Preview

Barbara Lazear Ascher's Essay 'On Compassion'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
211 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Barbara Lazear Ascher's Essay 'On Compassion'
In the passionate essay, “On Compassion,” by the respected Barbara Lazear Ascher, the author convincingly depicts her view towards how she feels about why people show compassion. Ascher’s purpose is to demonstrate to the reader the different classes of society and allow the reader to think about how people may appear compassionate but naturally have a fear that causes them to carry out compassionate acts. The author effectively and steadfastly builds the essay by utilizing an observant and speculative tone, a series of figurative language and an emotional appeal in order to convey her outlook towards the homeless and compassion.
Ascher opens up her essay by using imagery to describe the appearance of a fellow homeless man. She appeals to the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Euthanasia, the painless killing of a patient suffering from an agonizing disease, is a very controversial topic. Some argue that it is an act of murder and doctors should do all they can to extend life. Others argue that life should not be forced by resuscitation but patients should instead be relieved of their suffering through death. Barbara Huttman addresses the opposers of euthanasia in her essay, "A Crime of Compassion". Huttman tells the reader of her experience with Mac, a terminally ill cancer patient. Within the essay, Huttman explains how she watched the treatment take all he had, affecting Mac and those around him, and ultimately allows him die. Using rhetorical devices, she conveys the message that suffering patients should have…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever been walking and come across a person who appears to have fallen on hard times and as you watched the person about their life, wondered to yourself how others would respond if it were you in their situation? Or have you ever encountered hardships that made others look at you differently? During those hardships, were you determined to endure to the end with the hopes of encouraging the people who watched your situation unfold? Well, in the poem “Miss Rosie” by Lucille Clifton, it would seem that the character had encountered hardships and was now being looked upon by others. The use of imagery and figurative language, as the author shares a piece of Miss Rosie’s life story, helps the reader to experience the character from her…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jon Sabrino and Peter Singer share with readers what it takes to live ethically in a world in which 22,000 children die each day from poverty-related causes. In The Principles of Mercy, Sabrino emphasis that people must no longer turn a naked eye to the problems of the world and they should start living out the gospel. In The Life You Can Save, Singer stresses the importance of giving more money. This paper will first address Sabino’s methods to living ethically, awaking and living the gospel. Then it will cover Singer’s approach the advocates for greater donation of the public.…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In paragraph one, we learn that there are many common disturbances that affect people that have no other choice but to sleep on the streets. This paragraph lists “rats, thugs, police moving you on and other homeless people stealing your blankets” as common disturbances for the homeless. Also, the author writes, “-a downpour was the most bearable” compared to the many challenges she saw these people face. This supposes to us, the readers, that the life of a homeless person is not at all easy.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    For those who frightened much to abandon their life, goals, projects and interests in order to save one’s life, say goodbye to righteousness. In “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”, also in “ the life you can save”, Peter Singer tries to show that we human beings have a moral obligation to give far more than we actually do for excessive and tragic situations such as famine and disaster relief. According to singer, Giving, sharing and helping the needy is more than moral happiness and inner satisfaction, it is a moral duty. As he state his argument in three premises, “1, suffering and death from the lack of food, shelter and medical care are bad, (2), if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening,…

    • 1598 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Elliott opens the article with an anecdote, bringing her experience with a homeless man to add a personal connection to the term 'homeless.' She invokes pity within the reader right from the beginning by placing the image of homeless people sleeping in the cold in the reader's mind, through the statement, 'when darkness falls and the temperature follows, I think of Shannon.' Elliott uses Shannon's story to defy the stereotypes of homeless people. She…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In writing “The Homeless and Their Children”, Jonathon Kozol, uses emotion to raise the awareness of “the effects of literacy on the lives of the poor” (Kozol, page 304). He also used an interview form, to not only show his audience how the main character feels in her own words, but puts himself into the situation if only for a short time.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Pawn/Redeem

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages

    For hundreds of years, writers have fascinated the world with their talent of creating stories to entertain, inform, persuade and educate a specific audience. Two very popular fields represented in writing are societal and individual issues; these fields include the sub topics of depression, alcoholism, homelessness, etc. Writers who compose literature in the style of prose, short stories and other fiction based writings often incorporate serious matters to connect with their audience in an entertaining, yet informing, way. Realistically, any successful person tends to pass off taking any action to help alleviate societal issues such as homelessness because it is not their problem. A well-known poet and writer, Sherman Alexie, has portrayed the seriousness of homelessness and alcoholism through his short story What You Pawn, I Will Redeem. From his experience of growing up on a Spokane Indian reservation in Washington, he was able to create a short story about a homeless Native American man, Jackson Jackson, and his journey to reclaim his grandmother’s regalia. Moreover, by applying Barnode’s personality vocabulary from Making Sense of People, I was able to analyze Jackson’s actions, as well as his reactions to others and his surroundings, to define his personality.…

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Distinctively Visual

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The poem, ‘Lady feeding the cats’ by Douglas Stewart is distinctively visual as it challenges the reader to move beyond first impressions. The responder is led to reassess how we view people and places and the assumptions made about them. The poet does this by firstly confirming the preconceptions of the woman, the cats and her physical environment. This is evident in stanza one through Stewart’s use of visual imagery; ‘’broken shoes, slums weather stains’’ explaining to the reader the economic standing of the woman in the world and her physical being as she moves forward to feeding the cats. This is reinforced by the sibilance providing a striking visual image of the physical and economic hardship. However, in stanza 3 the woman is portrayed to be acquainted with respect by the cats as they get their feeding.…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this story “Homeless” Anna writes about analyzing what homeless don’t have and to look at them differently, it all started by a women named Ann and there she had realized of the homeless. She, Quindlen, knows what Ann is talking about how home is very meaningful, I also understand. Hopelessly Quindlen terminates that our faculty of being home has adjusted. During the time, I originally discord with Anna that the homeless are the one to give tender feelings. She convinced us to focus on what they needed other than who we think they should be.…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the 1980s, when housing choices began to dwindle, homelessness became a major issue. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines homelessness as someone without a permanent home, typically living on the streets. For this visual analysis essay, the image selected is a meme of a homeless man. The text on the meme says that “Homeless people are lucky that they never have to clean their house.” Many questions come to surface after reading the text, which include, “Who would say such a thing?” “Why would someone make a joke of an issue so severe?” or “What makes this image comical?” The conclusion that became visible was that some privileged people are self-centered, and in being self-centered, they unintentionally knock down those who are already beneath them. With the aim of making a statement, the meme utilized logos, pathos, and sarcasm.…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Homeless Man Analysis

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This image is an illustration of a stationary, yet moving story. You view the homeless man who seems discombobulated with life. A true testament that everyone grows up with different circumstances and situations. His injustice moments throughout his lifetime unfortunately got the best of him as he did not move forward in hopes on complementing his success. He’s seen crouched over wrapped in a blanket while a business man passes by with concern. You can tell by the homeless man’s body language that his life is in shams and he’s not in the best suitable living conditions. He’s experiencing a rough time in his life; his posture explains it all.…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    The word “homeless” is used to describe many different kinds of people with a variety of problems; the “homeless” includes veterans, the mentally ill, the physically disabled or chronically ill, the elderly on fixed incomes, men, women, and families that have lost their source of income, single parents, runaway children who’ve been abused, alcoholics and drug addicts, immigrants, and traditional tramps, hobos, and transients (Martin, 1999). In “Helping and Hating the Homeless”, Peter Martin claims that although these people all have different backgrounds, histories, and reasons for not having a “home”, they are categorized and stereotyped by society and all looked down upon for being “homeless”. He addresses his readers, those that pass by homeless men and women on the street and those who look down upon the homeless, in order to “attempt to explain at least some of that anger and fear [directed towards the homeless], to clear up some of the confusion, to chip away the indifference”. In order to support his argument, Martin uses many homeless people’s lives as examples for the reasons they became homeless and have stayed homeless, he also incorporates many public policies and homeless shelter’s policies to help describe the homeless life. By doing this, he is able to give his reader’s incite on the homeless, allowing them to have a further understanding of how they live. Due to lack of knowledge and understanding, many stereotypes have been able to affect and impact the way society looks at the homeless and creates homeless policies. By including multiple sources that reflect the views of Martin, this essay will create a better understanding of the homeless and how the stereotypes, although inaccurate, affect the lives of the homeless.…

    • 2598 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Best Essays

    Nouwen, Henri, Donald P. Mcneill, and Douglas A. Morrison. Compassion: A Reflection On the Christian Life. New York, NY: Doubleday Image, 1983.…

    • 3402 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As we work and study here in the city, we are all concerned about beggars. They are pleading for money to feed them and their families with disadvantages look. But we often ask these questions: Should we give money to beggars? Should we be indifferent to them? Both questions are important and may have their reasons. Giving money to beggars differs from being indifferent to them. The purpose of this essay is to contrast the emotion of the givers, the living of the panhandler and their rights.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays