My Reflection on "Why Don't We Complain" and "On Compassion"

The essays "Why Don't We Complain" by William F. Buckley Jr. and "On Compassion" by Barbara Lazear Ascher put forth two different ideas in two very different ways. Buckley talks about the fact that people don't dare to complain about even the smallest things due to pressures from many different sources. At first he describes somewhat trivial things such as feeling too hot and not daring to ask for the temperature to be turned down but then goes on to describe how this can effect huge life decisions if it becomes a habit. He suggests that if people aren't brave enough to stand up for trivial matters, they won't be able to stand up for their political ideas either. The way that this is presented is very personal as each example is taking from his own life. This allows the reader to connect to what is happening through him and through other similar experiences that they might have had. My experiences at restaurants where I am not always brave enough to send back my food through fear of being rude came to my mind while reading this essay. There is not a clear mood created by the author for the piece but it is clear that he wants to encourage people to speak their mind more than they usually do.


The other piece written by Ascher approached it's subject in a completely different way. It talked about the idea of why people give money to homeless people and pondered whether it was through true compassion or fear or just a need to get rid of the person. But rather than try directly persuade the reader down a certain path, it asked the reader rhetorical questions to make them think about the subject instead. It also created a clear mood of sympathy and sometimes fear or tension which helped to liven up the reading. Like Buckley's piece, Ascher used her personal experiences to tell the story which made it more relatable as many of the experiences were things that I and i'm sure many others have gone through as well. She also related her ideas to well known ideas such as the Greek Tragedy, which she said related to the homeless people in that it inspired empathy in the audience. These examples helped to make her point strongly and left the reader thinking about why it is that we show compassion to the homeless. Both pieces were very strong in what they wanted to accomplish. "Why Don't We Complain" was able to convince me to try and speak up my mind more and "On Compassion" left me thinking about what it truly means to be compassionate. It was interesting to see these two extremely different styles to writing an essay and it helped me to figure out how to make my own essays more interesting.