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Blog Post #5

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Kristof begins his essay "Where Sweatshops Are A Dream"  by painting a picture of a place that he describes as a “Dante-like vision of hell”, where people dream of working in sweatshops instead of rummaging through piles of hot smoldering garbage for anything that might fetch a penny. The problem he identifies is, many countries want to wage war on sweatshops, however in some of the poorest areas of the world, working in a sweatshop is a dream job. Kristof assumes his readers are blind to the fact that places like this exist, or either don’t want to admit it. His purpose in this essay is to bring awareness that in some poverty-stricken countries sweatshops are a means to a better life. In order to accomplish this purpose, he appeals mainly to the emotions of the reader, describing children digging through piles of smoking trash to find plastic to sell for five cents a pound. In his essay, Kristof addresses the main argument against his thesis, the idea that sweatshop
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Violence... Is it alright?

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        According to Gerard Jones, violent media can actually have positive effects on young people because it helps children overcome fears, develop strong social skills, and use their natural feelings of aggression and violence to stimulate self-confidence. Jones also believes that violent media are a positive influence on children because it can provide children the ability to create a “fantasy self” (para. 4) that equips them with tools to deal with life’s challenges, therefore not fearing the emotion of rage, but channeling it into positive energy. Jones makes some good points. For example, he says that Marvel Comics, and the character Hulk, freed him from “stifled rage and a buried desire for power” (para. 4), allowing him to make new friends, and eventually become brave enough to believe that other people would want to read what he had to say. However, others believe that violent media directed at young people lead to real-world violent acts. All in all, Jones presents a stro
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