think he is false in this because in a story we read at the beginning of the semester called “Unfollow” by Adrian Chen, which is about how a follower and family member of the Westboro Baptist church, stopped believing in the hate speech and propaganda being spread that she grew up with through interaction over Twitter with people. Megan Phelps-Roper was incharge of the churches Twitter account and was spreading its horrible homophobic beliefs when she encountered forms of friendship with people who majorly didn’t agree with what she believed. This quote shows how she forms friendships and shows lots of empathy towards people who she knows are different from her in beliefs and opinions. Conversely in this quote Chen talks about how Phelps-Roper actually didn’t have a narrow spotlight like in contrast Bloom suggests while Chen says that she did start having a bond and empathy towards people who are different.  “Other Twitter users were fascinated by the dissonance between Westboro’s loathsome reputation and the goofy, pop-culture-obsessed millennial who Phelps-Roper seemed to be on Twitter. “I remember just thinking, How can somebody who appreciates good music believe so many hateful things?” Graham Hughes said. In November, 2009, Hughes, then a college student in British Columbia, interviewed Phelps-Roper for a religious-studies class. Afterward, they corresponded frequently on Twitter. When Hughes was hospitalized with a brain infection, Phelps-Roper showed him more concern than many of his real-life friends. “I knew there was a genuine connection between us,” he said. As Phelps-Roper continued to tweet, she developed relationships with more people like Hughes. There was a Jewish marketing consultant in Brooklyn who abhorred Westboro’s tactics but supported the church’s right to express its views. There was a young Australian guy who tweeted political jokes that she and her younger sister Grace found hilarious. “It was like I was becoming part of a community,” Phelps-Roper said. By following her opponents’ feeds, she absorbed their thoughts on the world, learned what food they ate, and saw photographs of their babies. “I was beginning to see them as human,” she said. When she read about an earthquake that struck off Canada’s Pacific coast, she sent a concerned tweet to Graham Hughes: “Isn’t this close to you’ ”(Chen, 20). As a result of Phelps-Roper’s own personal experience of showing empathy towards someone who she knows doesn’t agree with her shows that though her spotlight may seem narrow it isn’t. Yet she was seeing them as human, and she was concerned and showing empathy towards them; which unfortunately during the time something she was being taught to hate. Although Megan Phelps-Roper choses to be aware of these people who thought differently, and were strange to her. She chooses to care and show empathy towards them; like with Huges how she was concerned for him when he got sick and when an earthquake happened near him she showed concern and empathy towards those situations regardless of their own independent and very different beliefs.  

Not Revised

Here Bloom talks about how we only empathize with people and experiences that we like and anything different and strange to us isn’t worthy of our empathy. According to Bloom, “But for us mortals, empathy really is a spotlight. It’s a spotlight that has a narrow focus, one that shines most brightly on those we love and gets dim for those who are strange or different or frightening.” (Bloom). I think he is false in this because in a story we read at the beginning of the semester called “Unfollow” by Adrian Chen, which is about how a follower, and family member of the Westboro Baptist church, stopped believing in the hate speech and propaganda being spread that she grew up with through interaction over Twitter with people. Megan Phelps-Roper was incharge of the churches Twitter account and was spreading its horrible homophobic beliefs when she encountered forms of friendship with people who majorly didn’t agree with what she believed. In this quote shows how she forms friendships and shows lots of empathy towards people who she knows are different from her in beliefs and opinions “Other Twitter users were fascinated by the dissonance between Westboro’s loathsome reputation and the goofy, pop-culture-obsessed millennial who Phelps-Roper seemed to be on Twitter. “I remember just thinking, How can somebody who appreciates good music believe so many hateful things?” Graham Hughes said. In November, 2009, Hughes, then a college student in British Columbia, interviewed Phelps-Roper for a religious-studies class. Afterward, they corresponded frequently on Twitter. When Hughes was hospitalized with a brain infection, Phelps-Roper showed him more concern than many of his real-life friends. “I knew there was a genuine connection between us,” he said. As Phelps-Roper continued to tweet, she developed relationships with more people like Hughes. There was a Jewish marketing consultant in Brooklyn who abhorred Westboro’s tactics but supported the church’s right to express its views. There was a young Australian guy who tweeted political jokes that she and her younger sister Grace found hilarious. “It was like I was becoming part of a community,” Phelps-Roper said. By following her opponents’ feeds, she absorbed their thoughts on the world, learned what food they ate, and saw photographs of their babies. “I was beginning to see them as human,” she said. When she read about an earthquake that struck off Canada’s Pacific coast, she sent a concerned tweet to Graham Hughes: “Isn’t this close to you’ ”(Chen, 20). Through Phelps-Roper’s own personal experience of showing empathy towards someone who she knows doesn’t agree with her shows that though her spotlight may seem narrow it isn’t, she was seeing them as human and she was concerned and showing empathy towards them; which unfortunately during the time something she was being taught to hate. But Megan Phelps-Roper choses to be aware of these people who thought differently, and were strange to her. She chooses to care and show empathy towards them; like with Huges how she was concerned for him when he got sick and when an earthquake happened near him she showed concern and empathy towards those situations regardless of their own independent and very different beliefs.  

“I think that it is important to have empathy and awareness of what someone else is feeling because it is how we communicate as a society and without it everyone wouldn’t be kind or understanding.”

My thesis takes a very clear and open stance on the matter.  By  using the words “important” and “how” to explain why it is important to have empathy. And then I add something about if we didn’t have empathy for what our society would be like. The multiple components to it because I continue into what the topics I would be going further into for my analysis. I think I can re craft it to not have some repetitive words like “and ”. Maybe go into a bit of detail and give an example of why we need it to communicate and how without it no one would be kind or understanding. Add some personal experience to my intro after the thesis, to make it more legitimate as a person in our society. I think it’s a pretty broad statement that doesn’t get into specifics.

1. In two healthy paragraphs, summarize the speech and show (with framed quotes and paraphrases from the text) what you believe to be the author’s three main points/arguments. Support with textual evidence and include your own initial response to the material.?

Default setting to be deeply self centered and we choose to not be when we show empathy to other people. People choose what they find in meaning with their experiences. How to get away from your natural default setting of being alone and think about yourself. “The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in. Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think, and if I don’t make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I’m gonna be pissed and miserable every time I have to shop. Because my natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me.” (This is Water, David Foster Wallace). 

He talks about how it’s his natural setting and then he goes on to say…“Or I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket’s checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do.” (This is Water, David Foster Wallace). He talks about choice and how we can be blind until we decide to not be , and this could be because we could have the “benefit of the doubt” or even change our minds through our own experiences even after not choosing to be aware of an event or an experience that hasn’t hit us yet. Like in this quote.“…you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. “(This is Water, David Foster Wallace). 

Do you agree with DFW’s main arguments? Why or why not? Explain.?

Yes I agree with DFW’s main arguments, because mindset is a choice, it is a choice to be self aware and aware of other people around. To be aware of the cause that you can affect on other people and how they can be affected by their own lives. Which you may not be apart from or even noticed at all. 

1. Do you believe DFW is referring to empathy, even though he never uses the word? Or is he hinting at something else??

I think what he is referring to is his self awareness and awareness of other people around and in a way empathy towards someone else is water. You can choose to be empathic but we are self centered as humans. I think he is hinting at empathy but empathy out of the spotlight like Bloom is talking about. 

2. Find one DFW quote that evoked a strong response. Paste the direct quote from his piece, then write a few sentences in which you challenge or support his statement.?

“It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

“This is water.”

“This is water.”

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.”( This is Water, David Foster Wallace).

He’s saying that it’s hard to notice what people could be going through around you because you are focused on you. I agree with this and I think it’s really insightful and intelligent the way he explains it because everyone can relate to looking out for ourselves since day one. Some of us aren’t aware of everything in easy terms; it’s not on our radar yet or it won’t ever be.  

3. How do DFW’s main points interact with those of Paul Bloom (from our last reading)??

I think that they interact in the way of that spotlight or choosing to see something or even think about others and how they are feeling and what they could be going through. 

In two healthy paragraphs, summarize the piece AND show (with framed quotes and paraphrases from the text) what you believe to be the author’s three main points/arguments. Support with textual evidence and include your own initial response to the material.?

Basically in this text the author Paul Bloom is explaining why he believes that empathy isn’t legit in the ways we use it for and how it is overrated because “But spotlights have a narrow focus, and this is one problem with empathy.”(Bloom, Is empathy overrated). He states this first off. He also talks about how we focus and are more likely to be empathetic to people who are like us and those we love than to people who are different and strange to us. He also mentions that in hearing the full circumstances of a single person’s case or even to two that it’s hard to empathize for more than one person at a  time making empathy also biased and one sided. 

I think that Bloom’s main points are that we need to look at the whole picture and that empathy is mostly one sided and only hyper focused on one thing over other circumstances that can arise. Also that empathy doesn’t help solve the problem to a degree because if you’re down about someone else’s problems how can you focus on yourself. Even the shock of hearing what has or had happened can make you just feel bad and don’t actually help the person. 

Do you agree with Bloom’s main arguments? Why or why not?

I do agree with Blooms main arguments to a degree I agree mostly with the ending argument Bloom presents, I think that comparison really drove it home and that that statistical evidence he uses about school shoots people might argue more with because its hitting close to home with a lot of issues going on the US that people don’t want to talk about it. When they do, they are so focused on them that they can’t tear away and empathize with other people going through, and other things that are related to it. 

In what ways does Bloom challenge your initial understanding or perception regarding empathy?

Bloom challenges my main understanding about the perception of empathy when he talks about how it is such a narrow focus and when he states that empathy is limited in the way that it focuses on certain individuals and not a group of people who have experienced a similar thing. And that general kindness in everyday life is more of an impact than just feeling sorry for someone. 

Find one claim Bloom makes that evoked a strong response. Paste the direct quote from his piece, then write a few sentences in which you challenge OR support his claim in your own words and experience(s).?

“”I’d argue that what really matters for kindness in our everyday interactions is not empathy but capacities such as self control and intelligence and a more diffused compassion… If you absorb the suffering of others, then you are less able to help them in the long run because achieving long term goals often requires inflicting short term pain. “ (Bloom, Is empathy overrated?). This is one of the claims I do see on Bloom’s side of view. If you only feel sorry for someone and that’s it then it’s not helping them or challenging them to help themselves or even yourself. Or when you try to help you could just be adding to some other factor where they don’t need that empathy or sympathy to help them but some tough comment to keep them going. There are other ways to help or show kindness without always feeling bad for someone.

 I think that social media is helpful in keeping friendships until we see our friends again. This was my thesis statement. I think that it has key points but it could have a bit more density to it and bring in other points like a naysayer. Then making my body paragraphs make more sense and more in depth in my thinking rather than surface material. 

I learned that I felt scattered and I would try an outline that’s more structured with what my main points are/were. I kind of just started writing this prompt one. 

I focused on bringing in quotes that proved my point to add and make my personal experiences have more merit. The quotes helped with that from both authors and it made my point more solidified and have a deeper connection with my personal experiences. 

I approach paper 2 with more of a solid outline, and have the prompt on the outline. I would also use better word choices and make them more articulated than just simple, and more points and evidence, also give it a title.