Cause and Effect of Apathy based on the essays "Thirty-Eight who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police", "Who Killed Benny Paret" and "On Dumpster Diving"
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Professor nope
ENG 101
10 November. 2013
Why?
At first glance, it seemed there was no correlation between the essays: “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police,” “Who Killed Benny Paret?” and “On Dumpster Diving.” Each essay is completely different. The background, setting, characters and time period all vary immensely. The first essay is about a woman who was killed and no one helped her. The second essay is like it, a boxer dies in a fight, while being watched by millions of people. Those two essays share the commonality in that a person in each died because of another’s lack of action. While those two narratives have a common theme, it is hard to compare them to the third essay, which is about a man who drops out of college, becomes homeless, and survives by dumpster diving. Initially, the essays’ topics, characters and plots have little in common until you analyze the emotion the essays elicit. Each essay sways the readers by an emotional flux of anger against apathetic people. These are the people who do not get involved in life. They just stay complacently on the sidelines, viewing what they see in the moment and possibly as entertainment. Apathy is caused by people’s desire to maintain the status quo and ignore what they don’t want to deal with.
The apathy in “Thirty Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police” was demonstrated who ignored the cries of a stabbing victim. At any time over a period of thirty minutes anyone could have made a simple phone call to the police and saved the victim, Ms. Genovese. When interviewed by the police the witnesses gave different reasons for why they did not act. They said, “I didn’t want to get involved.” (Gansberg, 21) “We thought it was a lovers’ quarrel.” (Gansberg, 26) or the most shocking, “I don’t know.” (Gansberg, 29) To a reader the witnesses’ “reasons” seem like excuses; not even very creative excuses.
A killing must have been unusual considering the area was a quiet residential
Professor nope
ENG 101
10 November. 2013
Why?
At first glance, it seemed there was no correlation between the essays: “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police,” “Who Killed Benny Paret?” and “On Dumpster Diving.” Each essay is completely different. The background, setting, characters and time period all vary immensely. The first essay is about a woman who was killed and no one helped her. The second essay is like it, a boxer dies in a fight, while being watched by millions of people. Those two essays share the commonality in that a person in each died because of another’s lack of action. While those two narratives have a common theme, it is hard to compare them to the third essay, which is about a man who drops out of college, becomes homeless, and survives by dumpster diving. Initially, the essays’ topics, characters and plots have little in common until you analyze the emotion the essays elicit. Each essay sways the readers by an emotional flux of anger against apathetic people. These are the people who do not get involved in life. They just stay complacently on the sidelines, viewing what they see in the moment and possibly as entertainment. Apathy is caused by people’s desire to maintain the status quo and ignore what they don’t want to deal with.
The apathy in “Thirty Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police” was demonstrated who ignored the cries of a stabbing victim. At any time over a period of thirty minutes anyone could have made a simple phone call to the police and saved the victim, Ms. Genovese. When interviewed by the police the witnesses gave different reasons for why they did not act. They said, “I didn’t want to get involved.” (Gansberg, 21) “We thought it was a lovers’ quarrel.” (Gansberg, 26) or the most shocking, “I don’t know.” (Gansberg, 29) To a reader the witnesses’ “reasons” seem like excuses; not even very creative excuses.
A killing must have been unusual considering the area was a quiet residential
Cited: "Apathy." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. COLEMAN, JONATHAN. "Death at the Garden." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 24 July 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/07/boxing-emile-griffith-benny-paret-death-madison-square-garden.html Gansberg, Martin. “Thirth-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police.” Kirszner and Mandell 127-30. Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell, eds. Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. 12th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2012. Print. Klores, Dan. "Junior, the Kid, the Fight." The New York Times. N.p., 31 Mar. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013 Cousins, Norman. “Who Killed Benny Paret?” Kirszner and Mandell 339-41. Rogers, Heather. “The Hidden Life of Garbage.” Kirszner and Mandell 188-91.