Tominna 1

Jessica Tominna

Miles

Pre-Ap English

01 March 2018

Columnist Analysis and Response Entry

Citation:

Dowd, Maureen. “This Snake Can't Shed His Skin.” The New York Times, The New

York Times, 24 Feb. 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/opinion/sunday/donald-trump-snake-

dowd.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fmaureen-

dowd&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version

=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

Part 1: Article Analysis:

Maureen Dowd provides an overview of Donald Trump’s actions and the problems that

America faces today with Trump’s actions and how the people aren't doing anything about it.

Her description of Trump in the article is how he relates to a snake because snakes are usually

described as cold, dark, ruthless, emotionless, etc. and his relationship with the National Rifle

Association isn’t getting our issues of mass shootings solved. Dowd claims that as long as Trump

is still around, we most likely aren't going to have our issues with gun control solved.

Tone:
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Dowd uses an informative tone to discuss the topics of gun control and the problems that

America face with issues like Trump's relationship with the NRA.

Context:

Dowd provides a variety of backstories including history of Donald Trump's association

with the NRA , however, she could have provided more of a variety of details on a solution to

the problem and how citizens today could counteract.

Appels:

Dowd primarily focuses on connecting towards bringing out emotion to her audience.

She references a variety of examples with past events occurring in America and the outcome of

the second amendment, the right the bare arms.

Organization:

The article follows a chronological order with a few background information before

stating the main point and concludes with a strong claim.

Diction/Word Choice:

The article is readable and can be understood by people with some sort of little education

and background information on gun control. The vocabulary is simple and uses words such

“collateral damage” and “intolerable” to describe the outcomes of these mass shootings.
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Part 2: Personal Response:

“Dowd’s article is to inform the public on the horrors of gun control. It starts off as her

describing a women taking in Trump being described as a snake and the issues on the NRA is

heading nowhere in America’s eyes. The author's main claim is to inform the audience of the

terrible actions that Trump has done. The thesis in the article is not stated directly until maybe

the end of the article where she becomes bias to the one side on supporting gun control. She

bases most of the text on background story and examples of outcomes of mass shootings. The

columnist states mostly facts and opinions backing it up with information and evidence. Some

information that I’d like to know is if there even is a solution, how would she progress forward

in helping gun control issues? How can America stop these mass shootings from occurring and

how can we be safer from guns? I agree with the authors claims for the reason of most of the

piece being informative with straight up facts and her bias opinion of gun control issues. Before

this article, I felt as if I weren’t educated as much on the subject and how much Trump plays a

role in this deciding factor, but after reading, the passion felt emotional due to the fact that an

event like this just happened recently.”