Critical Review of the essay Adam Gopnik PDF

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The essay Shootings (2007) by Adam Gopnik, discusses the incident of mass shooting that took place in Virginia Tech in year 2007 and claimed 33 lives in total including the shooter (the shooter committed suicide after taking lives of 32 people present at Virginia Tech building). This incident is amo...

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Critical Essay Assignment

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Critical Essay Assignment

1. Reading The essay Shootings (2007) by Adam Gopnik, discusses the incident of mass shooting that took place in Virginia Tech in year 2007 and claimed 33 lives in total including the shooter (the shooter committed suicide after taking lives of 32 people present at Virginia Tech building). This incident is among one of the most devastating mass shootings that America has witnessed till date and spotlights some of the major concerns regarding the law making and enforcement in the country. While reading the essay I was able to draw three underlying ideas that are put forward by Adam Gopnik: i.

There exists two approaches for a single incident- one is of the

American society and the other is global perspective on the incident. While the American society focus on the factors that led to such a horrible incident, the world takes in account the statistics of such incidents and try to analyse and draw conclusion that gun-violence in America is higher than other parts of the world. This reflects the absence of multi-dimensional approach and thought process of the American society. ii.

America is not the only nation to have lunatic people in its society. The

problems, which are often considered to be the major cause of such incidents, mental illness, narcissism, alienation of immigrant students, pressure on students etc are common and have similarly prevailed in other parts of the world as well. However, America ranks higher than the other nations when it comes to gun-violence. This certainly indicates loophole in the firearms laws of America. iii.

Third important thing idea presented forth by Adam Gopnik is that

why America is failing in taking a precautionary approach. Surely wounds get healed and pains fade away but that does not mean to let the evils prevail in the society and not take any appropriate and comprehensive action towards the things which if cannot be stopped completely, can be controlled and reduced to great extent. 2

Critical Essay Assignment

The essay is very well written and uses simple language that is easy to understand and relate to. However, in order to understand the essay better and in depth I preferred looking for the exact meaning of narcissism, copycat killing, and N.R.A. In the very first reading of the essay, I was able to draw the key ideas and relate to them and this makes the essay a successful rhetorical work. This undeniably is true in every sense that America needs better approach and laws towards firearms’ availability to general masses. It can take references from other countries like Britain and Canada, which have posed restrictions on the purchase of the guns that can be used for mass shootings. In addition, I completely agree with the author that apart from focussing to the social and internal issues that lead to such incidents, the American society needs to widen its arena of discussion and include some effective measures that can reduce or stop such violent incidents. The way Gopnik has spotlighted the critical issues in the essay is impressive as along with making the reader to understand the criticality of the real issues that may get layered under political speeches, media outrages and other public opinions; his writing also enables the reader to relate to the incident emotionally and humanly. In my point of view, Gopnik has successfully explained that why a comprehensive solution is the need of the hour. 2. Outline Of The Critical Review Essay Mapping and Outline There could not have been a better outline or approach for presenting such a significant issue as has been done by Gopnik. He attracts the attention of the reader by including the emotional and human feelings and engages the readers. Further, after successful attempt of engaging the reader Gopnik moves towards his key ideasexplaining that a wider approach and mentality is required by the society and the law makers, who at times dig in their heads overlooking the crucial issues. 3

Critical Essay Assignment

The body of the essay mainly focuses in instilling the thought that there is a lot of scope of betterment in American law. Gopnik, by referring a number of examples sets the tone correct, has a solid base to support his arguments and has used them effectively to make the body of the essay. The conclusion part again brings up the main issue and thereby completing all the elements that are required in an essay. Description Gopnik’s essay is a well written piece and aims at creating a powerful impact on all sections of society. With a vivid yet precise description of emotions and human feeling he has put forward some critical issues prevailing in the American society and has also targeted the loopholes in laws, while using various references and examples of other nations who have worked towards the betterment of their laws. The essay contains a number or crucial elements that make it a wisely written piece like facts and references, emotional involvement, and most importantly it pulls the right chords within the mind of the readers thereby achieving its aim of raising awareness among the readers. For instance the beginning - Adam Gopnik begins the essay by creating a scene of the incident and focuses on explaining the mental conditions of the various people like policemen and parents, which instantly develops a sympathetic feeling towards the people who are at the suffering end or involved in the shootings, followed by inclusion political response. Narration The essay is written in very simple language and avoids using complex sentences and structures. This makes it very easily understandable and relatable. Even a common person can conveniently draw the idea as what exactly the author has tried to say and 4

Critical Essay Assignment

what are his main ideas. In fact, to an extent the simple language used in the essay makes it more effective and brings out the strong character of the main idea of the essay. In addition, it Engages the reader to encourage them to read more as most of the times, people who are not politically inclined or socially aware miss out these crucial issues. Exposition The process analysis used by Gopnik is quite impressive as he takes on a multidimensional approach on the issue. He has included the ideas from society, world, political domain and other sphere to complete his main idea. By giving the examples of Scotland and Canada, he bring forth that how other countries have tackled such kind of mass shooting incidents and have reduced the occurrence by amending their country’s laws, thereby giving the reader an insight that such incidents happen around the world as well, but it is the approach of America’s lawmakers that makes the America among the top places with more gun-violence. Here he successfully compares the various nations, their approach towards dealing the issue and has included all the necessary details to make his point stronger. Persuasion and Arguments Adam Gopnik’s essay, Shootings (2007) is a reflection of effective writing techniques that helps him to develop a similar point of view of the reader as put forward by him as he discusses the various underlying concerns regarding the availability of firearms in America that can be used for mass shootings. Academic Integrity and Essay Documentation

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Critical Essay Assignment

Gopnik’s essay is completely his idea and thereby a piece of work that marks the best of academic integrity. He has documented the events from past accurately, however mentioning only the points that would help or support his key idea. Essay Documentation MLA Gopnik, Adam. Shootings. New Yorker. 2007. Editing Checklist The essay is well edited and there is no significant error that could be pointed out. Argument In this essay Gopnik talks about the mass shootings by taking in account of a similar incident that took place at Virginia Tech Engineering building and his main motivation is to investigate that why such incidents are more in America than any other nation. He discusses various factors and also brings forwards the two perspectives on a same incident thereby forcing the reader to widen the thinking. America believes in ‘healing’ rather than ‘treating’. Facts and Opinions From the essay, there could be three conceivable ideas that may have influenced Gopnik- one could be a bad experience with the firearms in the past or second loss of a beloved one in such kind of incident or third witnessing a severe impact on a nearone due to such incidents. But if we analyse his essay deeply than we can find that his issue is not just with the firearms, but the hands that hold it. He has also stated that amending the laws may not end the crime completely but can certainly help in reducing the frequency and also that the firearms are a requirement in rural America.

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Critical Essay Assignment

Assumptions/Hidden Assumptions and Inferences One of the underlying ideas of Gopnik’s essay is the two perspectives on the same issue that co-exists. The only difference is one of them lies within America and other outside America. Evaluating Premises The argument is valid and strong along with presence of premises fully support the main idea of the essay. Adam Gopnik has very well documented his research work and ideas to generate a more awakened approach towards the issues like firearm laws, availability of the guns and thinking of the society and has in valid manner put forward the requirement of a permanent and long-lasting solution. Relevance The topic of the essay is completely relevant as mass shooting and availability of firearms is major issue in America, which has not been given the required attention. Deductive Argument There are few traces of deductive argument in Gopnik’s essay as he tries make a point over the thinking of American society and its discussion on the shootings and how it is different from the thought process of the other nations. Here instead of using facts, he has simply laid down the point, with no relevant argument. Inductive Argument Overall, Gopnik’s work suggests inductive writing, except at one or two places, because he has used examples of other nations, put the facts from the past and has used other relevant arguments to build his idea, rather than deducing it. 7

Critical Essay Assignment

Evaluating The Relationship Between Premises and Conclusions: Necessity, Sufficiency, and Relevance If we are to evaluate the relationship between the main statements of the essay and the conclusion present forth then we will find that though they are related and relevant but the scope of this relationship is very limited. He could have expressed it more and could have related it in a better manner as the conclusion should contain not only the key argument but should also discuss the positive approaches that can be taken, which have not been clearly pointed out by Gopnik. Source: Bias/Prejudice Gopnik’s essay cannot be considered as a prejudiced work as it is not a preconceived notion that is baseless or without any reason. The topic is crucial, significant and more importantly a social issue and one can find a number of incidents, facts and reasons supporting it. Fallacies If we talk about the fallacies of then this goes without saying that it hard to find any significant fallacy in Gopnik’s work. Yet, it can be said that to an extent his work targets a limited section only, whereas he could have expanded his horizon to great extent. Also, while discussing the issue like firearms, thinking of society etc, he plucked only the chosen chords rather than tuning in a complete chorus, which could have added more depth to the work.

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Critical Essay Assignment

3. Rough Draft The United States of America is considered as one of the most powerful and developed nations. It stands as an example for other countries; however it too has some social and internal issues that need to be addressed and solved. Mass shootings are among the various issues faced by America. It would be difficult to say that whether these mass shootings can be labelled as social issues, because if the larger picture is taken into consideration then we can find that apart from being a social issue, it is a political agenda as well as a legal issue. In his essay, Shootings (2007), the author Adam Gopnik has put forward this problem and also has spotlighted the various social and legal factors that lead to the incidents as happened in Virginia Tech University in 2007. The shooter before committing suicide killed 32 students. In addition, he has also presented forth the approach and irresponsible attitude of politicians and law makers, which reflects a significant ignorance towards issue as the incidents of mass shootings have occurred on number of times in America. What makes the issue of mass shooting in America a more serious issue is the absence of wider approach by the society and law makers. On one hand, countries like Britain and Canada have successfully reduced the occurrence of such incidents, the American society only discusses about the social causes without taking any affirmative step towards forcing the government to amend the firearms laws in the country. The way, Gopnik has put forward his research work is not only rhetorical but also brings forth the very basic yet important issue that need to be addressed on priority basis. This critical review essay aims at understanding and analysing the various underlying concerns regarding the availability of firearms in America that can be used for mass shootings by the author Adam Gopnik is essay Shootings (2007) by using effective writing techniques that helps him to develop a similar point of view of the reader as put forward by him. 9

Critical Essay Assignment

When I began to read Shootings (2007) by Adam Gopnik, its introduction instantly made me to think about the incident from an emotional point of view. The way he described the scene of shootings can make anyone envision the sight with phones ringing and policemen fetching the dead bodies of the students. One of the notably piece of work in his essay’s beginning is how he has tried to describe the mind state of not only parents but also the policemen on the site. It can be said that understanding the emotions of parents who are concerned about their children is quite convenient as we, at some point or the other have faced a similar situation where we are concerned about our family and friends. However, many times people tend to miss out the feelings that may be running down in the minds of the police, the doctors and other volunteers who are there to assist the wounded and clean the area. This observance made by Gopnik, at once allows the reader to ponder over the topic. Adam Gopnik begins the essay by creating a scene of the incident and focuses on explaining the mental conditions of the various people, like policemen and parents, which instantly develops a sympathetic feeling towards the people who are at the suffering end or involved in the shootings, followed by inclusion political response. It is necessary to engage people in the essays written over such issues. Most of the times, people who are not politically inclined or socially aware miss out these crucial issues. By creating a scene of crime at the beginning, Gopnik successfully engages his readers and develops an emotional and humanely feelings in the mind of readers. Moreover, it encourages the readers to read further and find out the opinions of the author. Mass shootings is one of the most dreadful crime and when one begins to study any topic related to such an incident it arouses a curiosity that what had made the shooter to take such a step, what are the perceptions on the issue and in what light the shooter is judged and studied. 10

Critical Essay Assignment

Further, after successful attempt of engaging the reader, Gopnik moves towards his key ideas- explaining that a wider approach and mentality is required by the society and the law makers, who at times dig in their heads overlooking the crucial issues. This he has done very impressively by not only pointing out the two different point-of-views owned by America and the world respectively, but also by bringing in the view points of the politicians. One of the noticeable thought put forward by Gopnik is that the society and politicians in America believe in ‘healing’ rather than ‘treating’. By this point, what he aims to explain that every time you cannot let people’s wound to heal. If there is a major problem, it needs to be treated which cannot be done by keeping silent. In addition, when the America ponders over the causes of the incidents they focus majorly on social issues rather than taking a multi-dimensional approach. The discussions are devoted to musings on treatment of mental illness in universities, the problem of “narcissism”, violence in media and in pop-culture, copycat killings (Gopnik, 2007) etc. However, the thought process should also ask the questions regarding the availability of firearms that can be used for mass shootings, if there have been incidents like this before, why not an effective law has been yet created and implemented in order to stop the occurrence of such incidents etc. The perception of the world that gun violence is more in America than other nations is not a myth. The stats prove so. And also America is not the only nation that has witnessed gun violence. The causes that are pondered over are present in other parts of the world as well. However, the difference in approach towards dealing this issue is clearly evident. Gopnik has justified this point by mentioning the examples of Britain and Canada where laws were amended and a serious impact was seen. Britain already had restrictive laws, which were more tightened after Scotland shooting in 1996. While, guns 11

Critical Essay Assignment

like automatic Glocks and Walthers are banned in other nations, why America did not take any solid approach to pacify the situation and amend the laws to make the society safer after Texas shootings, which happened almost 40 years ago, is a serious question to ask to the law makers of the nation. While the essay surely takes a multi-dimensional approach by taking into considerations the various social, legal and political spheres, it makes another valid point that banning guns may not be a solution in America. While concluding at a rhetorical note, he mentions that rural America needs guns and firearms, however if a more effective law is not implemented that limits the sell and purchase of guns that can cause mass shootings then America may continue to witness the horrific incidents. Undeniably, America needs to work upon its laws that govern the firearms ownership issues and also its society needs to broaden its approach and think out of the box in order to address this critical problem. The approach should be to address the issue comprehensively rather a short-term goal so that incidents can be avoided and prevented from occurring in future. Reference Gopnik, Adam. Shootings. New Yorker. 2007, April 30.

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