Us and Them is a riveting short story about a boy who keeps tabs on his new abnormal neighbors. His neighbors, the Tomkey’s, don’t watch television and are just strange in general. Overall, it wasn’t my favorite read and at times I just wanted it to get straight to the point, but it was pleasant enough. Something that I really enjoyed was the progression and growth of the main boy and that it was written in the boy’s particular voice. In other words, it really had its own unique style. You could really feel the curiosity the boy felt towards the family. Almost as if they were a family of reality TV personalities.  For example, when the Tomkey’s are gone Halloween weekend, the author states, “It did not make their absences any easier to bear. I felt as if my favorite show had been cancelled” (Sedaris 1). This clearly displayed how invested the boy was in this family’s life. I admire the character development of the boy, from his semi-superiority complex all the way to his self-reflection towards the end of the story, despite it not being that great of a reflection. It seemed as if the boy thought that the Tomkey’s were some kind of charity case that needed guidance in everyday life; that they didn’t know how to function properly. He pitied them like one would a small dog and was also very judgmental, something that is reflected throughout the entire passage.  For instance, he claims he, “protected and watched over these people” and that, “[he] had given them the gift of [his] curiosity” (1). The boy is very self-absorbed and sounds as if the Tomkey family should be grateful that he is nosey, because no one would have paid attention to them otherwise. His attitude made it very hard to, in my case, feel any sympathy for him because the Tomkey’s were just minding their own business and the boy felt the need to judge them and think of them as inferior for being strange. He also makes the audience feel very uncomfortable for his distasteful reaction to having to give the Tomkey’s candy. It is disappointing and ironic to see that the boy would rather stuff his face with chocolate and endure the headache rather than share candy with those who were so willing to share with him (e.g. the gumdrops the Tomkey’s left out for Halloween in their absence). The only hope the audience feels that maybe the boy had realized his wrongdoings is when he is sitting on his bed with chocolate smeared on his face and he feels some semblance of guilt (brought upon by his mother) about his behavior.

HBO’s “The Newsroom”, which only lasted for 3 seasons, was written and produced by Aaron Sorkin. Aaron Sorkin can be credited for many hit shows and movies such as: West Wing, Moneyball, and The Social Network (which he won an Academy Award for). He is also best known for his one shot “walk and talk” scenes, where the actors play out the scene with no cuts. For the screenwriting of The Newsroom, Sorkin did a lot of research of cable news programs to make the show as realistic as possible. Having done some basic research on Sorkin, it can be said that he is a longtime supporter of the Democratic party, played a role in Barack Obama’s campaign, and has established that he is anti-Trump. A lot of his work is political, so I think it’s easy to say that his intended audience is mostly millennials and older adults who are involved and actively follow politics. Sorkin uses many rhetorical elements throughout the clip such as humor (when evading questions), pathos (in the last 3/4 of the clips), and logos (when he is telling the young women stats about America). He also establishes ethos, as the main character is apparently highly respected, a news anchor, and was deemed “the Jay Leno of news anchors”.  However, he also displays fallacies such as excessive sentimental appeal (when he begins swearing and ranting) and ad hominem arguments (where he insults the “sorority girl” and what we can infer is millennials. I believe that Sorkin is trying to convey the fact that many American citizens are actually very uneducated about problems in our country today, and this scene was somewhat of their “rude awakening”. Sorkin is trying to convince the audience that America is not the great country that he believed it to be.