Analyzing My Audience

1. What values, ideas, norms, beliefs, even laws of the culture play an important role in the text?

• Every aspect of this question plays an important role in this text by Ranjit Dighe. It addresses how the current laws of this country hinder users of marijuana, and set them up for failure in life. To go off of that, because the law states that the drug is illegal, it explains how most citizens' values, ideas and beliefs are negative of the drug due to the laws regarding it. 

2. Does the text address these cultural values, beliefs, etc., directly or indirectly?

• The text addresses these values and beliefs directly. Dighe states what the country thinks of the drug and then goes on to provide a rebuttal argument to maybe have the reader ponder and think: "hey, maybe legalization isn't such a bad thing, after all."

3. What is the relationship of the text to the values, beliefs, etc.? Is it critical of these aspects of the culture? Is it supportive? Does it seek to modify these aspects of the culture in a certain way?

• The author is not supportive of the U.S.'s current values and beliefs regarding marijuana. He seeks to modify the public's values and current culture in America by providing examples of how legalization of the drug can be beneficial to public health, the incarceration situation in the U.S., and how it would keep families and friendships bonded, rather than destroyed.

Pixabay. Presenter and Audience, July 2014, CC0 Public Domain