"The Liberal Gloat" by Ross Douthat Analysis

In the article "The Liberal Gloat," Ross Douthat criticizes liberals for feeling smug and superior, when they won the election based on economic and social fears rather than enlightened values. The literary technique that Douthat takes the most advantage of is syntax, and he also uses a little detail. 
Douthat uses syntax to pull the reader into the article before he gets to the main point. He makes the gloating Democrats seem mocking and almost childish by "quoting" what they might say: "'Those poor, benighted Republicans!' runs the subtext of their post-election commentary. 'They can’t read polls! They can’t reach Hispanics! They don’t understand women! They don’t have a team of Silicon Valley sorcerers running their turnout operations!'" His use of an anaphora makes the reader think that Democrats are ignorant and rude to Republicans. He further shows how Democrats feel superior with pop culture references, showing "that Republicans are now Radio Shack to their Apple store, “The Waltons” to their “Modern Family,” a mediocre Norman Rockwell to their digital-age mosaic." This parallelism compares the Republicans to old culture, while the Democrats are the future of America in the Democrat's eyes. This comparison makes the Republicans feel even more agitated. They want to prove that they aren't old fashioned. 
Finally, Douthat gives his opinion supported by a small amount of detail, but his explanation doesn't provide as much excitement as the beginning of the article. He uses facts such as  a "single life with children — (which) is now commonplace for women under 30," and spins them to show how this insecurity would lead single women to vote democratic. They aren't candidates of social justice, they only fear living without welfare. For all the other kinds of people who vote democratic, he uses this same technique, which gets boring fast. The article has some different perspectives, but they are not presented in an interesting way.
"The Liberal Gloat" makes the Democrats seem conceited, but it doesn't do a good job of backing up this claim. 




What unites all of these stories is the growing failure of America’s local associations — civic, familial, religious — to foster stability, encourage solidarity and make mobility possible. paralleism

But it’s just as easy to see a coalition created by social disintegration and unified by economic fear.

Prompt # 1970

1970. Choose a character from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you (a) briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show how the character is affected by and responds to those standards. In your essay do not merely summarize the plot.

In Death of a Salesman, Willy lives an a Post-World War II New York City, where he is a salesman who has to drive all over New England in order to sell anything. The economy is starting to pick up again, and the city is growing, so people are expected to start becoming successful businessmen again, but traces of the depression still linger. Willy believes that if a person is well liked, they won't  ever fail at the American Dream. However, the growth of capitalism in the city is not as kind as Willy believes and prevents him from succeeding. Willy has too much pride to accept this new reality and continues to live in the past as an escape. 

The growth of capitalism and it's affect on Willy's career is shown best through the characters Charley and his son Bernard, who are foils for Willy and his son Biff. On the outside, Willy and Biff appear to be much better looking and and full of "the old confidence." On the other hand, Charley is fat and not the most pleasant person to talk too. Bernard is the class geek who is small and scrawny. Since Willy and Biff appear to be more naturally gifted, Willy teaches Biff that people will naturally like him and give him opportunities. This is more of the old way, when friends stayed your friends because the economy couldn't be depended on. Charley teaches Bernard the opposite. Because they don't have good appearances to make an impression, Charley and Bernard must work hard in order obtain skills to become successful. Since people can't be trusted, they must rely on their own skills to use the economy to their advantage. Not surprisingly, Willy and Biff fail to achieve The American Dream because they have no skills, and couldn't depend upon their popularity.

Biff and Willy both got the same fate because of false dreams, but Willy's pride and insanity cause him to never truly accept his status in life. Since Willy invested all of his time and energy into one goal, that Biff would become a great salesman, Willy couldn't mentally handle his whole life crashing down at once, so he doesn't take blame for any of this mistakes and shifts in between different realities. These delusions become stronger when Willy is in a stressful situation, such as when his is fired for being too old and bothersome by Howard. Willy keeps thinking that he is back in the past, when Biff is about to win an important football game and Charley keeps warning Willy not to put so much stake in one thing. These memories do seem out of place at times, but the structure of the play makes the memories fit in with the present action. Willy's dreams and fears show through well with this format. The climax of the present action, when Willy is at the restaurant with his boys after they both fail, lines up with when Willy sees in his mind the time when Biff walked in on Willy and his lover and looses faith. These memories help show us a glimpse into the tortured mind of Willy that even he can't see clearly.

Willy's cannot achieve The American Dream because he is too proud to accept the changing ways of American society after World War II. He eventually kills himself instead of dealing with the issues in his life caused by both capitalism and his own stubbornness.

Response to Course Material

The most important parts of the class this month were annotating and discussing The American Dream. Going over every single line and making notes was tedious and took up a lot of time, but it showed me in depth how exactly the author illustrates certain themes and motifs to the reader. Discussing these things with the class also showed us me how there isn't just one interpretation of a text. The basic idea is the same, but people had slight differences in opinion over things such if Mommy made Daddy into a woman or more of a child, and why Mommy didn't open the boxed lunch Grandma made for her as a girl. Some of these opinions changed my mind, while some didn't, but it was interesting to see how everyone had a valid opinion.

I also enjoyed relating the poems and short stories about immigrants to The American Dream. Although I didn't play a major role in my group's production (I was Daddy and just agreed with Mrs. Barker the whole time), I liked thinking of how characters across texts would react to each other. The other groups in my class did a very good job at thinking of accurate and entertaining ways to show the class how the two characters would interact. I hope to do things like this more in the future.