Myth and Madness
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: September 18, 2010
Type: editorial columns
My first reaction to this article was that the author Maureen Dowd, seems terrible cynical and sarcastic. But at the same time Dowd keep the piece formal to an extent, it was formal enough that I believe that it would be accepted on the Ap exam. First off the author never slipped into first person, she never let that wall come down. She never waivered in her tone, all through the piece it had a base tone, with a few extra spices thrown in here and there. So all through out her pice she was consistent in tone, topic, and wording, and being consistent makes for an Ap paper.
Since Dowd never slipped out of 3rdperson it made her sound sophisticated, while the quotes she used to bash political figures where all in first person. By doing so it made them seem less knowledgeable, less certified for the job. But then again it wasn’t very hard to do when she picked quotes that had them comparing themselves to myths and fairy tales. By using such quotes she paints a picture of these political figures, that it isn’t very flattering at all. It makes them seem childish and not exactly connected to the real world. When potential voters read this article they may be turned off by the child like nature portrayed here, which seems to be exactly her intent. Because who really wants your representative in government to be comparing themselves to fictional characters. As a voter that would be me somewhat nervous.
The nice thing about this piece is that the author is very constant which helps create and solidify her voice. To keep such a sarcastic and somewhat mocking voice she uses embarrassing quotes and somewhat humor and mocking phrases such as, “cited another fantasy world to conjure up a Christ like image for the Tea Party.” Or “She might have gone a broom too far, though.” To sum it up I believe that this article is worthy of the Ap exam, her tone was consistent, as was her writing style. All of these parts make for a good strong article which this piece clearly is.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/opinion/19dowd.html?ref=maureendowd
No comments:
Post a Comment