Compare and Contrast Essay Example-Stereotypes

Stereotypes are a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, or opinion, that can create tough misconceptions of certain people, which many times turn out harsh and hurtful. In "Black Men in Public Space", by Brent Staples, and in "What is a Homosexual?" by Andrew Sullivan, the authors talk about different stereotypes and the causes of them on individuals. These two essays have plenty similarities in the way that they express themselves but the main idea of each essay is different. In "Black Men in Public Space" and also in "What is a Homosexual?" each author talks about how they are excluded and sometimes misjudged just for being different. The main dissimilarity between these essays is that Brent Staples talks about how people classify him as being a mugger or a rapist, just for being black and walking in the streets at night, but in "What is a Homosexual?" Sullivan mainly talks about his personal experience and reflection of what is it like to be a homosexual man and feel excluded many times just for this very reason. However, both authors use similar ways and techniques to express themselves, such as using personal anecdotes. On "Black Men in Public Space", the author starts off the essay with a personal experience, "My first victim was a woman – white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties." Then, Staples goes on talking about how the woman casts back "a worried glance" (Staples 229), and "picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest." (Staples 230) The author also explains that the woman only did this because "to her, the youngish black man – a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket – seemed menacingly close." (Staples 230) We see that Andrew Sullivan also uses several anecdotes in his work, for example when he is talking about his experience in high school: "I was fifteen and getting changed in the locker room for the first time again with a guy