Humanities is a class taught by Mrs. Small that is designed to spark discussion about a variety of different topics. Though every day is different, a common activity for this class is discussing different readings which are assigned for homework. Recently, we have been talking a lot about race and the effect that racism has on both individuals and the community. Below, I have two assignments which are both essays from other units which we have covered. The first essay is an argumentative essay about the Ray Bradbury works “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” and “The Pedestrian.” The second essay is a satirical analysis of a work of our choosing.
This essay was allowed to take on one of the multiple different arguments though I choose to argue that the short story “August 2026” was more effective than “The Pedestrian” at conveying the theme that technology holds power over humanity due to its use of rhetorical devices. Both “August 2026” and “The Pedestrian” are stories that warn about the dangers of human reliance on technology by setting the stories in a dystopian time where people being so caught up in technology leads to their downfall.
For this essay, we were allowed more freedom when choosing what we were going to write about but the general prompt was a satirical analysis of one or more works. I chose to do my essay on three of Joji, a Japanese singer-songwriter’s, music videos. Within this essay, I talk about how Joji uses the overarching theme of space in order to satirize the high standards within Hollywood which ostracize people to the point where they feel that they must give up a part of their humanity. If you would like to know the specific music videos I used, scroll to the bottom of the pdf and check the works cited.