The Power of Words

The question is, does writing have the power to enact social change? My initially reaction to this question was no way. But after reading this, my opinion was changed. I know believe that writing does have the power to enact social change, mainly because it now has changed me. All pieces of writing are written for a reason, so people's voices can be heard. For some people writing is easier than speaking and their emotions come out better with a paper and pen. Writing is more powerful than some people give it credit for.

After reading this poem I felt heart-broken for all of the people across the sea who lost and are still losing their lives. I particularly noticed and felt sorry for all of the innocent women and children who were killed by the bombing of Baghdad. I couldn't help but notice it as Jordan repeatedly said it during the poem. One of the ways that I think Jordan was most successful was in Aerostotle's pathos rhetoric.

She used pathos (emotional appeal) with her repitition and constantly reminding the readers of all the innocent women and children that the bombing of Baghdad really killed. Reminding American citizens what is going on in Iraq. She gives a great feel of anti-war belief and how many people we are killing that have done nothing wrong.

With all of these thoughts rolled up into one, words are very powerful and can influence anyone who takes the time to read and understand them. Writing does have the power to enact social change.

price of a child

For this writing assignment for “The Price of a Child,” I chose to draw a picture that gets the point of what the story meant to me across. I began by simply writing the title of the book on the top left and bottom right of the page. Next, I found a picture that reminded me of Mercer. I drew her walking with her two children, Etta and Manny. I then drew a small hill with Mercer’s final child Bennie at the bottom of with Mercer at the top looking back at him.
The hill in my opinion is the most important thing is the drawing. To me in symbolizes Mercer’s struggles in how it was so hard for her to leave her child behind and perhaps never see him again, which we know that was the outcome. She is walking down the hill with her two children at her side looking back at the one that isn’t with her. This goes back into what my idea into what the title means. To me it means what does a mother do for her children, what sacrifices does she have to make? Mercer made the decision to sacrifice never seeing her child again in return getting to stay with her other two children. She made the decision of instead of leaving all of her children without having a mother, she chose just to leave Bennie without one. I know this must have been very difficult for her but in my opinion it was the best decision. Also in the picture Mercer is bleeding on her knees and mouth. I did this to show the hardships she went through being a slave and her relationship with Pryor. Her blood was the only thing that I decided to color because I wanted it to stand out and be the first thing that grabbed the audience’s attention.
In conclusion, I enjoyed this project more than other ones because I never had a project be this open before. I was never able to draw a picture and describe it like this and have doing it like I did this project. I also think it conveys the message of the story that came out for me in this drawing.