Final Portfolio

Answers

1. Vidal’s style of writing is classicist, orderly, clear, and emphasizes the plot. This writing style is effective because it starts by giving a piece of background information about Timothy McVeigh and why he is famous before he proceeds to making his arguments and then making concluding remarks. This writing style is appealing because it would capture the attention of a reader for its orderly organization.

2. I think that Vidal's purpose in writing this article was to bring out his outspoken perspectives about the Oklahoma bombing. Besides, he wanted to bring into perspective what happens in the American government and how corrupt high places in America are. He also wanted to show how federal power is usually abused to oppress other people. While people thought that he was defending McVeigh who was thought to be the main bomber of the Oklahoma bombing, Vidal wanted to highlight the actual events that happened and why he thought that McVeigh was indeed innocent.

3. The article The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh attracted a lot of controversies because Vidal argued that the federal government, as well as the FBI agents, had full information about the bomb and they are the ones that did not warm the public because they feared that their cover would be blown. This was contrary to the beliefs that the American people had about the Oklahoma bombing. Besides, he stated that the person that had given him this information said that around five individuals were responsible for the creation and detonation of the bomb and that McVeigh was not one of them thus making him innocent of the crime.

4. Vidal was empathetic towards McVeigh because he praised Oklahoma bomber, McVeigh for what he referred to as heroic aims. This was evident in his comparison of the suspect to an American independence hero, Paul Revere. He was empathetic towards him because he stated that he was wrongly accused of masterminding the Oklahoma bombing because the FBI knew about this lo and was actively involved in the bombing. Besides, Vidal stated that the FBI did this to put pressure on President Clinton to sign the antiterrorist legislation that he had refused to sign. McVeigh on the contrary knew he was going to be victimized, therefore; he accepted responsibility since he was not afraid of death.

5. The article The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh is well structured and designed because the author began by giving the reader insight into the events that led to the Oklahoma bombing and a piece of background information on why Timothy McVeigh was convicted of this crime. The author then proceeds to give evidence on why he thinks that McVeigh was innocent and why he thought other people had committed the crime. Moreover, he concluded his article by giving the conclusion about this article and what the main takeaway from the article was. This was a well-designed article with good structure.

6. I believe that the planned audience for this article are the American citizens and students in school so that they would understand what happened and why McVeigh might be innocent f this crime. The author intended to give people a deeper perspective of the Oklahoma Bombing and the motive behind the bombing as well. I think that the audience that this article was intended to are American citizens because they had believed that McVeigh was guilty and the author wanted to show that he was innocent to bring clarity into this narrative.

Reference