Today’s Toys

In Roland Barthes' essay "Toys" he discusses how children's toys stifle creativity by providing a miniaturized simulacrum of the adult world. He's not talking about the gendered tracking of toys that many feminists would later point to. While he does mention that a toy doll "is meant to prepare the little girl for the causality …

The Insufficency of Monoliongualism

"Who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war?" - Ray Gwyn Smith The line above is quoted in Gloria Anzaldua's essay "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." Lately, I've been reading autobiographical essays by Sandra Cisneros and through her described experiences of growing up as a Chicana it has …

On Advertising

In almost any undergraduate composition course, or even at the high school level, students are asked to analyze an advertisement. They do provide a wonderful way of looking at rhetoric. This could be looking at how an advertisement utilizes ethos, pathos, and logos; it could be looking at the basis of claims, or even just …

Today’s Blind and Dumb Criticism

In his essay "Blind and Dumb Criticism," Roland Barthes calls to task critics who aren't certain of the material they are criticizing or how to discuss it. To make his points Barthes uses reviews from a play by Henri Lefebure about the philosophies of Kierkegaard. Barthes sees these critics and realizes that they don't really …