Rebecca Solnit: Global Issues Comparison

Extra Credit Assignment

Directions: After analyzing Rebecca Solnit’s essay, “Silence and Powerlessness Go Hand in Hand,” examine TWO different global issues (at
least one must be from this essay, while the second may be from any of her works studied thus far) and compare them to one or more of the
following texts: Chronicle of a Death Foretold, A Doll’s House, or Persepolis. In order to receive full credit, your analysis of each authorial
choice must provide ample explanation of how it effectively supports the author’s main idea and how it directly influences the reader’s
understanding of the text.

Translated Text: English Text:

Field of Inquiry Global Issue Focus 1. Author’s Position on Issue 1. Author’s Position on Issue
(use concept frame) 2. Passage of Focus (up to 40 lines) 2. Passage of Focus (up to 40 lines)
3. Analysis of 3 Authorial Choices 3. Analysis of 3 Authorial Choices

Politics, power, and Those in power, stay Having a voice is crucial. It’s not all there is to
justice in power by exploiting human rights, but it’s central to them, and so you
those who have little can consider the history of women’s rights and
and taking their
lack of rights as a history of silence and breaking
voices.
silence. Speech, words, voices sometimes change
things in themselves when they bring about
inclusion, recognition: the rehumanization that
undoes dehumanization. Sometimes they are only
the preconditions to changing rules, laws,
regimes to bring about justice and liberty.

Sometimes just being able to speak, to be heard,

to be believed, are crucial parts of membership in
a family, a community, a society. Sometimes our
voices break those things apart; sometimes those
things are prisons.

In the second panel, in the first picture, Satrapi
utilizes iconography in order to break the fourth
wall with the reader and explain the way in
which her situation was something she had to
deal with and there was no other way around it.
Very similar to Solnit as women feel almost
incapable of having a voice or being heard due to
those with power oppressing them. Also the use
of her seen with the veil, as a reference to the
future shows the fact that she came to terms with
it in the future as it does not change and becomes
a societal norm.
And then when words break through
unspeakability, what was tolerated by a society
sometimes becomes intolerable. Those not
impacted can fail to see or feel the impact of
segregation or police brutality or domestic
violence; stories bring home the trouble and
make it unavoidable.
By voice, I don’t mean only literal voice – the
sound produced by the vocal cords in the ears of
others – but the ability to speak up, to participate,
to experience oneself and be experienced as a
free person with rights. This includes the right
not to speak, whether it’s the right against being
tortured to confess, as political prisoners are, or
not to be expected to service strangers who
approach you, as some men do to young women,
demanding attention and flattery and punishing
their absence.
“It’s not all there is to human rights, but it’s
central to them, and so you can consider the
history of women’s rights and lack of rights as a
history of silence and breaking silence.”
The utilization of appeal to logic, as Solnit
references history and what has been seen in the
past carrying onto the present. Similarly Satrapi
utilizes a reference to history but merely a past
within her own life; however they both bring up
the same idea as the change from then to the
present was little to none.
 The second panel, in the second picture Satrapi
utilizes graphic weight in order to blatantly
portray the way in which Marji’s mother was
clothed and her body language to display
emotion as she is going against societal norms
displaying her beliefs. Only later to be silenced
for her opinions even though she spoke out about
her ideas and utilized her voice.
The final three panels in the second picture give
reference to the way in which she must change
herself as a result of speaking up for her values
and beliefs. Satrapi utilized foreground,
midground and background as well as
non-sequitur transitions to emphasize how
Marji’s mother is scared for her life because she
feels as though she will be punished by those of
authority and looked down upon for speaking up
against government implementations.
Culture, identity and Women are subject to Helmer. My little Nora, there is an important
community inevitable belittlement difference between your father and me. Your
“Speech, words, voices sometimes change things
in themselves when they bring about inclusion,
recognition: the rehumanization that undoes
dehumanization. Sometimes they are only the
preconditions to changing rules, laws, regimes to
bring about justice and liberty.”
Asyndeton for what can be done to right societal
and historical wrongs created by those in power
(specifically men); however, there is still a lack
in knowledge upon the idea that we could reach
such in full. As well as the use of anaphora to
show just how vital this change is to society,
specifically women and children.
“the ability to speak up, to participate, to
experience oneself and be experienced as a free
person with rights. This includes the right not to
speak, whether it’s the right against being
tortured to confess, as political prisoners are, or
not to be expected to service strangers who
approach you, as some men do to young women,
demanding attention and flattery and punishing
their absence”
Polysyndeton is utilized here in order to
emphasize the way in which those in power treat
innocent civilians, specifically women and
children, like their own prisoners telling them
what to do and when to do it. They are forced to
act as if they have done something wrong and
deserved what would be placed upon them.
“Smile,” a man orders you, and that’s a concise
way to say that he owns you; he’s the boss; you
and alienation due to a father’s reputation as a public official was not
male dominated above suspicion. Mine is, and I hope it will
society. continue to be so, as long as I hold my office.
Nora. You never can tell what mischief these
men may con- ora trive. We ought to be so well
off, so snug and happy here in our peaceful
home, and have no cares—you and I and the
children, Torvald! That is why I beg you so
earnestly—
Helmer. And it is just by interceding for him that
you make it impossible for me to keep him. It is
already known at the Bank that I mean to dismiss
Krogstad. Is it to get about now that the new
manager has changed his mind at his wife’s
bidding—
Nora.And what if it did?
Helmer. Of course!—if only this obstinate little
person can get her way! Do you suppose I am
going to make myself ridiculous before my
whole staff, to let people think that I am a man to
be swayed by all sorts of outside influence? I
should very soon feel the consequences of it, I
can tell you! And besides, there is one thing that
makes it quite impossible for me to have
Krogstad in the Bank as long as I am manager.
Torvald’s use of patronizing nicknames while
talking to Nora illustrates his treatment towards
her; he views her as almost a child who needs to
be dependent on him, and through his degrading
tone and nicknames he manages to both
do as you’re told; your face is there to serve his
life, not express your own. He’s someone; you’re
no one.
In a subtler way, names perpetuate the gendering
of New York City. Almost every city is full of
men’s names, names that are markers of who
wielded power, who made history, who held
fortunes, who was remembered; women are
anonymous people who changed fathers’ names
for husbands’ as they married, who lived in
private and were comparatively forgot­ten, with
few exceptions. This naming stretches across the
continent; the peaks of many Western mountains
have names that make the ranges sound like the
board of directors of an old corporation, and very
little has been named for particular historical
women, though Maryland was named after a
Queen Mary who never got there.
Anaphora is utilized in order to emphasize all
that men have and all that women must live
without. Within the passage the word “who” is
utilized consecutively within a single sentence in
order to reference that even the broadest of terms
do not regard females. They are not part of the
whole of society, rather a minor aspect that goes
unseen and misunderstood. This also makes
reference to the abilities men have that women
would not even dare to think of being blessed
disregard whatever Nora is saying and refer to
her as someone lesser. Rather than regarding
Nora as the grown woman she is, Torvald acts in
a condescending manner by referring to her as a
“obstinate little person,” making her seem
helpless to him no matter what she does.
“Do you suppose I am going to make myself
ridiculous before my whole staff, to let people
think that I am a man to be swayed by all sorts of
outside influence?”
If Helmer were to be swayed by an individual
that barely holds any value in society, a woman,
his place in society would drop as well. Torvald
is the only man within this play that has not
come from a family or done wrong in his own
life to give himself a bad placement in society,
thus he intends to keep the role he has made for
himself by belittling his wife even further.
“My little Nora, there is an important difference
between your father and me.”
Once more she is being talked down too as if she
were aachild. Women were supposed to stay
home and keep it in order day in and day out,
thus societal matters, or any matters aside from
those of the home, were supposed to be out of
sight and mind to them. This gave men the
excuse to treat women as the inferior gender
since their voices were silenced upon external
affairs. Thus, the tension During this time period
women were supposed to stay home and keep it
in order day in and day out, thus societal matters,
or any matters aside from those of the home,
were supposed to be out of sight and mind to
with, as well as the fact that she starts the excerpt
off with the notion of strength and power and
concludes with the overall remembrance and
thankful notion for what men provide. All that
women would never understand as their position
is incomparable to theirs, even those who made
an impactful stance in society, yet men are
recognized even in the slightest for similar feats.
Solnit exemplifies appeal to emotion in order to
manipulate the reader into sympathizing with
women, forming ethical alignment, and the
trauma that they undergo at the hands of men.
The fact that the men's names are embedded into
the roots of society, which Solnit makes quite
obvious, creates a very strong, emotional
argument as she portrays the notion that women
suffer because it seems as though nothing can be
done to reverse what society has been founded
upon. The negative diction seen throughout the
entire excerpt is always in regards to the aspects
of male sources of reference seen all throughout
society metaphorically and on physical display.
Solnit exemplifies appeal to emotion in order to
manipulate the reader into sympathizing with
women, forming ethical alignment, and the
trauma that they undergo at the hands of men.
The fact that the men's names are embedded into
them. This gave men the excuse to treat women
as the inferior gender since their voices were
silenced upon external affairs. Thus, the tension
grows between characters with the hunger
women have built up to prove themselves and the
drive men had to keep them silent and in their
designated lane.
the roots of society, which Solnit makes quite
obvious, creates a very strong, emotional
argument as she portrays the notion that women
suffer because it seems as though nothing can be
done to reverse what society has been founded
upon. The negative diction seen throughout the
entire excerpt is always in regards to the aspects
of male sources of reference seen all throughout
society metaphorically and on physical display.