They Say / I Say: Part 1

Exercises:

1. Many people wonder why there are so animal rescues out there, like horse rescues. Most people hate animal abuse; they think that the people who abuse animals are sick and disgusting, and most are, however some are just ignorant and choose to be. For instance people take Thoroughbreds, and try to race them, especially descendants of Secretariat, the famous Triple Crown winner. They think that since they are his descendants, they will run just as good as him, but they aren't him and they don't do as well. They take the leftover horse and put them in a pasture, their thought process is: if the horse doesn't win the race, we won't give them the food they need, they can just survive off of grass like mustangs-but they can't. For hundreds of years, Thoroughbreds have been bred to race and are some of the most domesticated horses out there, they are born and raised in confined spaces with a many people, animals, and objects going by them. They survive off of machine-made, high calorie food that are full of vitamins, steroids, and medicines that their bodies need. When the horses are put into pasture, their bodies literally can't handle only the grass, there are no vitamins and nutrients, they aren't built like mustangs. They start losing weight and lose hundreds of pounds as well as starve. Their teeth start to rot and degrade so even if they wanted to eat, they can't. Rain starts to rot their skin and fur and it comes off in chunks, the water is disgusting and nobody does anything about it, because the horse didn't make them any money. That is where horse rescues come in, they take out those abandoned, starved, half-alive animals and give them new names and new lives, they help them gain weight, and adopt them out to nice homes. They are very important and without them, there would be a lot more animal casualties in the world.

2.        In the Introduction to "They Say/I Say":The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates designed to allow a writer to better organize their words and thought process into an organized body that anyone can just pick up and read. They argue specifically that their templates allow anyone of any level to raise the standard of their personal writing so that it is greatly appreciated by those around them. As the authors themselves put it "their opinion/ my opinion." Although with a certain outline comes the argument that it is destroying a persons originality and that is of the essays or paragraphs will have the same monotone sound to them. Graff and Birkenstein insist that they are not all the same and even with a uniform design, everyone's creativity comes in and makes them all different.
         I personally agree. In my view, the templates that the two authors recommend help build a very solid foundation for us. For instance, without having any sense of how to write the essay, or paragraph everything would be so different, it would give the reader a headache. As well as causing the writer to have many problems. Some might object, with the single reason that the template tells what you what to say rather than how you say it. My argument is that it is the writer's choice whether or not to use those exact words that were given to him or rephrase it to add to his originality-an important belief to make given that even though everyone has creativity, it is not necessarily their greatest attribute.

Chapters 1-15

Chapter 1:
pg.6: "They get down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it . Here she was a bothering Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, you see, yet finding a power of fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it."

-He grew up without proper guidance in his life, this shows that what he thought was what he made up or reasoned out himself, whether it was right or wrong, and nobody would try to teach him the right things, they just told him he was wrong. Smoking at that time was something they did to relax after a long day at work doing what they did, they did not know at the time the health implications it had and the long term affect, so it was acceptable for young men to do so. Religion also played a big part in their daily lives, bad luck was played upon by many and prayer could solve almost anything.

Chapter 3:

pg. 13: "Then Miss Watson took me to the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn't any good for me without hooks. I tried for hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By-and-by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn't make it out no way."

-Huck wasn't so bright, even though he went to school and learned to read. Without the proper explanation on simple things, he is misled and confused, which could be avoided. He therefore with a confused outlook on things looked at other situations with a different point of view, most of the time wrong to other people. The people around him take pity on him because of his "stupidity" and when they try to help they do it in the wrong way making him more confused.

Chapter 5:

pg. 21: "And looky here-you drop that school, you hear? I'll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs over his own father and let on to be better'n what he is. You lemme catch you fooling around that school again, you hear?"

-Huck's father may be a free man, but he doesn't use it wisely. He grew up old-fashioned and prejudiced against the ability for his son to learn and go to school when he couldn't, deep down he was probably jealous that his son was getting a higher education than him and his ancestors. He wants complete control over his son and is not afraid to beat him when he thinks he does something wrong. He uses his power as his father to  beat him up and make himself feel better.

Chapter 8:

pg. 41: "When breakfast was ready, we lolled on the grass and eat it smoking hot."

-When Huck left he has to fend for himself, when he meets Jim, he knows he is not alone and has someone to go through it with. They don't have the comforts of a normal life now that one is an escaped slave and the other is presumed dead. They have to survive off of what's less and hide in the night, like ghosts. When they do get the comforts, it's like a gift, like hot food.

Chapter 9:

pg. 48: "I didn't look at him at all. Jim throwed some old rags over him, but he needn't done it; I didn't want to see him."

-With their new life on the run and hiding like ghosts, they are going to see death, it is a natural occurrence.  Since they aren't going to be living in the safety and comfort of a town, they are out in the wild where robbers and murderers are more noticeable, it was only time until they came across a body or gang. Their lives aren't going to be the same innocent ones as before, the only thing they can do is try to keep their morals in check.

Chapter 11:

pg. 56: "Well, the woman fell to talking about how hard times was, and how poor they had to live, and how the rats was as free as if they owned the place, and so forth, and so on, and then I got easy again."

-Times were hard for them, people didn't have a lot of luxury goods and a hundred dollars was a lot of money, you were rich if you had that much. Most people couldn't afford a lot of necessary things and worked hard all day just to provide for their family's, simple things like having enough flour were very important. People who were used to a lot of wealth sometimes couldn't make the transition to being poor and it destroyed them.

Chapter 13:

pg. 70: "....for I couldn't rest easy till I could see the ferry-boat start. But take it all around, I was feeling ruther comfortable on accounts of taking all this trouble for the gang, for not many would a done it. I wished the widow knowed about it. I judged she would be proud of me for helping these rapscallions...."

-Despite running away in such a dangerous situation, they still keep their morals under check and don't change into the people they are hiding from. He wants whats best for everybody, even if it means saving the bad guys from drowning. He doesn't want his conscience ridden with the guilt of letting anyone die, even if other people call him a sissy because of it. Keeping their mind as guilt-free as possible allows them to look on their situation with a great outlook and have a positive journey ahead.

Chapter 15:

pg. 81: "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger-but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwords, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way."

-Huck is good kid inside and out, even if he isn't the smartest person out there he has a good heart and will do anything to save his friends, even when it was he who wronged them in the first place. Being kind to a black person in those days was unheard of, most people who did that were abolitionists and considered a little crazy, but they weren't, they just understood, like Huck did with Jim, the black people had feelings.