While many issues have stayed the
same over many years, the way they are viewed has greatly differed. Text 1 is
an advertisement from 1922 from a steamship company that is advertising their
annual trips to "exotic" places like Panama and Cuba. Text 2 is an
article from the Miami Herald in 2007 that discourages heavy vacationing and
"developing" in the Caribbean Islands because of the poor living
standards for people living there. Considering that text 2 is almost 90 years
after text 1, it is clear that they will both have different viewpoints when it
comes to this topic. While they both target the same audience, text 1 seems to
encourage the audience while text 2 seems to discourage them. Comparing them
from a post-colonial vs. colonial point of view then puts these two texts in
context. While both texts target the same audience and refer to the Caribbean
Islands, text 1 encourages the audience to look at these places in an overly
exotified and luxurious manner in order to sell their product all through a
colonial lens while text 2 takes a postcolonial perspective in order to
downgrade the worth and extravagance of these “vacation spots” and discourage
the developers in looking at these places as uninhabited and exclusive by using
imagery to evoke an emotion of sympathy for the squatters.
Text 1 and 2 have a similar audience
but a completely different purpose for both. Both the texts target upper class
wealthy people who can go on vacation during spare time. Text 1 is from the
20’s while text 2 is from 2007, so although the target audience was the same in
terms of wealth and privilege, their mentalities and actions are going to be
different. Text 1 is encouraging these people to vacation in places like Panama
and Cuba while text 2 is discouraging people from viewing these places as an
exotic vacation spot and encourages them to look at these places as a home for
people who are clearly struggling. In that sense, these two texts are placed in
completely different contexts. While
text 1 over exotifies these places, text 2 is clearly trying to avoid that situation.
Because text 1 is about 90 years before text 2, it’s hard to not view them from
a postcolonial vs. colonial lens. While text 1 is colonial as the steamship is
almost “selling” these islands and seems to disregard that there are inhabitants,
text 1 brings down the luxury of the island by showing clearly that it is
inhabited and should not be viewed as otherwise.
Both texts refer to the same idea of
vacations in the Caribbean’s but they both take a different approach and ultimately
have a different theme throughout the passages. For text 1, “The Great White
Fleet” has summer trips that go from New York to countries and islands on the Caribbean.
It’s targeting a high class that goes on vacations like this usually and
selling the idea of these islands. Text 2 is also talking about the Caribbean
Islands but it is setting up a competition in the islands between the squatters
and the developers. The developers being the exact people that text 1 is trying
to sell to. With that being said, these texts then greatly differ in what
message they’re trying to convey to the developers. Text 1 is highly exotifying
and almost taking ownership of these islands in order to use the luxurious
lifestyle to sell the product, which are vacations to the island. Text 2 does
the opposite. The text tries to discourage the audience from viewing these
places as if they have rightful ownership of them because at the end of the
day, they are homes to people. The article downplays the luxury and excitement
of the islands in order to attempt the reader to stop viewing the islands as if
they have ownership of them. This clearly shows the contrasting themes in the
two articles.
Because of
the contrasting purposes, it would be expected that the two texts will have
opposite tones and mood. The tone and mood Is very different in the sense that
text 1 is very happy and enthusiastic and text 2 tries to play with the
sympathy of the reader by having a sad and dramatic tone. This makes sense considering
the fact that text 1 is trying to sell a product while text 2 is almost trying
to “de-sell” that product. In regard to text 1, the advertisement did not
mention any people that may live there or any negative effects. So when talking
to an audience who is expected to enjoy their time and have fun, it is obvious
that the mood will be lifted and excite the audience. Text 2 then brings in the
harsh reality that text 1 disregarded. When talking about something like displaced
and poor people, it would only make sense for the tone to bring people down
enough to persuade them to look at these vacation spots differently. Both of
the texts aim to play with the readers emotions but while text 1 aims to lift
their feelings, text 2 aims to instill a sense of sympathy and guilt into the
reader. When talking about the squatters, there is a sense of pity. When talking
about the developers, the tone switches to an annoyed tone. Considering the
fact that the developers are the target audience, this would highly likely
resonate with them more. Text 1 does the opposite by placing the developers on
a high pedestal in order to use luxury and exclusiveness to sell their idea.
The stylistic
features in both texts are similar but are presented in a different way. Text 1
uses a lot of visual and pictorial imagery while text 2 uses literary imagery. Text
1 uses a large picture at the bottom to excite the audience and make them feel the
luxurious lifestyle that they can afford. Contrary to that, text 2 describes
the story of the Jimenez family in sad detail in order to show the target audience
the side that they are not on. In this sense, both of the texts use the imagery
to sell their idea but the ideas that they are selling through imagery instill a
completely opposite feeling in both audiences. The title for both texts is very
emphasized and draws the reader in but text 1 uses the contrasting white and
black colors to emphasize the title more. Both these texts use glittering
generalities often. They over exaggerate some things and again, the only purpose
behind this is to instill either a sense of excitement or a sense of guilt.
Overall,
both texts have similar audiences and various similar stylistic features, but
contrast completely in their purpose, themes, and tone. This is ultimately to either
up play or downplay the luxury and exotic appeal of the islands. 
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