This is a critical paper that has to be among 3-4 pages. I will assume that all of you know what is a critical claim paper. I will upload all the details for this paper. Please read them carefully, and this paper is really important to me. I can pay even more, but please make it look good. And I want to use one of the periods of the movie, Joker. you can use any period in the movie.

COM 204: CRITICAL CLAIM MAJOR PAPER

This assignment addresses two of the course’s learning outcomes: that (1) “you will be able to write a clear thesis statement that condenses an argument into one sentence,” and (2) “you will be able to generate and support an argument about a communication text.” To pursue these objectives, you will turn in a typed, double-spaced critical essay at the beginning of lecture on Wednesday, February 19.

Select a recent (December 2019, January or February 2020) text that you believe is significant for some reason. I want you to stretch your concept of a “text,” so you may
not
choose the most conventional kinds of texts—speeches, essays, editorials, letters to the editor, or print or online articles. The text you choose might be a movie or television episode, some sort of public demonstration or protest event, the most recent national parks quarter, a popular song released in the last couple of months, a new or revised web site, a new or proposed building on campus, or any number of other texts as you may define them.

This means that you may critique a campaign event, for example, but not a speech given at the event. Remember: The text cannot be a speech, essay, editorial, or article.

Clearly identify the text you are using in your essay, and explain how you are interpreting it as a “text”—how can you “read” this text? This brief section should begin, “I will read this text by looking at….” A couple of sentences or a short paragraph on your first page should be enough to do this, but it is a requirement.

Based on this text, write a 1000-word (approx. 3-4 pages) critical analysis that demonstrates critical thinking about the text and its significance.  Your thesis should make a critical claim about the text, and the rest of the essay should advance an argument (complete with supporting examples from the text) supporting your central claim.  This paper should demonstrate critical thinking as you make arguments about your text and support those arguments clearly. You need not cite any communication theories, and no outside sources are required. This essay will demonstrate your ability to locate and define an unconventional text, make a critical claim, and advance an argument supporting that claim with evidence from the text.

A sample thesis (for an old text, too old to actually use for this assignment) might look like this: “The billboards warning about the emerald ash borer suggest that Americans place high cultural value on trees and public landscaping.”

On Friday, February 7, you need to be prepared to share your text and a draft thesis statement for your paper in recitation (this will count as a daily assignment!).  You’ll receive feedback (and hear everyone else’s ideas) in class.

Paper requirements:

*A clearly defined text that is not a speech, essay, editorial, or published or online article

*A text from December 2019, January 2020, or February 2020

*A clear explanation of how the unconventional text will be “read” (what are you going to count as part of the text?  What parts will serve as your support?  In most cases, this will be a paragraph somewhere on the first page. You might introduce it like this: “I will read this text by looking at…”)

*Engaging at least 2 different parts of the text (so ONLY using the lyrics of a song for evidence, for instance, would not be acceptable to get at least a 3; you would also need to use rhythm, tune, genre, artist/performer, or something else)

*A thesis statement that makes a clear critical claim about the text

*Evidence that fully develops the argument presented in the thesis

*Specific references to the text for support

*Approximately 1000 words

*Overall, a critique of the text, not the topic (using the emerald ash borer billboard example above, then, you would need to argue about the BILLBOARD, not the problem of invasive species)

*You really don’t need outside sources and shouldn’t use them (they tend to contribute to critiquing a TOPIC, not a TEXT). But if you DO if you do use outside sources, you must document them using APA style.

If you are missing any of these requirements, the highest grade you can earn on the paper is a 2.

Your TAs and I are happy to read drafts or outlines, or just talk about topics, in person.  You may send specific questions by e-mail. We will not read drafts or outlines submitted via email.

People often ask about word count. I don’t count words carefully, but I do expect you to follow the spirit of the assignment above. That means that if you turn in only 2 pages or so, or you write much more than 4, you will be far outside the length requirement (by hundreds of words).

(thanks to Bo Feng for the initial concept upon which this assignment is based)

Zecheng Cui

COM 204

Critical Claim Paper

“Welcome to Heaven Inc”

The Heaven Inc

can show people the inner workings of it that who will listen and answer people’s prayers. This text is read by looking at the dialogues of the video and the actor’s emotion. The Heaven Inc consist of department of prayers sorting, department of answered prayers, and the God, which shows what happens when people pray and how exactly a miracle comes to life. This text assumes that people should give up praying because it is useless and unworthy.

Eliza is an employee in department of prayers sorting that sorts prayers from billions of people. She is exciting to introduce her job at first but when she read prayers, her motion was really a subtle change. The first-time reading prayer “please fix my Wi-Fi”, she quickly throwed that away and turning to next. However, the second prayer was “give me Wi-Fi” so she murmured that and tried to read the third one. She read loudly with confidence hoping that is not about Wi-Fi, but it happened again. Then her eyes are avoiding the camera because she read three prayers, but they are all about Wi-Fi. From Eliza’s emotion, we can feel that she likes her job of sorting prayers, but she is getting tired of same old repeating prayers. People pray every day for trifle things or something they cannot fix. When people had problems, they will shout or yield that “God please fix it”. However, in this case, praying is therefore complaining that we do that every day. Rather than doing this useless and unworthy thing, why not ask maintenance immediately for help or fix by yourself. Praying is wasting time and it is placebo for people to avoid the problem. So, we should stop praying and do worthy and actual things.

Craig is in department of answered Prayers that create miracles for people. one of miracles he is proud of that is helping a little girl achieve snow day on her birthday. Craig naturally manipulated weather systems across the eastern seaboard and canceled thousands of flights for creating a snow day for the girl. Craig believed that it was all “worth”, but, on the opposite side, it was unworthy for other people. Because the Heaven Inc chose to create miracle for the little girl, thousands of flights and millions of people were affected by the snow day. The outcome of this prayer seems worthy, but millions of people needs to pay the outcome to satisfy the girl’s prayer. Therefore, creating a miracle for prayer is absolutely taking a toll and wasting time. If pray is working, it is unfair and unworthy for the rest of people who do not pray. So, we should stop doing this unworthy prays.

The Heaven Inc also allows working hard people or urgent prayers to have the opportunity to report to the CEO himself, God. God is the only one who can save people, but he seems to be reluctant to hear prayers. When Craig took an urgent prayer to the CEO, he is rolling his eyes and then staring at the table to avoid eye contact with Craig. This emotion implies the CEO is really unwilling to save urgent prayer. While Craig said, “oh god, please stop this terrible typhoon.”, the CEO tried to be stupid and repeat the word “typhoon” to make an illusion that God knows nothing. After Craig leaved the office, God stared at the table again and sighed, probably saying in his heart, “Oh God, please do not take prayers to me anymore.” God’s emotion shows he is unable to help us even though we work hard, or we have an urgent. So, we should give up praying because the CEO of Heaven Inc cannot even help you.

The Heaven Inc

Last Name 1

Last Name 4

Critical Claim paper

A single violent event in our lives can affect the rest of life. We can either become evil or a spiritual person depending upon the type and intensity of the event that happened with us. The story of the movie Joker (2019), is based on the same plot. Joker is a psychological and thriller film based on the life of a comedian who failed to make his audience laugh. He descends into insanity and gets inspired by violent activities against the wealthy people of Gotham. In my opinion, the movie Joker assumes that Breaking social norms can cause isolation and outbreaking of evil desire inside. Comment by Mackenzie N Breneman: Try to avoid 1st person plural (we, us, etc.) and instead use “I” or avoid personal pronouns in general Comment by Mackenzie N Breneman: Don’t need to say “in my opinion” Comment by Mackenzie N Breneman: I think I get the idea here, but it needs to be rephrased. I would also include the 2 ways of reading the text in your first paragraph right before this sentence

There are many aspects of the subway scene in the movie “Joker” that reflects the life of people around us. Joker, a person who was suffering from a mental illness but unable to explain it to the people around him make him outrageous and evil. In this scene, we can clearly observe that Joker was feeling miserable, helpless and was unable to control himself from laughing because the condition was not in his own control. Comment by Mackenzie N Breneman: Which scene? Be more specific

Watching the movie, it is observable that his uncontrolled behavior attracts the attention of the people in the corner of the train who were teasing a young girl. They thought that he is making fun of them because the girl refused to accept the offer of sharing food items with one of the well-dressed guys on the train; who seems to be from rich family background. For a normal human being, especially a man it’s insulting if a girl refuses any kind of offer in front of other people or the friends of the guy. Having a clown laughing at the same moment adds more to the embarrassment. A similar situation happens with them when the “Clown” starts laughing when the girl refused to accept their offer. But the violent and humiliating behavior of those three men towards the Joker wasn’t good and justified at all. They should have listened to him, when he was trying to explain to them “it is a condition, I am having”, but in their anger, they didn’t listen to the Joker. The way he was laughing was not obviously normal, a normal person can not laugh like that, it was very obvious that something was wrong with him. He was choking due to laughter but they didn’t pay attention, instead, they humiliated him. Comment by Mackenzie N Breneman: This paragraph is more of a summary. It needs to connect more to the claim and add to your argument Comment by Mackenzie N Breneman: If you put something in quotes it should be word for word what is said in the movie. This doesn’t seem like a direct quote

The scene that happened in the subway raises many questions. People in the city of Gotham, depict our society where people are not aware of many mental disorders. If the episode of disorder occurs in a public setting the person who is suffering already gets abused or face violence. It is very certain when an episode of disorder occurs it is not in the control of the person, however, instead of understanding them, people often start hitting them or torturing them instead of helping them out.

Another important critical reflection of the world in this movie appear to be dark, uncaring where the hero of the movie is unable to find a hint of comfort or relief. A similar situation happens in the real world, where people do not offer any help to those who are in dire need. Everyone is busy in their lives, and the one who is suffering has no moral support with him. Similarly, Joker here is all alone in his fight against mental illness; he was upset because he lost his job particularly for bringing a gun to a children’s hospital; which he was given by his friend to his own protection against the increasing criminal activities happening in the city. Losing his job makes him extremely upset. No one understands him even the girl on the train does not bother to look at him, instead, she ran away saving her life from those three rich guys on the train. Comment by Mackenzie N Breneman: Try to focus on the text rather than what happens in real life

In the later scene, we can see that the three guys approach him while singing “Send in the Clowns” and were hitting him hard when he tried to leave and grabbed his bag. In the self-defense, he took out the gun he had for safety, and open fire on two of them. After shooting them, he realized what he has done, but it was too late to control his anger and outrage. He was being hit badly, was bathed in his blood dripping from his mouth. At the same moment, he decided to kill the third one to vanish all the evidence against him. after chasing him for a while, he killed the third guy also. It is the evil conducted by the Joker, which shouldn’t take place at the first moment. It reflects how human beings when stressed and are aggressive take decisions that we regret a lot later in our lives. This one bad incident involving the murder of the three young guys encouraged the Joker to kill more people. For him, killing rich people is a tempting fantasy of persecution and relief, of embracing nihilism in a dark and terrible city of Gotham and will serve as a complete escape from this terrible world. This scene has gained a lot of empathy for the fans of the movie; however, in my opinion, an evil act is always evil, even if a person is going through the worst events of life. Comment by Mackenzie N Breneman: This doesn’t really sound like your writing based on the rest of the paper. If you’re taking an idea from somewhere else, be sure to give it credit Comment by Mackenzie N Breneman: This needs to come back to the claim more

To Conclude, the subway train scene of the movie reflects that the behavior of both; joker and the guys were not appropriate. We don’t know what others have been through. Hitting and humiliating others is bad conduct of behavior but killing them in anger is a crime. Instead of being responsible for the murder of these three people, Joker killed another man in a live show later on in the movie and people rescued him after he was caught by the police. Therefore, such violence should not be promoted even in the movies. That conveys the young generation a message that we should act violently in our dark phase of life. So, we can kill people just because we are angry, have a disorder and the world is not fair with us because that’s what the Joker did.

Last Name 1

Last Name 2

Critical Claim paper

A single violent event in our lives can affect the rest of life. One can either become evil or a spiritual person depending upon the type and intensity of the event that happened to them. The story of the movie Joker (2019), is based on the same plot. Joker is a psychological and thriller film based on the life of a comedian who failed to make his audience laugh. He descends into insanity and gets inspired by violent activities against the wealthy people of Gotham. Just because he was unable to make his audience laugh, he turns into a violent person. The movie Joker assumes that Breaking social norms can cause isolation and the outbreak of the evil desire inside a person.

Many aspects of the subway scene in the movie “Joker” reflects the life of people around us. Joker, a person who was suffering from a mental illness but unable to explain it to the people around him make him outrageous and evil. The Joker works on the streets, spinning signs, and at the children’s hospitals, which shows that he was trying to make a living honestly. The problem he encountered was that he used to laugh at times, which were inappropriate. Due to the condition, he could be beaten or sometimes face a budget cut for which he could not afford his medication. From the events, it can be observed that Joker was feeling miserable, helpless because he was unable to control himself from laughing since the condition was not in his control.

The text can be seen by the use of costumes. The costume that the Joker wears hand-off various implications. The purple suit worn by The Joker assists with demonstrating that something isn’t directly with him. His oily green hair, alongside the purple suit, are not ordinarily parts of the regular closet. The cosmetics of The Joker and the post-blast Harvey Dent pass on their primary character attributes. The white on the substance of The Joker would typically pass on a feeling of virtue, yet his bruised eyes and red grin instead feature his dull and turned character. His lasting smile underscores his cruel cleverness while his scars are reminders of the grieved past that structure his character.

The text can also be seen by the use of lighting. Theghting in the film, while usually dull, is vast in the statement of the subjects. One specific scene, a cross-examination of The Joker by Commissioner Gordon, starts in stay with the main light originating from a little work area light. As the camera faces The Joker, his body is covered up in the shadows, leaving just his roughly painted face uncovered. This lighting passes on the threat of hiding in the shadows, which The Joker represents. Batman enters the scene, and the cross-examination room is at the same time washed in a brilliant, white light, connoting the ‘great’ that Batman represents.

Watching the movie, it is observable that his uncontrolled behavior attracts the attention of the people in the corner of the train who were teasing a young girl. They thought that he is making fun of them because the girl refused to accept the offer of sharing food items with one of the well-dressed guys on the train, who seems to be from a rich family background. For a normal human being, especially a man, it is insulting if a girl refuses any offer in front of other people or the friends of the guy. Having a clown laughing at the same moment adds more to the embarrassment. The laughter attracts the men, and due to the embarrassment, they humiliate the clown even though he tried to explain to them his condition. The way he was laughing was not normal; a normal person can not laugh like that; it was undeniable that something was wrong with him. He was choking due to laughter, but they didn’t pay attention; instead, they humiliated him. The people in the corner had no idea about his condition, which caused them to act the way they did.

The scene that happened in the subway raises many questions. People in the city of Gotham, depict our society, where people are not aware of many mental disorders. If the episode of disorder occurs in a public setting, the person who is suffering already gets abused or face violence. It is very certain when an episode of disorder occurs. It is not in the control of the person; however, instead of understanding them, people often start hitting them or torturing them instead of helping them out.

Another crucial critical reflection in this movie appears to be dark, uncaring where the hero of the movie is unable to find a hint of comfort or relief. The Joker here is all alone in his fight against mental illness; he was upset because he lost his job, particularly for bringing a gun to a children’s hospital, which he was given by his friend to his protection against the increasing criminal activities happening in the city. Losing his job makes him extremely upset. No one understands him even the girl on the train does not bother to look at him; instead, she ran away, saving her life from those three rich guys on the train. Everybody cared about their own lives leaving the Joker to stand for himself.

In the later scene, we can see that the three guys approach him while singing “Send in the Clowns” and were hitting him hard when he tried to leave and grabbed his bag. In the self-defense, he took out the gun he had for safety, and open fire on two of them. After shooting them, he realized what he has done, but it was too late to control his anger and outrage. He was being poorly hit, was bathed in his blood dripping from his mouth. At the same moment, he decided to kill the third one to vanish all the evidence against him. After chasing him for a while, he killed the third guy also. It is the evil conducted by the Joker, which shouldn’t take place at the first moment. It reflects how human beings, when stressed and are aggressive, take decisions that we regret a lot later in our lives. This one bad incident involving the murder of the three young guys encouraged the Joker to kill more people. This scene has gained a lot of empathy for the fans of the movie. However, an evil act is always evil, even if a person is going through the worst events of life. But, the Joker knows that people will never understand his condition, and they can humiliate him; however they want; therefore, he uses the gun as self-defense.

To Conclude, the subway train scene of the movie reflects that the behavior of both; Joker and the guys were not appropriate. We don’t know what others have been through. Hitting and humiliating others is bad conduct of behavior, but killing them in anger is a crime. Instead of being responsible for the murder of these three people, Joker killed another man in a live show later on in the movie, and people rescued him after the police caught him. Therefore, such violence should not be promoted even in the movies. That conveys the young generation a message that we should act violently in our dark phase of life. So, we can kill people just because we are angry, have a disorder, and the world is not fair with us because that is what the Joker did.