A contextual analysis is fairly straightforward: you focus on the context of the artifact, opposed to the text. This refers to the background of an artifact: the politics behind it, the culture and historical setting that was relevant when it was created. A contextual analysis requires you to take a step back and look less at what is in front of you and more of what went into its creation.
A textual analysis focuses more on what is actually in front of you and what you can see in the artifact. Most people in our class did a mainly textual analysis of our artifacts, debating the use of egos / pathos / logos, and talking about what message the creators were trying to get across.
Silko obviously tells the story from a very emotional stand point. “It is no use; borders haven’t worked, and they won’t work,” she says strongly in the essay. Her standpoint is very biased due to her cultural roots starting “on the Laguna Pueblo reservation.” In my opinion, she wanted it to be clear that in this case, the dog — an animal — is kinder to her people than the officers. The dog let them go, even when Silko had drugs, even when the officers clearly wanted the dog to find something, anything. On the contrary, the people — humans! — are desperate to find anything to have a reason to stop Silko’s people. The contrast is sharp here, almost comparing people to animals: viscous and ready to pounce if given a reason.
According to CNN, Donald Trump stands by his notion that he will build a wall across the boarder of Mexico. Not only will he physically build this ridiculous wall, but he has convinced himself that due to his stellar negotiation skills, Mexico will pay for it.
With this being said, I do think we have grown since 1994; proof of our growth is actually seen in the country’s response to Trump’s comments. The vast majority of shows on that night were ferociously attacking him. If you look up the quote in the GIF above, you will almost only find articles mocking the statement and his platform. Because of this, I think we have grown as a country and are doing better at not generalizing, partially due to looking at Trump and realizing how ignorant it sounds. So thanks, Trump.
