Critical Thinking Journal 5

Name_Natalia Wingo___________ Time of day your class meets:_5:30 p.m.____

1. Who is the Author or artist or musician of the original work and what influenced them to write what they did?

The author is Samantha Power. She is a member of President Obama’s cabinet and the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations. I think the influence that she got was because she is in a high political position, and she probably has to do a lot of traveling for her Ambassador position for the U.N. So she sees a lot of the stuff that goes on around the world and she has to discuss and choose certain decisions for things considering genocide. I think that’s what influenced her to write this.

2. What is the full Title of the piece? What is the meaning of this title?

The full title of this piece is Never Again: The World’s Most Unfulfilled Promise. Multiple times, she mentioned that the phrase “Never again” gets thrown around a lot when people are discussing genocide when in all reality, most of the people saying “never again” won’t do anything about it. While The World’s Most Unfulfilled Promise explains what she’s going to be discussing in this piece. That Never Again is a promise to the rest of the world that will never be fulfilled.

3. What was the Historical context within w-*/hich the work was produced? How does the context affect the meaning and interpretation of the piece?

Throughout the piece, Power mentioned many things that happened in the past, like the Holocaust/WWII, and other incidents of genocide that happened before and after. You can tell throughout the whole essay that she is very much against what happened and wishes that someone had stopped these genocides before they happened. When Power wrote this, it was around the late 90s and the early 2000s, so it had been many years since the last genocide had happened but she still harbored very angry feelings towards the ones who started it and the ones who didn’t step in to stop it.

4. Who do you think the intended audience or audiences might have been at the time the work was created? How does the audience affect the meaning and interpretation of the piece?

I think the intended audience is the government or people who have the power to make a difference. So, ordinary people are not really who she was addressing unless they are reading it to educate themselves on genocide. This affects the piece because she will use larger words that sound more professional compared to a colloquial language one would use in something addressing the average person. She explained things in a way that was a bit confusing if you don’t know what she was talking about.

5. What do you think the work’s main argument, point, or conclusion might be? How would you analyze the “argument”? How would you compare this specifically to other artistic works you have seen both in class or outside of class? What is your personal response to the work?

I think Power’s main argument was that she wants America to do more than just stand by and wait for the battle to come to us. She wants America to go into other countries and protect other people. Though I disagree with her, I think it would be a bad idea to attempt to go into other countries to fight with people. I mean, most countries already hate America for inserting ourselves into conflicts that aren’t ours to fight. Power did mention that the government probably doesn’t send the troops over because what’s the point in casualties if it’s not our battle? But she thinks she’s speaking for America when she says that we should send in bombs. I’m sure we all know how I feel about bombing places. But to clarify, I think bombs are a dirty trick that kill more innocents than anyone else. When she mentioned air-drops and bombings I immediately thought of Barefoot Gen and The Grave of the Fireflies and the air-raids and bombings that happened in those two. I just, I do not agree with bombing places just to get rid of a small group of people. (Small being relative, I mean the groups are usually smaller than the majority of the population). But honestly, I was bored and confused while reading this. A lot of the words were a little too big for me to understand completely, and they were phrased in such a way that I got confused a lot. That’s one of the reasons why I believe the intended audience is people who are in a high positions because they’ll understand these words, unlike me.

Works Cited

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0ahUKEwi4u9H7iKDJAhURlogKHSSvAOQQFgglMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Frnimseportfolio.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F04%2Fcritjourn.docx&usg=AFQjCNFcBSY0CAcHvnM3n-dV72NYN-5k-A&sig2=y9MebdTTwCCXtbwOFYyGAQ

It Begins With Our Questions. Paul Allen PhD. Claire Peterson MA. Never Again: The World’s Most Unfulfilled Promise. Samantha Power.

Reflection

To be completely honest, I wasn't a fan of this particular piece. It was very difficult to read (for me) and though genocide is a very important topic, I just couldn't find it in me to care about what I was reading. That probably makes me sound like a terrible person, but this is a topic that I just don't really care about. I understand it is a very horrible thing, but I don't go around wanting to talk about genocide with my friends.

#humanities #Fall2015