The life in us is like the water in the river.

"The life in us is like the water in the river. It may rise this year higher than man has ever known it, and flood the parched uplands; even this may be eventful year, which will drown out all our muskrats. It was not always dry land where we dwell. I see far inland the banks which the stream accidentally washed, before science began to record its freshets.......to enjoy its perfect summer life at last"(Walden, 271). 

Thoreau in this paragraph talks about this story about a bug that dropped his egg in a tree years ago. It hatches you can hear it as it gnaws through the tree that it was trapped in for years. At first I was confused but then realize that he uses this story to shed life to his use of the aphorism because when you think about it the hatching of the egg after all those years and surviving in the tree was unexpected. A bug still needs to see light and needs food so how it survived for all those years in the tree is beyond me.  But it’s like the river and people; unexpected. It goes by its own flow and it shows that you will never know what will happen in this life.

Thoreau starts the paragraph begins with the aphorism and then starts elaborating what the aphorism means. To me what I got from the paragraph is that are life is like the water in the river because it is so unexpected. You will never know where life will take you or what will happen in your life. Just like with a river the water can go to many places and you never know what will happen with the water one day it might be shallow the next deep.  We need to explore like the waters in the river. They never stay in one place and they never started off as rivers. They had to start off as dry land at some point. So like the river we have changed to and should continue changing.

To me the greatest part about this paragraph was when he asked the question “who does not feel his faith in resurrection and immortality strengthened by hearing of this?” After this question you really start to think what the significance of this story is and how you feel about the story.  

All this just to be in Customer Service. You would of thought!

It seems that little things people don’t take seriously or think too long about are the things that are the most complicated. No one ever thinks too deep into customer service calls. I mean when you call your worrying about your own problems. Sometimes you might occasionally realize that you keep getting an Indian speaker but you don’t question it. You’re calling for your own reasons not anyone else’s anyway.  No one is thinking of outsourcing when they call up customer service but that’s where it is at.

I feel that the authors claim is that Indians are being paid less for having their identity stripped by outsourcing. She warrants her claim by using Betty’s interview and Arundhati Roy’s quotes. Even when she talks about the pay I feel that it warrants her claim

Throughout Beth Dutt-Brown’s article she used a passionate, disappointed tone but it was calm. Her tone didn’t sound like she would have been yelling this at someone or was slamming it in your face. The article sounded calm and personal. She seemed really passionate and disappointed when she started talking about how Indians basically give up their identity when they go into customer services. She doesn’t try to hide how disappointed and unnerved she feels about the fact that Indians have to pretend they are American or British and basically deny themselves just to please the public.  And I felt upset with her. Americans have hard names that people can’t pronounce they don’t go around having to create a whole new identity. I think that is violating a person’s right like how are you going to sit there and tell them they have to change their whole identity to accommodate the needs of people they will never see in their life. That is basically making them ashamed of their own identity.

                She uses logos when she talks about the low pay that the Indians receive. Her whole argument to me has pathos in it I feel like she is just beaming disappointment and sounds really upset with what is happening to the Indians. She also builds ethos when she talks about Betty whose name isn’t really Betty. I feel like she does a good job of engaging the reader into this problem/struggle. I say this because I was genuinely annoyed and upset for the Indians. I understand that they need the money and low wages are supposed to be low but I feel that for what they are sacrificing they should be paid more for. Also the fact that they have to sacrifice their own self for people they will never meet is so preposterous. For example when Betty was talking about the life she made up I’m like who is going to sit on the phone with customer service and ask the person about their credentials? Also the fact that they have to master British/American accents is too much. They act like Indians can’t have jobs.  America is a melting pot of cultures anyway it’s not like the person would be that suspicious.  Honestly to me after reading this it got me really riled up.