“Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration” by Nicholas D. Kristof | Published 3/11/11 | A Reflective Essay Analysis

In “Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration," Kristof uses a pensive, awed, and inspirational tone in order to tell us of his past experiences with the resilience of the Japanese spirit. He creates his tone with his diction, detail, syntax, and imagery. For example, Kristof is awed when he describes, "Uncomplaining, collective resilience is steeped into the Japanese soul," he is inspirational and pensive when he writes, "This will also be a time when the tight knit of Japan’s social fabric, its toughness and resilience, shine through."

I like Kristof's tone in “Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration” because it makes me believe once again in the human spirit, in the ability of bad times to bring out the best in people. The tone is perfect for such an essay about a person's descriptions of people during a critical period. The essay is beautifully written and really makes one think.

I think the tone in "Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration" would work perfectly for an AP essay because Kristof uses ample details to support his claims, he uses good diction and syntax, he wrote in the plain style, and the spelling and structure was good. Moreover, Kristof manages to reach out to the reader and really resonate with the reader, which is pretty essential in any essay, especially an AP essay.

Through Kristof's use of imagery, details, and synatx in “We Are All Egyptians,", he not only allows the reader to understand his essay better, but also helps it flow better.

Kristof took great advantage of syntax to better his essay. He used sentence fragments to create a lyrical, poetic “sound”, such as when he writes, "But also, our deepest admiration." Even though Kristof is writing about events that happened in the past, he incorporates a lot of present tense into his essay, such as when he writes, "Our hearts are all with the Japanese today..." to convey ideas forcefully.

Kristof used details to help make his point hit home. He told the stories of Japanese kids going to school in shorts during the winter to make them tough. He talked the 1995 Kobe earthquake, specifically about a looting that had occured and the yakuza setting up counters to give away supplies to earthquake survivors. This all makes the earthquake so much more personalized. After reading the article, the earthquake became less about death tolls and infrastructure destruction, but more about a collection of individuals striving to help each other out and their resilience in the face of disaster.

Kristof uses language throughout his essay to help us better understand the Japanese culture by explaining to us the significance of Japanese terms that characterize key characteristics of the Japanese that Kristof thinks we can learn from. For example, he writes, "People always say “shikata ga nai” – it can’t be helped. And one of the most common things to say to someone else is “ganbatte kudasai” – tough it out, be strong." to demonstrate the social significance of the Japanese's strong spirit.

All in all, "Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration" is a enchanting and emotionally appealing essay that is neatly executed. There were no weaknesses whatsoever that I could discern in the essay.

Source: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/sympathy-for-japan-and-admiration/#more-8679