Harper's Magazine

In the Harper's articles, I was assigned the last chunk of the issue of our magazine, which consisted of a large amount of editor's commentary and several drawings/sketches equivalent to today's comic strips. Overall, the articles were easy to read, making me think that the magazine was targeting a very broad audience, rather than an exclusive, only upper class audience. The current events section that I read seemed the most important to me because most people have an interest in the events occurring in the world around them. The section gave the most attention to the United States, but adequately covered events going on throughout South America, Europe, and Asia. Also, the literary reviews section I was assigned was an additional important aspect of the magazine because it gave a general overview of suggested works to read and praised several authors of different genres and specialties. Although this section could be considered to have a limited audience, the magazine excellently covered a multitude of genres, which would appeal to numerous types of people.

The latter part of the articles I was assigned did not seem as prevalent to the magazine as a whole as the two previously mentioned sections. I think they were designed as commentary from the editor, which to me as a reader, came across as a random, choppy set of unrelated information. One section was fairly entertaining as it consisted of approximately fifteen short anecdotes (all under one page), which were easy to read and typically included comedic elements as well as an underlying message. The illustrations included at the end of the issue all related to an image of the "average family" of the times, which was a theme that stuck out to me.

Also, a second theme that seemed to surface several times was in relation to alcohol. In the current events section, many states in the United States had adopted laws either prohibiting the excessive consumption of alcohol or prohibiting the sale of alcohol (usually hard liquor). I observed that politics and history were the two topics that were given the most coverage in the magazine. Overall, from the articles I was assigned I do not think I would be very enticed to read the rest of the magazine. However, I think if I had read actual articles, as opposed to the editor's commentary, I would be more enticed to see what else the magazine had to offer.