I decided to respond to the three following works. “The Foundation of the Earth” By Randall Kenan, “Cathedral” By Raymond Carver, and “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. We ask our selves what is the implied clams for each one and have to decided which side we want to take with it. Then we will state the evidence for each as it applies to each. Looking in to the rhetorical appeals with each to decide how we preceded the writers emotions. Then we will reflect on each to determine defend, refute, or qualify each claim.

“The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an allegory and much of the allegorical meaning is derived through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of symbolism. Since Hawthorne is engaged in the telling of a moral tale, it is only fitting that many of the symbols in “The Birthmark” pertain to deeper allegorical meanings. For instance, the birth-mark that is shaped like a red hand on his wife's cheek, denotes that nature had a direct hand in the “flaw” upon Georgiana’s face. Symbols in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” can also pertain to human character as well. For example Aminadab is a name straight from the Genesis in the Bible and he is a violent person, however it makes him more of a man because he is tough with nature. He comments how he would not remove the birth-mark were as an “unnatural” man would. Every person is different in there own way, some might think that the birth-mark is unnatural and want it removed. I know someone who had a daughter how had a birth-mark that they did not like so had the docotors remove it because they did not want it there. That was there choice, but I think tha it should have stayed there. My own son has a birth-mark and I do not plan on having it removed because I feel that it is there for a reason and I feel like it is part of him.

Raymond Carver’s work has been called, “dirty realist.” This might be, at least in part, because explores the baseness and rawness of the human condition. Rather than repel the reader, however, Carver’s treatment of these issues is adept and he is able to stir up mental problems within the reader. In reading “Cathedral,” for example, the reader may feel embarrassed or shocked by his or her agreement with the narrator’s initial observations about blindness and the blind man. He may similarly in this short story question the characters’ use of alcohol and drugs as a means both of escape and connection, because of his use of alcohol and drugs. Raymond Carver's appeals to pathos in the “Cathedral” because he appeals to the emotions and the beliefs of his audience with in his writing.

“The Foundations of the Earth” by Randall Kenan talks about homosexuality and religion. Some would say