Essay Question

In this essay I’ll be talking  about the different language techniques that Ron Suskind has placed to show the difference between part 1 and part 2. The story is about a young black man who has to achieve a lot in a rough area and how he can adapt to different environment he enters at M.I.T. Throughout the article Ron Suskind places a variety of different language techniques to distinctively show the differences in the two learning environments and how difficult Cedric finds it to fit in with two completely different crowds.

Within article 1 Ron Suskind  constantly places metaphors to give us a representation of the difficulties and struggles Cedric had to face during his entire high school journey . Being an exceedingly high achiever in Ballou high meant you are an outsider, a minority within the school. The metaphors used symbolised the violence and persuasion of failure within the community. In the perspective of his teachers this made Cedric outshine all the other students intellectually, But what we learn from article 2 is that when he outshines the low achievers students from Ballou, he is equivalent to an average middle class student in any part of America.

We can see this, as the level of learning is completely different from each other. Also the type of influences around Cedric can effect his behaviour and attitude towards others.

Knowing that Cedric started from a crime driven area which in the story is referred to as a”Crime infested ward” would suggest that his area was like a spreading virus effecting every victims behaviour.school called Ballou to one of the top colleges in America (M.I.T). People in Ballou High and his area have embraced the thought of failure, this puts him so high up in the cloud as he is worshiped by teachers and bullied because of intellect. The only down fall is he doesn’t know there is a drop bellow him. Quotes that prove this is ” The arduous Odyssey of Cedric” and ” they’d get washed out and everything they believe in would come crashing down on their heads. listen, we know a lot about suicide rates up here. i’d be raising them.”

The first quote is from part 1. The key thing about part 1 is that it is all about the hard long journey Cedric took. No one else he knew of didn’t run along side him. He was the star attraction every watched him work towards the bright line at the end. He was hated by all kids who were misled by society because he was the only one who stay on a straight path it was all about the journey of Cedric.

Whereas the first quote was all about Cedric the second quote refer to so many student in MIT who struggle to keep up the try so hard but aren’t up there with the others. The teacher at MIT said this to show that he will take no pity on any student.

On the other hand  in article 2. Ron Suskind takes a whole different approach toward the characters around Cedric. They are overall academically stronger than his former students and they speak more formal and most likely ground up with better chance. The problem this creates for Cedric is that he is far behind in terms of education as well as he speech. Growing up in rough neighborhood affects your speech. The further you progress towards the high-end part of states or cities the language drastically changes. Ballou High had the same formality as the rest of the area. This is why the transformation from Ballou High to MIT was so difficult for Cedric. It was like a language barrier. Throughout the story formality and academic strength is the representation of a white person. Multiple quotes in part 1 and 2 present evidence of this happening. Quotes such as “Everyone knows they’re trying to be white to get ahead in a white man’s worlds.” And”if you get good grades you’re white. What you shouldn’t do that ? Thinking that way is a formula for failure. ” The two quotes are from different points in Cedric’s education.

The first quote was said to Cedric as he was a high achiever in a low achieving environment making him a target. Making Cedric a target was a bad thing because he is vulnerable to violence but on the other hand he has a sense of superiority among the rest of the pupils in Ballou High.

The second quote is from someone who has more pride in themselves. They understand that the world doesn’t go in their favor but the won’t accept it for what it is they’ll go against the stereotyping. This is also an environment where everyone is smarter or as smart as Cedric, making him equal to everyone.

But within MIT as people of color are so much more strong-minded so they can fight against the general idea, but Cedric is weak he gives up at the first sight of downfall in the big arena.White people are benchmarks for any other race of people.

The teachers play a big part in Cedric’s view on life. They were like his consciences. He followed the good side ( Mr Taylor) until he started to fade. When your good conscience didn’t always make the best of choice and you need some of the other conscience to help survive in “rough condition”. In this case the rough conditions wasn’t Ballou, he is used to all of that, it was MIT. A new environment one technically just as rough. The writer showed that Cedric couldn’t adapt to that. Cedric had to completely change himself to  survive. Not once did the way he spoke or teachers spoke were formal. We would presume that learning in school also means formal speech, but in this it didn’t.

Other language devices such as personification was used in quotes such as “failure is persuasive here even seductive”. This quote is making failure a person, that seduces student one by one to give in to its spell. Every student entered Ballou with some sort of knowledge, but the more time progressed the less you learnt the more you become involved with society. Which was the worst outcome you could have as people change people and all the other students were corrupted people in terms of what is right.

Even though Ballou High School has a bad reputation the students education is still in them. Maths, science all these subjects used for the incorrect reasons. Examples of this happening occur multiple time throughout the first article. This happened to Phillip and Head( Delante Coleman)They were just as smart as Cedric. They matched his scores in maths and were above average in some subject and now they use they skills bad things. Head is now a leader of a gang a watches his money carefully. He owns a Lexus and many good from doing things that aren’t said in the article.

Before we started to read Ron Suskind article we analyze a conversation between Phillip and Alicia. I had to break down the conversation and determine what the outcome of the story would be. The quote was (“Yeah, I’m going to college, too,” says Phillip, looking away. “Very funny, you going to college,” snaps Alicia. “Get real.” “Well, I am.” “Get a life, Phillip, you got no chance.” “You’ve got nothing,” he says, starting to yell. “Just your books. My life is after school.” “You got no life,” she shouts back. “Nothing!” ) When we broke down this section i understood that the story would be about no belief in people in terms of success in education for a child. No belief in Phillip from who was a close friend or maybe sibling.

To conclude this essay the language used in the article were the most noticeable and distinct understanding the struggle Cedric had throughout his education. The struggle he had changed and effected him more personally the more he progressed through life. The more he had achieved the harder he took criticism was the key idea Ron Suskind tried to put into every readers head and interpretation of the story.