Chariot Metaphor

In Phaedrus, Socrates uses a metaphor about a chariot. This metaphor included a charioteer and two horses. The charioteer symbolized us while the two horses symbolized different ways to handle situations. The white horse was clean and beautiful, basically the good horse; it symbolized doing the right thing and it explicitly followed the charioteer’s commands. The black horse was crooked and ugly and didn’t follow the charioteer’s lead; it put up a struggle and would try to push forward when the charioteer didn’t want them to. In the book, the metaphor was talking about love and temptation; the white horse tried to hold back from temptation while the dark horse pushed towards temptations and would make the charioteer fall into his desires. On a deeper level, it was talking about how one who is speaking can both rise up and help his audience understand his level of thinking (white horse), or it can go down the audience’s level and not aid them to understand.

Customer Reviews

Of the customer reviews for Zeitoun that I read, the readers seemed to be in awe of Egger’s work. They continually praised his views on the issue and how he conveyed the information. They didn’t seem to have many negative things to say about the book; in their opinion, everyone should read it and hear Zeitoun’s story. Their opinions seemed to be one sided and didn’t talk about any negative aspects of the book. The professional book reviewers tried to keep objectivity through their reviews, where as the customers just continued to say how good Egger’s was. Their reviews seemed more passionate but, in turn, were less trustworthy and more biased than the professional reviews.

Zeitoun Reviews

In the reviews of Zeitoun, I thought that Timothy Egan got a message out of the book that Eggers wanted. He mentioned how Eggers showed the damage Katrina and the government had rather than telling it which made the book more powerful. He seemed to think that the calm voice Eggers used throughout the book made it more impactful on the reader, which is correct. Valerie Martin had an opinionated view on the book and viewed the first half of it as “not beautifully written” and went on to say how overly sweet it was. I didn’t really agree with that and I think that her review was a poor review on the book as a whole.  The other review gave a lot of incite to the different sides of the book and all the issues dealing with the time period. It also helped that he knew Eggers and knew where he was coming from.