Literary Analysis #3

Give Me a Break by John Stossel
Topics and Events
1. This book is written by a correspondent for 20/20 and Good Morning America, John Stossel. In the novel he tells of all of his interviews and confrontations with scam artists ranging from simple "Work From Your Home" scams to complex cases of clinics charging patients for procedures they didn't even need, or the procedure didn't even take place. Some of the most shocking examples of fraud took place in our own government, and throughout the book he debunks the trustworthiness of the Liberal Media.
b) Basically he starts out as a journalist for his college and works his way up to newspaper journalism and wants to bring the true truth on news that is actually useful. He has revealed numerous scam artists from low-life's in a basement to full time politicians or doctors.
2. The author chose to write about this because it was his career. He was writing about his life dedicated to exposing the people who cheat their way through life and proving that the truth always comes out.
3. I chose this book because my dad recommended it to me saying it was a really good book( he is very republican and so is the author and it is very obvious throughout the book) and once I started reading it it was very interesting to me. Its filled with interviews and basically him telling stories of all the confrontations with the people and the legal and personal consequences. It had a lot of human interest.
4. I found the book very realistic because there are always companies and scam artists cheating people, and its nice to see them pay for it. I could find a connection with the author because we have a similar personality and he lived for journalism. He actually doesn't even really enjoy being on TV, but he does it because it needs to be done to bring these people to justice.
People
1. The author's subjects he wrote about were mostly scam artists and dirty politicians. He didn't choose to write more about one group of people over another. These choices say that the author is fairly unbiased, as he is a journalist that wants to bring out the truth. His tone is demeaning of the subjects and this says that the author doesn't respect these people and sees them as below himself.
2. Pamela Farrell is an African-American hair stylist and is one of the best at hair braiding in her area, but gets put out of business due to licensing issues with product she was using. She is just a typical case of someone pursuing her own American dream, but it is taken away due to frivolous legalities. I would agree with the authors use of direct characterization of looks but indirect of personality. Another is Mark Genauer, Stagelight Cosmetics President, who along with other companies such as Calvin Klein were selling grossly overpriced cosmetics due to their "secret formula". He is a scam artist. I would use his actions to indirectly describe what hes like. If he is scamming thousands of people, I doubt he's a good guy.
3. What makes these people interesting enough to write about is the fact that they represent the conflict between achieving a dream, and cheating people. Their are numerous examples of both of these types of people and it personifies the struggle of the American Dream.
1. Two examples of direct characterization used are when the author introduces Pamela, describing her looks and back ground, and when he describes his younger self as shy and with no idea of a career. Two examples of indirect characterization are his tone when he describes his confrontations with scam artists as they avoid the questions and act very suspicious. Another is when he uses actual interview conversations, and the conversations make their personalities apparent to the audience.
2. When the author focuses on a character, his diction does change a bit. He is usually more laid back and casual with his vocabulary but when he talks about a specific character his tone changes to really show how he feels about them. He doesn't blatantly say he doesn't like these people, but he talks in a derogatory tone. Like when he talks about the cosmetic salesmen, he talks in a way that portrays them as conniving intelligent individuals who are good at what they do; which is lying.
3. The protagonist is fairly static as he is the same throughout the book. He is round because there are many sides to his personality. At some points I saw him as a typical person and at others I saw him as a brave journalist.
4. I do feel as if I had met the author. He gives a good amount of back story so I could really see where he was coming from when he talked about certain subjects. One example is where he talks about how he didn't have any idea on what he wanted to do when he was in high school, and I can really connect with this because I'm still open to many ideas.
Style
1. Being that the author was a professional journalist, he wrote in the style he was accustomed to. He used a lot of real life examples with statistics and well known companies. An example is the numerous interview lines he added in to the novel so you can see the actual words that were said.
2. The author focuses on equal amounts of action and dialogue as he would say what literally happened and add in the dialogue, notes style. This affects the book by making it feel faster paced, as if he has a lot of information to give in a little bit of time. It makes it more fun and interesting to read.
3. To create tone and mood the author starts chapters out by stating a general problem with a market and gradually describing specific situations and ending the chapter with something similar to a summary of the theme or central idea of the chapter.
4. The author feels like his subjects aren't necessarily bad people, but just make selfish choices. He recognizes that these people are just trying to make a living. How he feels about the audience is as if he is giving a lecture. He throws out lots of examples and information basically to show just how untrustworthy businesses can be and to be skeptical of them. I feel like he is mentoring the audience on how to not get screwed.
5. The author includes many interviews. This mattered in my thinking because it showed that we do have reason to be skeptical and that these people will still lie, even when they believe they aren't on camera. It made the authors opinions more impacting on my own because he had logical reason for it.
Enduring Memory
My lasting memory of this novel is that running an honest business is very difficult. There is a lot of temptation to overcharge or charge for things that customers don't really need or even want and it is forced upon them, such as faulty car repairs. What this really translates to is that the American Dream has so many hurdles to get over that even when you reach it, just the fact of reaching the finish line is well worth it. An example is Pamela. All she wanted was to come to America to be a hairdresser. She was the best at braiding and special things like that, but in all the excitement of achieving it, she overlooked the technicalities. Her competing businesses told the authorities she didn't have the proper licensing, all because they knew she would be raking in the success, even though she didn't even want all the monetary success.  It requires people to have pure motives for doing something for society and if someone really wants to be something, for the sake of being whatever it is, then they will reach it if they truly want it. The temptations of money weed out all the others that don't have the true desire to be something.