The Life of Steve Jobs - Essay Example

November 5, The life of Steve Jobs has been one of immense speculation in the public eye since his products became popular in the market. While known for being a genius by playing a vital part in the development of new technology such as the iPhone, remarkably little was about his personal life. In order to remedy this, Jobs, before his death, authorized the famous author, Walter Isaacson, to write his biography. Through a series of interviews, which were done when Jobs’ health was failing, Isaacson managed to get the material that he needed for his subject’s biography. In this paper, an analysis of two articles about this biography will be done, with reference to the New York Times articles, can be considered to be the effective one of the two. Janet Maslin’s article attempts to show the readers of Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, that Jobs was not the nasty person that many of those who had been close to him considered him to be. She writes this article to an audience which is likely to be extremely supportive of Jobs, and which will likely be exceedingly hostile to those people who are critical of him. The purpose of Maslin’s article, therefore, is to celebrate Jobs’ life through the revelations made about him in his biography. One gathers that Maslin’s view of Jobs’ biography is highly supportive of Jobs, overlooking his faults and instead mostly considering the positive aspects of his life. Maslin accomplishes her task remarkably well because she presents a Steve Jobs that was not only a famous man, but also a human being. The style used by Maslin in writing about Jobs’ biography leaves the reader, or audience, incredibly curious, and it is likely to encourage one to read it. The use of imagery is prevalent throughout the article, and each of the images that Maslin writes about can be considered to have a double meaning. For instance, she writes about the beauty of the design of Jobs’ childhood home. In doing so, she reveals his motivation towards making designs that can be considered to be the definition of perfection. It further reveals something about Jobs’ childhood; that he had a particularly happy childhood in that home. The tone of the article is positive because it tends to concentrate on the Jobs’ achievements rather than criticisms of him. It not only shows how his background helped develop his creative ability, but it also reveals those aspects of his life which made him stand out from other human beings. The positive tone of the article is also shown when one discusses Jobs’ personal life. While others would heavily criticize him for his abandonment of his illegitimate daughter, Lisa, Maslin redeems this image by stating that he later came to accept and support his daughter. The tone of the article can, therefore, be said to be positive in matters concerning both Job’s business life, and his personal life. There is extraordinarily little in the article to taint this image. The second article, by Fred Schruers, about Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs can be considered to be overly critical of the subject. It has for an audience who would like to see a balance between both the positive and negative aspects of Steve Jobs. Schruers criticizes the way that Isaacson wrote Jobs’ biography, stating that he got too close to the subject of the biography to be able to write objectively. Schruers suggests that since Isaacson was present throughout Jobs’ eventual illness, he shared too many personal moments with him, and this may have distorted his true opinion of him. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to reveal the weaknesses that are found in Steve Job’s biography. It can be said that it might even encourage a reader to study it with a pinch of salt. Schruers, in his article, also uses imagery as a way of stressing the points which he is trying to put across to his audience. At one point in the article, he states that it would have been unfair to ask Isaacson to play the role of Church Lady while interviewing Jobs. The Church Lady was a well-known recurring character in the show Saturday Night Live, and she was known for getting people to reveal their innermost secrets and thoughts in her shows. By using her image, Schruers is criticizing the way Isaacson handled his interviews with Jobs. This reveals that Schruers was unsatisfied by the work done by Isaacson, and shows that he would have preferred it if Isaacson had gotten Jobs to account for some of his cruel actions in his life. The tone of the article is highly critical of not only the focus of the biography, but also of Schruers, who throughout the article expresses his disapproval of the way Isaacson handled his interviews with Jobs, as well as how he wrote the biography. The criticism leveled at Isaacson is further revealed by Schruers’ description of his closeness to Jobs during his last days, from which he states that Isaacson’s objectivity was lost. Criticism is at Steve Jobs himself, who Schruers, in this article, describes as selfish and cruel, and never taking responsibility for some of the things through which he, intentionally and unintentionally, put some people. The tone of the article gives the reader an impression that not everything mentioned in the book should be believed. Instead, it gives the reader the impression that the book is too one-sided, concentrating more on the positive, and barely touching on, or ignoring the negative aspects of Jobs’ life. In conclusion, it can be said that these two articles help to give a clear view of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. The first concentrates on the positive aspects that are brought about by this biography, the revelation of the subject and his actions as being human. The second article, on the other hand, is highly critical of the biography, revealing those issues which seem to have been overlooked by the author. While both articles can be said to be useful, one would give preference to the article by \Janet Maslin, which concentrates more on the content of the biography rather than criticizing it. It reveals the process through which Isaacson went to gain the material needed for the book. It concentrates on Steve Jobs the man, in contrast to Steve Jobs, the ruthless corporate icon. Works Cited Maslin, Janet. “Making the iBio for Apple’s Genius.” The New York Times 21 October 2011. Schruers, Fred. “Review: Steve Jobs bio solid, but needs deathbed confession.” Reuters 27 October 2011. Read More