TOW #29: A Letter to future APELC Student

Dear Future APELC Student,

First of all, I would like to welcome you for a year with APELC. In this class, you would learn to write in a way that is completely different than how you were taught to write all the previous years. Little rules that you followed so devotedly in all your previous English classes such as writing a five paragraph essay that outlines your three examples in your thesis will become useless. You will learn to write in a more professional level, rather than the formulaic writing style you used to follow. Throughout the course, you will definitely read and write a lot. With other things going on in your life during Junior year, this course can sometimes become overbearing. However, it is important for you to stay focused by doing your homework and completing the assignments on time. There will be times when you will work hard on a paper but receive a grade that is not satisfying. However, you cannot be discouraged by the grade; you need to keep trying by approaching Mr. Yost and Ms. Pronko. The learning in this class comes natural as you write more and do your homework. You cannot particularly study for the exams given in this class, but practicing will definitely improve your scores. You are usually given more than enough time to complete your assignments and stay on top of your reading. A word of advice would be do not procrastinate. Although given enough time, if you try to finish it the day before, you will be overwhelmed. The extra time is given so you can balance your time with other classes’ assignments, not to procrastinate. Lastly, think of the reading assignments as something that you would read during your free time. You will be surprised to find that the readings are actually interesting. The prejudice towards school readings will hinder your progress. Once you start enjoying the course, you will learn more and as a result get better grades. Good luck and just remember that if I survived, you can survive as well.

SIncerely,

Ji-eun KIm

TOW #28: TOW Reflection

Whether I can believe it or not, this school year is already coming to an end and this is my second to last TOW post for APELC. Although it is hard to believe that I completed an entire AP level English course, the progressions and changes that are apparent in the TOWs provide evidence that this year is coming to an end. During the beginning of the year, my TOWs were primarily focused on summarizing the nonfiction text and presenting two or three rhetorical devices that the author uses in the text. These paragraphs were very formulaic and direct to the point. As the year progressed, I began to incorporate a creative hook to introduce the text that I read and summarized what I read very briefly. Instead of simply listing the rhetorical devices used by the author in a very formulaic way, I began to analyze the effect of these devices and whether if the author successfully used these devices to strengthen their point or not. Not only with the TOWs, but also with our practiced timed essays, I mastered how to find the rhetorical device used by the author quickly. Also, I can decipher author’s purpose more quickly and accurately compared to the beginning of the year. Not only that, I think my general English level improved as well with the writing practice that comes with the TOWs as we were expected to do one TOW entry every week. Although my English and writing skills improved, I could still improve on fixing the awkwardness of my wording especially when I am not given the chance to proofread my writing. I definitely benefited from the TOW assignments because they forced me to write and read every weekend during my freetime. Assigning the TOW as homework made me try to improve my writing. Although I do have to admit that not all TOWs had the same effort put into them, this fluctuation actually motivated me to try my best on the TOW post after the one with less effort put in. For next year, I think it could be more helpful if Mr. Yost or Mrs. Pronko could grade more TOWs. Since I turned in the TOW that I thought was the most well written for a grade, the teachers’ feedback on that TOW made me fix the mistakes that I tend to make when writing.

TOW #27: What is the Monkeysphere? By David Wang (written, non-fiction text)

Just think about it. “Which would hit you harder, your Mom dying, or seeing on the news that 15,000 people died in an earthquake in Iran?” (Wang 24). Just like this rhetorical question, Wang asks numerous rhetorical questions that makes people think and reflect about their natural selfishness. We tend to care more about the people who are actually related to us, and the number seldomly matters. Wang makes use of analogy as he compares monkeys to humans and explores the made-up term monkeysphere. He talks about how it is easier to memorize a few monkey names but very difficult to remember one hundred monkey names. Wang partitions his paragraphs by asking a rhetorical question and answering them in the paragraph. For example, to address the possible counter argument he answers the question’ “Why should I feel bad for them? I don’t even know those people!” (Wang 22). He also makes use of hypothetical situations and easier analogies to make people understand. He explains that the things people do and say to strangers just because they are strangers and people do not care for them tend to act selfishly and carelessly. He explains that people often yell outside the window while driving and curse at them just because there are thousands of other people on the road who they encounter even without noticing each other. However, he explains the hypocrisy that people would not yell and curse at their friends in an elevator with three people in it just for pushing the wrong button. He explains that strangers are outside our monkeysphere, but we are outside of stranger’s monkeysphere too. He goes on to explain that there are no “Super monkeys”, meaning no one, including yourself is not special. He does a good job in explaining every possible counter argument he would have to deal with by answering an over-exaggerated rhetorical question like “So I’m supposed to start worrying about six billion strangers?” (31). Of course you do not, and you cannot. He just wants people to be more aware of the things going on around the world and acknowledge the fact that other people do not care about you too.

TOW #26: "One dies, million cry" (nonfiction, visual text)

This advertisement juxtaposes the death of Steve Jobs with millions of people dying in Africa due to poverty, famine, and water depletion. Steve Jobs died because of Pancreatic cancer, a irreversible disease that cannot be altered and is beyond human hands. However, the death of millions in Africa is something that people can ameliorate with their will and conservation. The author of this photo wants to show the audience and criticize the public that even when there are thousands of people dying everyday due to famine which is partly due to our fault. However, we overlook that very fact. In contrast, when Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple died, millions of people cried and were grieving. Here, the author presents the hypocrisy. Obviously, people dying in Africa is much greater problem because it is millions of people compared to the death of one single man. However, I do not think the author’s argument is very strong. Steve Jobs is someone who changed millions of people’s lives and brought a new innovation to the world. I am not saying that Steve Jobs’s life is much more important than millions of people’s lives. Everyone’s life is equally important. However, Steve Jobs is someone that most of the people in first world countries know. In contrast to millions of people dying in Africa, who people consider and group as one and do not identify individually as one by one. The photo itself tries to mimic how the world equalizes the death of one single notable person to millions of people in Africa by replacing the Apple logo with African continent. Also, the color of black and white represents the colors used by the company Apple for their advertisements and perhaps to mourn the death of not just Steve Jobs but also the millions of lives in Africa. I think the advertisement could have been more effective if the author did not minimize the death of Steve Jobs. If the author acknowledged the deaths of both groups, Steve Jobs and impoverished African Americans, it could have been more effective and would have to deal with less controversy.

TOW #25: The Female Body by Margaret Atwood (written, nonfiction text)

This week, I read Margaret Atwood's "The Female Body." In her article, she talks about how the female body can be viewed in many ways. The female body can be judged by physical appearance, the physical parts that identifies someone as a female. Another way is by the things women put on, "the basic female body comes with the following accessories" (3) and lists all the things that women may use to decorate herself and make herself more attractive. The third way is whether the woman is willing to change when someone tells her what you do not like about her. The author then mentions how the woman's body have different uses and that males sometimes use females to get things for themselves even when they are capable of getting things themselves. Then Atwood mentions how pleasure in female is not required but optional. “Pleasure in the female is not a requirement… We’re not talking about love, we’re talking about biology” (6). Atwood attempts to use humor now and then to lighten up the mood. For example, after she mentioned that pleasure is not a requirement for women, she talks about how “Snails do it differently. They’re hermaphrodites and work in three’s” (6). This attempt of humor could have been an analogy to show to males who take women for granted and exploit women that women are much valuable than snails. Finally she talks about the female and male brains and how they differ; females have a more laid back approach on things while males have an objective approach. The “Female Body” is mainly about how men keep women to do things and for nothing else. So when they lose the female they are lost because they don’t know what or how to do things themselves. Atwood had a condescending tone to those men who do not value women. I think her condescending tone worked but her views were very one-sided as she made her argument sound like that all men do not value women and exploit women’s intelligence and body. She made men sound like irresponsible and helpless beings who cannot do anything by themselves when women are not present. I think supporting that point of view was overly ambitious as she needs to respond to possible counterargument to make her points stronger.

TOW #24: Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America by Barbara Ehrenreich (IRB, written)

This week, i finished Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America. Unlike the first half of the book where she bashes out about how positive thinking is ruining the society and there is nothing positive about positive thinking, she actually talks about how negative thinking has the same effect as positive thinking. She actually claims that neither positive nor negative thinking is good. She says that one sided thinking and partial thinking is detrimental. She tries to redeem herself from her previous invective on positive thinking by arguing that realism is what people actually need. Additionally, to address her point that positive thinking is not only harmful for cancer patients but also for every individual, she uses anecdote and exemplification. She first uses anecdote when explaining how positive thinking has destructive effects to cancer patients by giving them false hopes and taking away their ability to prepare for the harsh truth.  She claims that as a former cancer patient herself, going through cancer made her realize "an ideological force in American culture that I had not been aware of before—one that encourages us to deny reality, submit cheerfully to misfortune, and blame only ourselves for our fate." In addition, she uses hypothetical exemplification to address her point that thinking positively is only detrimental. She explains, "you cannot assume that your arrowheads will pierce the hide of a bison or that your raft will float just because the omens are propitious and you have been given supernatural reassurance that they will. You have to be sure.” With this hypothetical example, she makes readers realize that being clinical is what people need when looking at an issue. I personally think her arguments are a bit too harsh and radical. With topics like cancer, she needs to be more careful about the reader's feelings and how they would perceive her claims but she does not hesitate to outrageously claim that positive thinking gives patients false hopes. Although she did respond to counter arguments by claiming that negative thinking is also harmful, her methods were insufficient in settling the controversy of her argument.  If she did not note positive thinking, her arguments would have been less effective. She states that "we need to heed our fears and negative thoughts, and at all times we need to be alert to the world outside ourselves, even when that includes absorbing bad news and entertaining the views of “negative” people" but this point of view is way too pessimistic for the audience to agree. 

TOW #23: Love by Lauren Sister (written, nonfiction text)

Some describe love as a flame, something that burns brightly and passionately for a given period of times but goes off eventually. Some also describe love as a magical thing that cannot be easily explained through reasoning. However, according to Lauren Sister, a journalist who has been researching the chemistry of love, love is a very mechanical thing that comes with its reasons. She claims that people have a tendency to be attracted to ones who have the qualifications that they lack, a innate tendency to produce the best offspring. Also, we fall for people who have the qualities our parents had, because “Love is reactive, not proactive, it arches us backward, which may be why a certain person just “feels right.” Or “feels familiar.”... He or she has a certain look or smell or sound or touch that activates buried memories” (31). To support her claim, she uses very scientific terms like oxytocin and neurotransmitters and builds her ethos. She also uses anecdotes to explain the stages of love. She claims that her husband and she fully experienced the burning flame of love. However, this is not the end of their love. It is the end of one stage of another love, and the beginning of another stage of their love.

Despite its practical mechanisms SIster tried to explain in her essay, love is still a magical and wonderful thing because the chance that one might meet another person who triggers one’s oxytocin, “a hormone that promotes a feeling of connection” (55) is rare and for the other person to feel the same feelings about one is even harder.

Her claims are definitely interesting and original but I personally felt as if she was being too finicky. I believe that some things in life can be beyond reason and do not believe that it is our objectives to discover every single detail in human life. There are benefits to knowing the mechanics behind love: If people knew that they would succeed in love with one or the other, there would be no failures or disappointments in relationships. However, it is because people fail, that we have population control and desires.

TOW #22: Campaign against drunk driving in Brazil (poster, visual text)

How intimidating can a mere can of beer get? In a drink driving campaign poster done by Fiat, the can of beer carries the scariest message that a driver could think of. The poster puts two pictures of a beer can right next to each other: the first one with the can unopen, and the second one with the can open. The first can, with its golden top reflects an image of someone riding a bicycle towards the can. On the top it says, “Agora Você Vê?”, which translates into “Now you see it.” On the second picture with the can open, the opening of the can blocks the reflection of the man riding the bicycle coming towards the can, and says, “Agora não”, meaning “Now you don’t.” This carries the meaning that when drivers drink even a can of beer, they would not see the surrounding pedestrians and thus precipitate a deadly accident. This very subtle image without any traces of blood or fatality carries the strongest and scariest message. This ad is especially significant because it was done by Fiat, an Italian automobile company and contains many brands like Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, and Alfa Romeo. With this advertisement, Fiat could build its credibility among customers that it supports safe driving and wants to prevent car accidents that were due to drink and driving. In this advertisement. Fiat uses rhetorical devices such as juxtaposition and appeals to pathos. It uses juxtaposition by putting two very different images side to side, one that is very subtle and the other that carries a deadly message of possibly killing someone due to one’s own actions. With juxtaposition, Fiat also uses appeals to pathos. Fiat knows that drink driving accidents are done by people who doubt that they will be the ones who would actually get into car accidents when they drink and drive. Fiat successfully targets those people with the subtle juxtaposition. Fiat does not make things more dramatic by using bold colors or images; Fiat just tries to show the truth. This subtleness has more impact on the audience, as Fiat leaves the conclusion to the audience’s imagination.

TOW #21: The New Abolitionism by Christopher Hayes (written, non-fiction text)

The Civil War was a war not only of slavery, but of economy. By this, it means for Southern states, their loss would mean the loss of approximately 10 trillion dollars as they would lose their main work force, slaves. Hayes compares the modern issues of eliminating fossil fuels for the environment as those of slavery during the times of civil war at an economic level. Hayes asserts that the public would simply not risk ten trillion dollars just for the environment. Ultimately, Hayes is advocating for the stop of fossil fuel drilling, and he does it with uses of logos and by responding to possible counter arguments. He first uses logos to state that unlike slavery, which had some benefits for the economy as there was no input for the amount of labor they received, fossil fuels actually cost money as it is difficult to drill underground. He also addresses to investors to stop the investing for fossil fuels that investors “have reason to be suspicious of the fossil fuel companies. Right now, they are seeing their investment dollars diverted from paying dividends to doing something downright insane: searching for new reserves. Globally, the industry spends $1.8 billion a day on exploration” (Hayes, 50). Hayes explains how this is a waste of investment for investors as there is only limited supply of fossil fuels and the companies are only spending the investment on looking for new reserves. Hayes responds to possible counter argument that it is outrageous to compare anything to slavery by commenting “It is almost always foolish to compare a modern political issue to slavery... Humans are humans; molecules are molecules” (Hayes, 12). He adds that he is merely comparing the economy behind each issue. His argument was different from other environmental articles in that he did not purely argue for the environment and how fossil fuels can endanger the future Earth and how our next generations would not have a place to live as other nature advocates stress in their writings. He tried to make supporters of fossil fuels realize that the investment that they put in is actually a waste for them. He took a different direction in that he focused on what the supporters of fossil fuel actually care about: money. However, this could also have been his weakness. He did not put in any pathos, which could have weakened his argument towards the general public. But since his main audience was the investors, his argument was very effective.

TOW #20: Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America by Barbara Ehrenreich (IRB, written)

How many times have you heard the trite saying, “Think Positively!” when you have to deal with the worst situation? This week, I read Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America, which successfully argues against positive thinking and for realistic thinking. Despite the encouraging saying “Think Positively,” Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America reveals that positive thinking does not alleviate the situation. She uses logos to prove her points, particularly a study done in California. The study proved that there was a high correlation between death of children and positive thinking. Positive thinking leads to more frequent risk taking tendencies. Also, more realistic teenagers are less likely to become depressed. These teens are more able to deal successfully with the harsh realities. Here, Ehrenreich notes again, the dangers of positive thinking. People naturally avoid the negative truth, because they are scared to get hurt by the negative truth. Ehrenreich does not argue for negative thinking either. She believes that the best is to see the reality. We have to be aware of the reality, and try to make things better, not fall into positive fallacies. Ehreich started to question positive thinking when she was first diagnosed with cancer. She was disturbed by the positive thinking during her years of struggle. In my opinion, I think Ehrenreich’s strategy worked. She argued against the fallacies of positive thinking very effectively with uses of realilife examples. Also, she successfully responded to counter arguments by proving that she also does not support negative thinking. If she did not note positive thinking, her arguments would have been less effective. However, at some points, she is a bit too negative, she does not allow any whiners. In conclusion, we want objectivity. We expect doctors, teachers, or anyone that we pay to get service from to be objective. We should expect no less from ourselves; we should be objjective when dealing with our own struggles and problems.

TOW #19: Saigon Execution by Eddie Adams (visual, photograph)

Taken by Eddie Adams during the years of Vietnam War, this photograph was the turning point of public opinion in the United States and other countries. Eddie Adams, one of the world’s top photographers at the time, claims that he did not intend to stir up any strong pro or anti war feelings in America. He took it as another cliched war photo. However, for the public, this photo symbolized the horrors of Vietnam War. In the photo, the general of North Vietnam aims a gun to the innocuous citizen of Vietnam. This aroused more hatred towards communism and Northern Vietnam government in the America, as the public was disgusted and shocked by the ruthless treatments of the Northern Vietnam general. Additionally, the deserted background of the photo suggests the horrid reality of Vietnam War. This picture also made many Americans worry about our own soldiers dying on the foreign soil of Vietnam. The black and white color also has an impact of signifying the dullness and fogginess of every war. It makes the war seem lifeless and somewhat distant. The civilian looks even more harmless and innocent, as he is unarmed and he has his arms hidden backwards, as to indicate that he has no intentions of harming the soldiers. Adding even more emphasis, it is not only the general who is standing against the civilian, but also other soldiers are standing behind the general. This adds to the threatening tone of the photo.

Although this photograph had an immense impact for the public of 1960s, I do not think it would have the same impact now. The public has become increasingly stoic and unemotional as they have watched numerous war videos and photos. Back in the 1960s, this photograph could connect people with the soldiers suffering. However, the current public lacks so much care and nationalism that they would rather take this photo lightly. Also, in contrast to the thin and gaunt civilian, the general who is aiming a gun at the civilian looks well-fed, bold, and daunting. This further reveals the horrors of Vietnam War that most Americans were unaware of.

TOW #18: "The Moses of the Colored Men" by Andrew Johnson (written, Speech)

The period after Civil War was full of chaos with reconstruction. Although slaves were lawfully freed in all slave states, there was some tension and objections at such a radical idea among Americans. In 1864, the military governor Andrew Johnson delivered a speech to proclaim freedom to every man in Tennessee, which was still found with racism and harsh treatments towards African Americans. Johnson uses powerful tone to deliver his speech that enforces his beliefs that all men have freedom. He especially uses short anecdotes to give life to his stories of racism to prove that a law to protect the African Americans is necessary. He said that when slaves were officially freed, “Thank God! thank God! came from the lips of a thousand women, who in their own persons had experienced the hellish iniquity of the man-seller’s code” (6).This appeals to pathos of those former slaves who have actually experienced this rush of joy. He also utilizes repetition to respond to counter argument. He claims that the freed slaves should get a share of the lands of the rich landowners of the South. Expecting harsh objections from the South who would claim that he has no right to take away the land that was officially given to them with various paper works and money, he repeats, “I am no agrarian” (3-4). He explains how it would be just to distribute land to the new citizens by taking away the land of the rebels, who, in actuality, did not have to compensate for anything. Although this is a very powerful speech that attracted many Northern supporters as well as former slaves, this speech was not as effective as it could have been. It silently alienates the Southerners as the rebels, and at some points, treats them as like a threat to the Union because of their former acts to secede. He should not have described the Southerners as “them”, because at the end, both Northerners and Southerners are citizens of the United States. He should have avoided using invectives such as “representatives of the corrupt, this damnable aristocracy” (5). This only opens bad feelings of the South towards the North. His speech was too polarized in favor of the North, and this is dangerous when speaking publicly to all states of United States as it could only provide further bitter feelings between the two already divided regions.

http://www.nps.gov/anjo/historyculture/moses-speech.htm

IRB intro #3: Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America by Barbara Ehrenreich

For my IRB #3, I chose Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America by Barbara Ehrenreich. I read a review of this book on the Internet and it seemed interesting. The author of this book argues that positive thinking, often overly stressed by Americans, actually causes detrimental consequences to America, especially the economy. I am not sure how the book is going to be divided: whether it would be composed of short articles or all of the chapters will be one story. If it is just one story, I am excited to see how that would work out.

TOW #17: The Art of Failure by Malcolm Gladwell (written, non-fiction text)

When placed in a stressful situation, people fail all the time even when they have never made the same mistakes before. However, do all failures result from same types of mistakes? No. There are two types of failing: choke and panic. Choking happens when the explicit system, or thinking about things too much instead of relying on your instinct takes over. Panicking is the vice versa; it happens when the implicit system, being unable to think takes over the brain and people act instinctively. To get his point across, Gladwell utilizes anecdotes, specific happenings that demonstrate choke and panic. To explain choking, he uses example of Novota, the champion girls tennis player who failed due to choking. “She seemed like a different person–playing with the slow, cautious deliberation of a beginner–because, in a sense, she was a beginner again: she was relying on a learning system that she hadn’t used to hit serves and overhead forehands and volleys since she was first taught tennis, as a child” (6). Novota just choked, due to her nervousness, she had returned to a beginner, that carefully thinks over every step of tennis. Panic is just the opposite. When a pro diver Morphew had water rushed into his hose instead of air, his “hand reached out for my partner’s air supply, as if I was going to rip it out. It was without thought. It was a physiological response. My eyes are seeing my hand do something irresponsible. I’m fighting with myself. Don’t do it” (8). Morphew, in contrast to Novota, acted instinctively, he was unable to perform well-thought out action. These anecdotes effectively explain the two different types of failures, choking and panicking. However, despite the types of failures, all failures are detrimental and are met with unavoidable consequences. Gladwell wants to get that point across, failures can be never hopeful.

TOW #16: Freakonomics: A Rogue Scientist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (IRB, written)

This week, I finished reading Freakonomics: A Rogue Scientist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything written by Steven Levitt and William Morrow. In the second half of the book, chapter 5 “What Makes a Perfect Parent?” especially caught my attention. Every parent wants to do the right thing for their children. As a result, the number of experts on parenting have increased dramatically in recent years. However, Levitt and Morrow discovered that what these experts argue are often contradicting with each other and even with their own actions. So Levitt and Morrow explores common misconceptions such as “how having books at home affects child” and “The child has highly educated parent” to discover the actual correlation. They tell the readers that these parenting skills have little effect on how their children will be with use of the pronoun “you” to connect better with the readers and to direct the question to the readers. For instance, Levitt and Morrow directs the seemingly foolish parent who tries to enhance their children with their parenting. However, they somewhat cold-heartedly declare, “Most

of the things that matter were decided long ago—who you are, whom you married, what

kind of life you lead. If you are smart, hardworking, well educated, well paid, and

married to someone equally fortunate, then your children are more likely to succeed” (111). This statement is especially directed to those parents who believe that their children is an exception and can be enhanced with their parenting by making them realize the reality. Levitt’s use of hypothetical examples also exposes the common misconceptions of parenting. He makes readers think about three girls named Amy, Imani, and Molly. Molly’s parents, knowing that Amy’s parent keeps a gun in their house, lets Molly go to only Imani’s house, which has a swimming pool. Levitt explains how “there is one drowning of a child for every 11,000 residential pools in the United States...Molly is roughly 100 times more likely to die in a swimming accident at Imani’s house than in gunplay at Amy’s” (93). His use of examples appeals to pathos as well as logos, as the usage of number 100 times is very attention catching.

TOW #15: Verbal Abuse Poster (Visual Text)

Physical abuse is not the only kind of abuse people encounter in their everyday lives. Verbal abuse is just as detrimental, if not worse than physical abuse. In this photograph, a man seems to be yelling at a woman. To show that verbal abuse is equivalent to physical abuse, a fist is coming out of the man's mouth and punching the woman. On the bottom, a small caption says, “Verbal Abuse can be just as horrific. But you don’t have to suffer in silence. Call the aware help line for advice and support.” This picture is an awareness poster for gender prevention line, to help victims cope with verbal abuse. By affecting the pathos of the audience, it also makes those aloof to verbal abuse aware that verbal abuse is just as serious as physical abuse.

The maker of this photo especially made the offender to a man and the victim to a woman to signify gender violence. Although the current society stresses gender equality, women are still viewed as weaker than men. By having a man attack a woman in the photo, it signifies gender inequality as well as abuse. This photo also represents dating violence. The society is becoming more aware of husbands or boyfriends attacking their loved ones. The organization for aware help lets women know that if they are suffering because of violence from their loved ones, they should not hesitate to call the gender awareness line. If the genders of the subjects had changed, the photo would have a different impact. That would have represented men being powerless in front of women’s use of harsh words. If the subjects of the photo were two women, it would have represented how women fight with words other than fighting physically, but that the verbal fight is just as strong.