Transcript Slide 1
Love, But Not Blind:
Looking at Disney’s Aladdin in A Whole New Light Mary Kate Hinshaw Dr. Megan Isaac’s ENG 110 Image from www.geocities.com
About Me
• • • • • • • From Levittown, New York Honors Fellow English Major – Teacher Licensure Concentration One of six children, one of our favorite family activities growing up was watching Disney movies.
My favorite has always been Aladdin. I love reading and enjoy writing This project gave me the opportunity to combine my lifelong love for Aladdin and writing.
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Project Description
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Rhetorical analysis of two pieces written about Aladdin.
The two pieces very different from one another: – A movie review, “Disney Puts Its Magic Touch on ‘Aladdin’,” by Janet Maslin – A chapter from the book, The Gospel According to Disney, entitled, “Aladdin (1992): Encountering Islam,” by Mark I. Pinsky. – Similarity became my thesis, that both emphasize the flaws of the movie The ultimate goal of the paper was to decide, based on the elements analyzed, which was the more rhetorically effective piece. I personally decided that Pinsky’s piece was more effective, because it had more authority statements and factually evidence behind it.
Course Objective
• The piece was a rhetorical analysis, meant to analyze two pieces about the same subject, and to how compare how effective each piece is.
• I gained a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship of purpose, audience, and voice, as well as my increased awareness that writing expectations and conventions vary within the academy and in professional and public discourse.
• Authors and their purposes • Maslin is a movie reviewer doing her job, but also wanted to make her own personal opinions known, especially her criticisms. • Enthusiastic but critical, which comes across in her review of the Genie as a “dizzying, elastic miracle,” and of Aladdin as “blandly intrepid.” • Pinsky focuses on the racism that he feels is evident.
• Hostile in declaring that the movie contains “tongue in cheek bigotry,” and portrays Arabs as “violent and nasty.”
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Course Objective, continued
• Both authors make their personal voices clear, yet never use the word, “I.” • Examples of how personal voice can be maintained throughout entire pieces through tone, emotions, vocabulary, and argument. • Effect that audience has on a piece. • Maslin’s review clearly aimed at those wanting to see the movie (or take their • children to see it); Pinsky’s was aimed at scholars, most likely religious ones, looking to study the deeper meaning and implications of Aladdin. • Different pieces of writing fulfill different expectations and conventions. • Written about same broad topic, but for different purposes and with different focuses • They could not be expected to conform to the same expectations and standards. The world of writing is a vast one, and the pieces are different in focus, appeal, and style. These elements can be traced back to the differences in purpose, audience, and voice.
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Writing Process
Challenge: Early in my research and writing process, finding substantial sources to analyze was difficult – Difficult to find scholarly analyses – Also difficult to find a movie review that offered enough rhetorical elements to discuss. Maslin’s, from the New York Times, was written at a higher level than other reviews. This could have been a problem, if it had been too similar to scholarly chapter I was using. The overall elements that each piece focuses on turned out to be markedly different, which made the paper easier to write.
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Writing Process Continued
Challenge: incorporating personal voice into a scholarly paper – Teacher and peer feedback on rough draft: paper strong but lacking personal voice and interest, especially in introduction and conclusion, so I focused on editing these – Advice of Dr. Isaac: begin with a personal story – Advice of my peers: focus on a specific moment in Aladdin that is my favorite. – Tied personal story to my thesis, which is clear throughout the paper – Used two paragraphs to introduce my paper – The conclusion does a good job of relating the pieces to my feelings about the movie.
– Writing the conclusion helped me to come up with a unique title.
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What I Learned
Both criticisms of the movie caused me to look at Aladdin differently than before.
– Maslin believes that Aladdin only encourages children to seek to become rich. As a child, I was not enticed by Jasmine’s riches, but rather by her bravery and desire to be her own person. I admired Aladdin, not because he wanted to be rich, but because he stopped at nothing to gain the princess’ love. I realized the pertinence that it has to my life now, and why my love for it continues to this day. Finding that the four-year-old me was still there at some level was enjoyable.
-Pinsky’s claims that Aladdin is a racist picture was also eye-opening, though not exactly in a good way. I had always viewed it as a beloved children’s movie, and had never thought about its the cultural or emotional impact. The evidence that Pinsky used to back up his argument- quotes from authorities such as the heads of Muslim groups; and the movie itself, definitely proved his point to me. Slide Continues
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What I Learned, continued
Learned about writing: – Analyzing specific elements of each article helped me see the effectiveness of different rhetoric. I realized how much of an impact the author’s background can be, as well as how important the audience they are directing their piece at is. – I was reminded of how important vocabulary is to a piece- how the right phrasing or words can make a piece more effective and even enjoyable. – Breaking down and examining specific elements helped me to realize how important every aspect of writing is to making a point. – I realized that tone can help an author’s personal voice come across very clearly in a piece even when they are not specifically presenting their own opinion or feelings. In terms of my own writing, I learned a lot about developing and including personal voice. As important as grammar and mechanics are, if the paper is boring, no one is going to want to read it. I have difficulty “taking risks” when it comes to writing. Teacher comments, peer editing, and in class discussions have helped me discern how to begin doing this. It is important to make one’s voice clear, whether through tone, personal anecdotes, or arguments. Also importantly, I have learned that writing is a process, and as much as I think I know about writing, it turns out that there is always something more I can learn.
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Thank you for your time!
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