Research Topic

My research paper will be based on paper two. My topic will surround the question: "Heritage and Tradition: Helpful or Harmful to Communication?"

Ladd Blog

Author Brian Ladd's, "Berlin Walls," is an interesting, in-depth look at the history surrounding the Berlin Wall. Ladd explores the events leading up to the construction of this fortification and its subsequent road to extinction. Ladd delves deeply into the profound psychological and social implications this immense structure represented and the emotional scars it left on a country already indelibly stained with a bloody and shameful past. Ladd also examines the interesting contrast between the ways in which the Western world chose to define and view the Wall and the ways in which it was viewed by the German people and their rulers. Regarding this Ladd asserts, "Western Leaders denounced the Wall as anachronistic: a relic from an earlier age, it was built to keep progress out, and people in. Meanwhile, the Wall's builders justified their work as a necessary defense against the atavistic forces of the West" (343). Both sides of this fight surrounding the Wall were embittered in a dispute to, as Ladd posits, "define a symbol, each side trying to make the Berlin Wall comprehensible in ways that would justify its cause" (343).

Works Cited

Ladd, Brian. "Berlin Walls." Literacies. 2^nd ed. Ed. Terence Brunk et al. New York: Norton, 2000. 337-358.