Winter Break Literature Analysis: Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson

Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson

TOPICS/EVENTS

1. The biography is about Steve Jobs, a counterculture visionary who started Apple, which is now the most valuable brand in the world.
2. Isaacson wrote this story to be “a book of innovation”. Although he first relented to write, Issacson knew that Steve Jobs had a very unique and interesting life.
3. I chose this book because I love the design principles of Apple, and how the company came to be. I wanted to know how Jobs was able to manipulate hundreds, both in good and bad ways, to create revolutionary products such as the iPhone and Apple II. The book appealed to me because I wanted to know more about how one man was able to forever change six industries. I decided to finish the book when I read the first couple of pages, because his life seemed very interesting from the start .For example, his character was described to be much different than I previously thought, and this made me want to know more about him.
4. I find some parts of the biography realistic, and other parts unreal, even though it is portrayed as fact. I made a connection with the Jobs himself, in that I share the same belief in how a product should be. I believe, just as Jobs did, that a company shouldn’t make products to just maximize products, but rather create something “great” that will be engraved to the consumer market.

PEOPLE

1. Issacson did a good job to minimalize his personal observations with Steve Jobs. His choices tell me that it can be hard to describe Jobs, because he was the type of person who would either categorize you as “trash” or “brilliant”. Issacson repeatedly noted that Jobs could be very charmful, and at times very cruel and cold. Isaacson chose to write about Jobs after he was personally asked to do so by Jobs. He first declined, but Jobs was persistent to make Isaacson write his life story. The author’s tone frequently changes between 2 sides of the same coin. Steve Jobs had two main personalities, one being a brutal dictator, and the other being an awe-inspiring man with never ending energy.
1. Stephen “Woz” Wozniak is a relatively large man with a friendly, childish appearance. He has the classic geeky look, and can act awkward at times. He isn’t a showman, and prefers to be in the “middle”, quietly working on his passion. He was brutally honest and avoided as much problems as possible. I would write Woz through indirect characterization. HIs passion for computers in itself shows a lot of his character, so using direct characterization is unnecessary.
2. Steven Paul Jobs is a slim man, who wore round glasses on his sharp nose. He had a mesmerizing stare that created his reality-distortion field (a term to describe how Jobs manipulated people around him). He is famous for wearing plain jeans and simple tops to keynote speeches. He often walked barefoot. Overall, he was a hippie who embraced the 1960s counterculture era. Jobs acted in very unpredictable ways. At one moment, he could be infuriated with someone, and the next moment be awed and moved by that same person. He would define a product to be either “sh*t” or “great” and rarely defined anything to be in the middle. His eagle eyes could differentiate, say a painting on the wall, that its corners are at 89.9 degrees and not perfectly 90 degrees. He was a man of perfection. Jobs had very bad manners, such as rudely cutting off people and downright insulting someone. He often called his Apple employees to be “shi*t” and fired many without mercy. Yet, he had the power to charm people and achieve the impossible. I would write Jobs as a king who built his own kingdom, bring about near self destruction, and eventually start a revolution.that would forever change the lives of the common citizens. This is because he started Apple, was kicked out, then Apple started to do bad, and was asked to come back as CEO. He then created the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad which we all know how successful they are.  
3. What I find very interesting is Jobs’ unique character. He was a counterculture hippie, buddhist, and a billionaire who lived in a austere home. He often contradicted himself, such as believing that material greed destroys a person, yet the products he created made people love material things like iPhones. Perhaps the most interesting thing is the meeting of Jobs and Woz on their neighborhood street. It was the result of a visionary and a hardcore electronics geek that started Apple in a parent garage. They had very different personalities, but liked being with each other, sharing their passion.

STYLE

1. The author used a journalistic style, heavily relying on interviews and facts. He often quoted employees who worked on the first mac, such as Andy Hertzfeld and Joanna Hoffman.
2. Isaacson focuses much more on action and dialogue. He used quotes from more than a 100 people to describe Jobs from different perspectives. He avoided scene setting or giving too much detail to places and people other than Jobs.
3. Sales history and product launches from Apple are used to create the tone and mood.
4. I think Issacson viewed Jobs as the symbol of “the intersection between humanities and technology”.  He was admired by Jobs and how he came to be famous.
5. Issacson offers the names of more than a 100 people who knew Jobs. He also offers a bibliography of other works about Jobs, from his parent’s garage to HP to Pixar to Apple.

ENDURING MEMORY

One idea that is engraved into my head is to have true passion for something you like to do. To make or do something valuable for society, you have to start with a burning passion and have the natural drive to make it happen. Making profit and becoming famous is a by-product. To make excellent products, it has to be “intuitively easy to use”, as evident in the iPhone. In all Apple products, you won’t find a thick manual telling you how to use it, because it was carefully designed for it be easy to use. You can figure out how to do almost everything right out of the box, whether you are techie, or a non-techie. As Steve Jobs said, “less is more” and “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. In conclusion, it’s important that you create or do something you can be proud of, and valuable to society rather than aim for profit and fame. For Steve Jobs, following this idealism led to the revolution of six industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, cell phones, tablets, and digital publishing.

Edition 2011, p. 488

“We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple and not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allows us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change. And I think, regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.”

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Literature Analysis #3

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

1. Exposition
1. The narrator begins his story by talking about his grandfather, a freedman after the Civil War. He was noted to be live submissively, and showed regret for being so. The narrator himself is submissive and quiet. The narrator delivers a graduation speech and proves to be popular. He recites the same speech in a white men gathering, and is given the opportunity to go to college. He took a job as a driver for Mr. Norton and took him to various places that shocked the founder of his school.

Rising Action

1. After the narrator took Norton to the previous slave quarters, the president of the college Mr. Bledsoe heard and became mad for the narrator in taking Mr. Norton there. The narrator agrees to travel to New York to work and earn money for college tuition. He arrives at Harlem, only to find the he had been expelled by Bledsoe.

Climax

1. However, the narrator managed to get a job at Liberty Paints. Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong, including a boiler exploding from pressure. He wakes up at the factory hospital and is asked series of questions that he cannot correctly answer. He later realizes that he wants to be an activist for blacks after seeing all the racial injustice. He meets a kind woman named Mary who helped him. After some slur, the narrator is met by the Brotherhood, run by Jack. He joins the group to fight for black justice, and receives a new name. He gives a powerful speech using the metaphor of sight and blindness in racial justice at a old boxing ring.

Falling Action

1. After studying under the Brotherhood, the narrator became more prominent and began to shape his new identity. As the organization becomes more complex, the narrator is met by a traitor named Clifton who later dies from a shooting. Harlem has become chaotic with violence that the Brotherhood had planned from the beginning to suppress the rival Ras.  As buildings burned, the narrator escaped underground.

Resolution

1. The narrator decides to live underground and reflect on his life so far. He is invisible by analyzing society rather than ignoring it. He comes to realize his grandfather’s last words. In the end, he revisits the world with a resolution for social responsibility.

Theme

2. The theme revolves around identity. Throughout the story, the narrator did not reveal his real and organization name. He struggled to find his true identity while comparing his public figure to his private figure. The idea of a person’s identity is derived from what they do, and not who they are. The actions the narrator has done has shaped his identity, because actions express who you really are. Just being a certain race and type of person does not give identity, but rather a description of what that person could be.

Tone

3. The author’s tone is bitter and sardonical. Most of the events that occurred to the main character has been bitter and upsetting. Also, much of the vision that the narrator envisioned has crumbled due to the personal goals. The white men and Ras has constantly mocked the character in several ways.

Literary Elements/Techniques 1995 Edition

1. “I’m in New York, but New York ain’t in me” p.255 - example of antithesis
2. “Then I was awake and not awake, sitting bolt upright in bed” p.318- imagery
3. “I saw gray marks appearing where the old skin was flaking away beneath my digging nails.” p.318-imagery
4. “Black, black, black!Black people in blacker mourning”p.131 - repetition
5. “My name spread like smoke in an airless room” p.280 - simile
6. “Life was all pattern all pattern and discipline; and the beauty of discipline is when it works.” p.382 - foreshadow
7. “How would I explain the dolls?” p.447 - symbolism
8. “except now I recognized my invisibility” p.508 - symbolism
9. “The words struck like bullets fired close range, blasting my satisfaction to earth.” p.552 - simile
10. “an eerie slapping sounds followed by a precise and hallucinated cry” p.554 - imagery

Characterization

1. Direct characterization
1. “as I approached him I saw his drawn face and cottony white hair showing behind” p.207

Indirect Characterization

1. “Only a few men in the whole country possess the knowledge” p. 90

The author uses both approaches in characterization to give the reader enough information and inferences for us to analyze the main character.

2. The author’s syntax and diction do change as he focuses on the main character. Throughout the story, there is a shift between the african american dialogue and style, so the author adapts the diction and syntax to match it.
3. The narrator is definately round and dynamic. He reveals many of his traits and character as the story progresses. Also, he realizes what it means to be invisible. He has a deeper meaning of the racial society and aims to alleviate it by learning from his experiences.
4. I felt like I met a real person just because of how complex the narrator is.

“There is, by the way, and area in which a man’s feelings are more rational than his mind, and it is precisely in that area that his will is pulled in several direction at the same time. “

The narrator reflects on himself like a real person, and makes it seem as if you can talk to this person about your own concerns or feelings.

Poetry Essay

Out Beyond Ideas by Rumi and Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein are beautifully written poems that both encompass valuable themes. Both poems revolve around similar themes, such as following the heart and how it is important to escape the rigidness of society to free your mind at times. Just as how these poems are unique, Out Beyond Ideas differs from Where the Sidewalk Ends in several ways. Rumi emphasizes how there is no right or wrong within your conscience if you can discover your inner self. In Shel Silverstein’s poem, the importance of not losing your creativity is one theme that differs from Out Beyond Ideas.

The theme of following the trail of your heart is common between the two poems. Children have big dreams, and Silverstein’s poem talks about how it is important not to lose your vision as you grow older. The “chalk-white arrows” can literally symbolize the direction that the children take to follow their heart. The sidewalk represents the safe path that people guide through as children to do what their heart wishes. In Out Beyond Ideas, a similar theme is expressed. “Out beyond ideas of rightdoing and wrongdoing, there is a field.” The soul that “lies down in that grass” is one who has listened to their hearts. Another common theme is that freeing yourself in moderation from your daily routine is important. The end of the sidewalk depicts the end of structured thinking. Most of are told to do this and that on a daily basis. We see hundreds of advertisements from wake to sleep, telling us what society demands. Yet, there is always that voice inside our heads wanting to fully express our individuality and retaliate the accepted norms. It is a good thing to “leave this place where the smoke blows black” and free our soul. Rumi also values this idea in her poem. On the literal level, there is a place where no one can tell you if you are right or wrong, but there is a place where you can free yourself from the right or wrongness and simply be where you can accept yourself as who you are.

While the two poems have similar themes, differences are evident. In Where the Sidewalk Ends, the value of creativity is emphasized. “For the children, they mark, and the children, they know the place where the sidewalk ends.” Many kids have a large degree of creativity, and this line symbolizes how the children who grew up reminisces on the power of creativity. Walking in the footsteps of your heart and empowering your creativity is such a value because people who grow up retaining these qualities can achieve the unattainable. As one grows older, our container for flushing out our creative self can weaken. We have other things to worry about, and too little time to think back on our free childhood. Yet, Where the Sidewalk Ends reminds us the gravity of losing this quality.

In Out Beyond Ideas, Rumi expresses the unknown force that can bring us to the “field”. There is a place, an ideal place, that words cannot describe. Unwrapping yourself to knowing who you really are is one step to getting there. “When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.” There is something out there, or in us that connects us in a way that we cannot even imagine. After all, people are not born to live alone, but rather in unison. Even then, people always conform to the idea of being right or wrong. It is not if your are incorrect or correct, but rather if you are true to who you really are on both the conscience and unconscious level.

Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends  and Rumi’s Out Beyond Ideas have similarities and differences regarding the theme. Both point to the significance of being honest to your heart’s desire. They also express the one should free their mind from the rigid structure of living in today’s society. However, the two poems cover different aspects, such as Rumi’s poem talking about enlightenment of self.

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Poetry Remix

INTRO TO POETRY

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

1. What is the significance of the title?
• The "sidewalk" in the title symbolizes the path that people take as they grow older. 
2. What is the tone of the poem?
• The tone is neutral. The author reminds us of the path the we go through as we grow up, and how being a child is very different from being an adult. 
3. What is your mood as you read it?
• My mood is somewhat reminiscent of my childhood. Becoming a adult can be stressing at times, and being reminded of my childhood made me realize how easy it was back then. 
4. Is there a Shift? Where? From what to what?
• There is a shift between the first and second stanza. The first stanza has a light and happy tone whereas the second stanza becomes less bright. 
5. What is the theme of the poem?
1. The theme of this poem involves the transition from childhood to adulthood, or any big transition that all people go through in life. 

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