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Bhupal Gautam
3408 S 300 E #B-8
Salt Lake City, Utah
bhupalgautam2009@yahoo.com
September-16, 2016

Instructor Ronald W Bohannon

Salt Lake Community College
4600 South Redwood Road
Salt Lake City Utah 84123
Dear Bohannon,
To accomplish this assignment, I have gathered My Hook-or-Crook Journey into
Writing, True Understanding of Knowledge and the Difficulties Accepting Reality, and One
Dollar Can Change Nepals Poverty Through Education in one project and have tried to
correlate among them. The first assignment relates to how I used writing in my life to pace
forward to the higher level. The second assignment is a type of structured writing where I
rhetorically analyzed The Allegory of the Cave. My third project has raised the major socioeconomic issue of third world. Analyzing all three assignments, I have tried to seek a connection
among these different themed project.
Sincerely,
Bhupal Gautam

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Bhupal Gautam
Ronald W. Bohannon
Salt Lake Community College
English 1010-004
13th December, 2016
Reflection of My Writing in Different Period of Time

Writing is a powerful way to reflect upon skill and knowledge. It is a sort of mediation
which is connected with the cognitive aspect of the brain. To reflect skill and knowledge
effectively into writing, a writer should delve deeply into writing. To reflect my writing skill and
knowledge in a different period of time, I have gathered three different projects, written in
different context and tried to correlate among them.
1. Self- Study of My Writing Practice: My Hook-or-Crook Journey into Writing?
This is my own reflection of a difficult but continuous journey into English writing. As a
second language, I have experienced many difficulties pacing forward to the higher level
English. Continuity and self-motivation are the main keys to get success in every field of life no
matter how difficult it is. Keeping this fact in my mind, I continued my writing practice which
brought my writing skill to a better level.
The story begins when I failed English in tenth grade. With a bit jealousy, revenge, and
inspiration from my parents, I determined to improve in the English writing skill. I began writing

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articles to improve my English language: The first article I wrote in English was A Beautiful
Parrot. I tried to elaborate sentences but was unable to make the article longer. Later, I showed
the article to my English teacher. He remarked good and suggested to write world in place of
Earth. His little reinforcement encouraged me to write more.
Later, I built a habit of everyday writing in a diary. I used to address my diary as a good
friend and would express my emotions and dissatisfactions within it. Gradually, the diary
became a good friend to whom I could express any griefs or pains. Everyday writing became a
good way of expressing my emotions and dissatisfactions later in life.
As a college student, I had accomplished critical response on Elizabeth Cady Stantons
reminiscence The Eighty Years and More (1815-1897) in a previous semester. The critical
response was well-organized and could analyze the essay critically. It was an example of better
understanding of subject matter, organization of writing, and word choice.
After analyzing all three artifacts, (two diary excerpts and an academic college writing)
produced in different stages of my life, I have realized that my writing skill has significantly
improved. I am assured that a continuous writing habit improves writing skill in ones life just
like my improvement from then to now.
2. The Rhetorical Analysis of Another Writers Text: True Understanding of Knowledge
In the allegory of The Platos Cave, the author represents the state of human beings.
From the prisoners exit, he wants to convey the message of true understanding, knowledge, and
truth. Most people are not only pleased with their ignorance and senselessness but aggressive to
anyone who points it out. To ascertain these facts, the author depicts the picture of a dark

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underground cave where some prisoners are kept facing towards the wall, fixed and chained
from birth. Behind them there is fire burning high above the cave which casts shadows on the
front wall. Prisoners view only flickering shadows on the wall and falsely believe that those
flickering shadows echo off sound. When a prisoner is excluded to the sunlight, he gets
temporarily blind due to the pain and dazzling brightness. Slowly, his eyes adjust to the sunlight
and gradually he regains vision. When the prisoner is brought back to the cave, he becomes blind
once more.
The author implicitly satires the existing political situation in the allegory. The Cave
myth explores the philosophers relationship to the political order by trying to explain how the
appearance of things and the reality that stands behind these appearances work within the human
condition. (Huard). The allegory reveals that our society ignores the truth and reality at the
beginning in accordance with of political setting, but in the course of time, reality is accepted as
an integral part no matter what the political setting is.
In history, slavery was an inevitable part of our society. They could not think of the
world without slaves, but later, slavery was abolished and the society started to follow the way of
equity and equality. A series of events happened to achieve freedom, democracy, and so on. The
truth is difficult to accept like a prisoners experience to get accustomed to the light. It is hard to
convey the truth to others because the truth could be bitter-it may challenge the existing system
of society. At the end of the allegory, prisoners who were not exposed to the light did not accept
the truth as his co-prisoner conveys to them. wouldnt it be said to him that he went up and
came back with his eyes corrupted, and that its not even worth trying to go up? - (Bloom).

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In the allegory the author skillfully used symbols and metaphors. In allegorical writing
characters, actions and setting are used as symbols and they should be interpreted to make the
allegorical meaning. (Platos The Allegory). The writer has used characteristics, actions, and
setting as symbols. The darkness in the cave symbolizes the ignorance of the world. In the outer
world, there is light and everything is visible which symbolizes the importance of knowledge.
Chained people and the wall symbolizes the ignorance and the limitation of our thinking. The
appearance of flickering images in the dark world is false and the reality we cannot see and
understand. Shadows and the chain symbolizes the illusion and our limitation so that we cannot
know the reality. The outer world of the light is the world of knowledge and the dazzling eyes
symbolize our difficulties to accept the truth. Hence, the author recognizes and states the
difference between appearances and reality in the allegory to manifest the real picture of the
contemporary society.
3. Civically Engaged Text: One Dollar Can Change Nepals Poverty Through Education
Poverty is the inability of having basic necessities. It is associated with low income level,
inability to afford basic needs, low level of health, sanitation, education, security, and human
development. Poverty is measured either as absolute or relative. Absolute poverty is such a state
where there is a lack of basic human needs such as food, cloths, shelter, safe drinking water,
sanitation, education, health and so on whereas relative poverty is a comparative analysis of
poverty. It is a comparative measurement of income with the national average. The term
absolute poverty is used to study poverty in developing countries and relative poverty is used
to study the poverty in developed countries.

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Nepal is a developing country where millions of people are deprived of basic human
needs such as food, cloths, shelter, safe drinking water, health, sanitation, and education. The
bitter reality of Nepal is poverty where about 80 percent of Nepalese people live in rural areas
and rely on subsistence farming for their livelihoods. Poverty has been the root cause of many
problems in Nepal.
Nepal has a great potential of resources but it is still lagging behind the poverty line.
Lack of resource mobilization, educational opportunities, employment opportunities, human
development, and unequal distribution of income and wealth are major causes of poverty.
Demographic and social factors such as high population growth rate, high infant and child
mortality rate, gender discrimination, and caste system are also the causes of poverty. There are
many problems in the education sector too. Higher education is expensive and out of reach for
poor people. Everywhere there is anarchy and corruption, so most of the amount which is
attributed to the targeted group disappears before reaching to them. Poor children are usually less
healthy, less skilled, and they are socially, emotionally and physically less competitive to
undertake school programs.
Schools are in vulnerable conditions: Infrastructures, access to the teaching-learning
materials, participation of the students, quality of the teacher, and other basic components are in
poor conditions too. In many places, classes are taken under the open sky due to the lack of class
rooms. In some places, there are schools but no students. Problems exist not only in students, it is
equally in teachers because they are not well-paid and trained. If the input is defective, how can
we expect perfection in output? Students dont have warm jackets in the winter, how do they
overcome the extremely cold temperature of the Himalayas? There are no words to express the
real situation of small kids in such a situation. Poverty, illiteracy, defective values, cultures,

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traditional thought and ignorance are equally prevalent in the society. These factors enhance the
poverty and retard the quality of education in a similar way.
The role of the Government, private sector, originations, and international society is most
important to reduce the poverty and improve the education system in Nepal. Every individual
can make a difference to the poor people. A single US dollar is equivalent to the family income
of some of the families in Nepal. If we consider this fact and contribute a single US dollar for
those families, it can remarkably draw the line of difference in different aspects of their life. If
our tiny little contribution spreads the smile on smile-less faces, isnt it a significant to our life?
Lets unite and contribute a single US dollar for the voice of voiceless.
Light to Himalayas is a non-profit origination, supporting to improve the educational
status of children in Himalayan districts of Nepal. The above mentioned scenario is real, and
devastating life of most of the students in Nepal. Anyone interested to donate a single dollar per
day to portray a line of difference on the countenance of smile less kids can donate to Light to
Himalayas. I have been personally assisting this organization for three years. If anyone has
interest to donate single dollar per day, I would be more than happy to take up collections.
In conclusion the above mentioned artifacts show my writing skill in different periods of
time. The first artifact represents my struggle to improve my writing during a long period of
time. Continuity, self- motivation and willpower are the key points to pace forward to the higher
level. The second artifact shows my rhetorical analysis skill where I explored Platos way to use
metaphors and symbols in The Cave to convey his message to the contemporary world. The
allegory of Platos Cave shows the situation of human beings who are deprived of truth and
knowledge like the chained people in the cave. Beliefs of ordinary human beings are not the

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truth, but just an illusion like the flickering images in the cave wall. The author has used
different symbols to convey his message of reality and knowledge to the world.
The third artifact Civically Engaged Text is distinct in nature. It describes the prevailed
situation of poverty and education in Nepal. There are socio-economic and demographic factors
to determine the present situation of poverty and education. Government, private sectors,
NGOs/INGOs and international society can play the vital role to change the situation. I purpose
that a single dollar per day can make a difference to child education in Nepal. It puts a little smile
on their wrinkled and smile-less countenance as well as draw the line of difference in different
aspects of their life.
All three artifacts are related to social issues more or less. In the first artifact, due to the
lack of educational opportunities, a student struggled hard, but get little success. The second
artifact has displayed the image of an ignorant world and the importance of education and
knowledge in human life. Ignorant people ignore the truth because it is an illusion, and it is hard
for them to accept truth. Truth is bitter and hard to understand, but when it is understood, it is the
cause of radical change. The third artifact describes the relationship between poverty and
education in context of Nepal. In all artifacts, there are some similar issues like the importance of
education and knowledge. The first artifact emphasized the self-motivation and continuous
involvement to get the higher knowledge. The second artifact has described the way of acquiring
knowledge and the third artifact has described the relationship of knowledge with poverty.

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Work Cited
Bloom, Ellen. (1968) Platos Cave- An interpretive essay, Basic Books Inc.
https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/374424
Gautam, Bhupal. Personal Diary. 23 September 1999. Nepal,
---. Personal Diary. 21 June 2007. Nepal.
---. Critical Response to 'Eighty Years and More (1815-1897): Reminiscence of
Elizabeth Lady Stanton. July 2016. Salt Lake City.
Huard, Roger L. "Plato's Political Philosophy." Google Books. Algora Publishing, New York,
2007. Web. 30 Nov. 2016.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Plato_s_Political_Philosophy.html?id=zsL9yGYgxQC
"INGOs and NGOs Have Been Making a Lot of Difference" Spotlight News Magazine, 27 Dec.
2013.Web. 12 Nov. 2016.
Kulild, Villa. "Role of Education in Ending Extreme Poverty -Taking a Global Lead."
NoradDev.

N.p., 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.

https://www.norad.no/en/front/about-norad/news/role-of-education-in-ending-extremepoverty--taking-a-global-lead/
Parker, Scout. "The Rhetoric of Plato." Howard. N.p., Sept. 2014. Web.
http://teacherweb.com/Blog/TN/CCA/Howard/1/blog.aspx?Post=b02b8a6e-722d-4ba4b963-a99861fd103f
"Poverty in Nepal." Canada Foundation for Nepal. Cffn.ca, 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.
http://cffn.ca/about-nepal/poverty-in-nepal/

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