Passage from 1855 Edition of Leaves of Grass

Passage from Roughing It by Mark Twain

Passage from Politics and the English Language

These three passages have an underlying concept of accomplishment. Leaves of Grass describes how America is an accomplished nation who has embodied many different manifestations which ultimately shaped the way the American life is. For example, the passage explains that America is a an entity or rather, a certain personality that can take place in “the new life of the new forms.” The passage then compliments all of the certain hardships that America has gone through and despite the fact that America is shaped by the same history, America is a “nation of nations.” This explains how America isn’t tied to a certain mold and through this we are able to “indicate heroes” who have accomplished a full life.

In Mark Twain’s Roughing It, Twain camps at Lake Tahoe where he feels a sense of fulfillment through nature. One of the most noticeable examples is how he camps on the lake side and wakes up feeling “thoroughly refreshed” making it this experience an experience that the readers want to have. He then states that being at camp can restore one self to “pristine vigor.” Twain follows up with an example of a man who actually came to the camp to take away their life but with some time experiencing life through the camp as he was “eating all he could” and “skeleton no longer.” With that, we can see how nature can put life back within people and to further themselves to enjoy life.

Politics and the English Language focuses on how you can change the way you write to accomplish a variety of goals with your rhetoric. For example, one needs to “let the meaning chose the word” in order to ensure that the words used will be elevated to the highest degree. The passage then states that one of the practices that should be definitely be avoided is to “surrender” to the word. Instead, they suggest that you should use words that “get one’s meaning as clear as one can” through this the certain image or message can be very clear without the need to have any unnecessary and elongated explanations. Therefore, keeping the simplicity of the word used allows people to accomplish the highest level of expression.

With all of these passages together, we can see how there are different methods to achieve a variety of goals, big or small. In Leaves of Grass, we see how an ideology is manifested within a nation who civilians live different and “heroic” lives. In Roughin It, we can see how nature can be a starting point to live an accomplished life. And finally, in Politics and the English Language we can see that we can achieve a better form of rhetoric if we use very simple words. As much of a reach that it is, I can see how I can apply these different methods to achieve these different goals. I am already an American, but interestingly enough, I don’t think that this Americanism is a reason to be heroic or live a heroic life. Either way, I already feel like I am a miniscule hero because of the revelation that there are some people who look up to me. Such as the freshman within the debate team who really thought that it was admirable that a person who just started debate is doing so well. As for nature, I don’t think I can really experience this reinvigoration because of the fact that I am so cooped up inside my house and school doing school work. But I can see myself possibly incorporating nature into my everyday life by maybe going to the park on the weekends. Lastly, I can incorporate certain simple sentence and simplistic words to enhance my writing and pray that I can get higher scores that way.

When it comes to accomplishing your goals, we can look at the demonstrations that these passages provide and incorporate them into our everyday our little acts.

Walking down the streets of Newark, New Jersey, all I could see were images. The more I walk, the more I see, and the more I feel a sense of community. My sightlines were taken up by the colors, lines, and shapes that somehow deliver such beautiful messages. I couldn’t help but notice the children admiring the art from afar almost as if they are thinking, “That’s me up there.” Some buildings were covered in words like “desired” and “strength.” Other buildings had various forms of representation with silhouettes of women of color on the sides or education driven individuals. Some may argue that graffiti may be gang-related, vandalism, and explicit to some viewers. Even if it may be in some instances, I firmly believe that graffiti can be a measurement for a more conducive human study further proving that cities are the best places for study. Graffiti can represent a city’s urge to have a sense of belonging and it can show a community’s want to have change.

With the negative connotation that graffiti has gained, I understand why some people have issues with them on their walls and with that, conclude that it would hinder human interaction. However, this connotation comes from the false media and inaccurate representation in movies and in fact, does the exact opposite. Such movies relate gang activity to graffiti where gangs would spray on their logo, or emblem, on their proclaimed territory. But gang-related graffiti are very hidden and are not very common. In regards to explicitness, such as graphic depiction or curse words, they can be some of the ways people in cities express their frustration and utilize this negative spotlight, to actually create change.

Some of the more noticeable qualities of graffiti are the different types of expression that can be observed in cities. One of the most underrated forms is protesting. Many people relate protesting to marches, rallies, or stand-ups and don’t really consider graffiti as a form of protesting. People won’t be able to see such things in sparse regions. Contrary to belief, the city walls can be utilized as a political playground. Not only does it’s colors resemble that of a playground, but they hold the most “wild” of thoughts, expressing radical opinions to force it to the forefront of conversation. This form of protesting utilizes the negative connotation of graffiti and force the government and officials to see the problem at hand. I concede that city walls can also be areas for very negative and oppressive ideologies. But there are ways to counter this form of negativity. Graffiti can be used as political activism where artists can possibly cover up racists, fascist, and other symbols and have them resemble other objects. This type of cover-up forces our eyes to focus on the more positive aspects of life. For instance, in Berlin, Germany, many oppressive symbols, such as the Nazi swastika, are transformed by creative young teenagers into images of a house or a flamingo. With these small acts of change, cities show more inclusivity and show that they are aware of such offense.

When people think of graffiti, they don’t think about the rare. posh, well funded neighborhoods. Instead, they think about the old, compacted, run down apartments who hold the image of crime and poverty. Because of the lack of attention and assistance from the government, many people look to graffiti because it is, simply, all that they have. Graffiti is an alteration, a change that people enact willingly. With the ability to express one’s views and personality, civilians can alter the city into something that is “livable.” They change their surroundings into something that represents them. This can then allow others, specifically children, to look up to an icon and find someone that can relate to them, someone who experienced something that they’ve gone through and feel confident in where they are from. For instance, there is a microaggression that Black-Americans face on a day to day basis one being the lack of representation which can further affect the way people perceive themselves and their self-confidence. In Oakland, girls are learning how to do graffiti art to find confidence and counter the hyper male-dominated society by representing themselves.

In conclusion, cities are the best way to conduct human study and observe the way the residents interact with their community. We are able to see how, through art, residents socially interact with their community and continue their everyday lives. Though graffiti can also hinder interactions in the city, it can also be the method of seeing social processes in cities.

Thanks for joining me!

Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow’s reality. — Malala Yousafzai