Michael Stock RAP Blog

Michael Stock

Hilery Glasby

English 1510

19 March, 2013

Rhetorical Analysis Portfolio

When a writer drafts a paper about the psychological effects of bullying, or a producer creates a film about the effects bullying has on the lives of students, the writer and producer want to do more than simply state facts, or give a long infomercial style presentation. They want to be persuasive and evoke the strongest emotions they can. This is important to the writers and producers because they need to convince as many people as possible to join the anti-bullying banner. In order to attain this goal, writers and producers use rhetoric, which is defined as by the Merriam Webster dictionary as, “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing”. To reach their audience writers and producers use rhetoric, and techniques involving, pathos logos, ethos, or a combination of the three. Rhetoric comes in a variety of forms, and many different styles. This ambiguity can make it difficult to discern precisely when and how rhetoric is used within a text. Strong rhetoric is the most important factor in determining whether or not a text is effective, because weak rhetoric means poor persuasion, which leads to low quality writing. If these facts are combined, it becomes apparent that one must thoroughly understand the many forms and styles of rhetoric.

Some of the most rhetorically hard hitting videos on the internet are part of a series of videos known as the, “It Gets Better” series. This series was created by a gay news columnist named Dan Savage to help spread the message that life really does get better for bullied LGBT teens. He made these videos after reading about a string of recent suicides related to LGBT bullying. Dan Savage knows firsthand, that life really improves for LGBT youth after the troubling years of middle school and high school. The It Gets Better website hosts thousands of videos that advocate against LGBT bullying using stories of everyone, from celebrities, to everyday people, who have seen, “how love and happiness can be a reality in their future”. One video on It Gets Better that is especially sincere and particularly poignant, is the video created by the famous animation studio, Pixar.

Pixar’s It Gets Better video employs exceptionally powerful messages wrapped in nicely conveyed rhetorical techniques; giving their video the strongest person to person message of any video on the It Gets Better website. The video is visually simple, showing only the faces of those telling their story of the rampant bullying and thoughts of suicide they experienced directly, or indirectly, as a result of LGBT bullying.  The everyday people manage to use many rhetorical devices, whether they mean to or not, to convey their stories. Some of these devices include allusion, apostrophe, irony, analogy, and anaphora.

Pixar’s rhetoric is very direct and wonderfully woven together. The employees use anecdotes from their own lives to convey a message of hope and perseverance. The employees speak about the strange situations they were forced into because of their sexuality. They use these anecdotes to build trust with the target audience and form a strong foundation, so they can more effectively present their message of hope and perseverance. Apostrophe is also prevalent throughout Pixar’s video. Each person speaks to the camera as if they are speaking directly to the listener. The reason for this is so they can connect personally to the audience and let them know that they have gone through something similar, and come out just fine. Irony is also present in the video when one Pixar employees explains that, “someone interrupted me from jumping off the roof of my dorm. I am so grateful to that person today, because things have gotten so much better”. The irony being that, she was going to end her life to stop the pain just before the pain was about to end.

Analogy is another important tool Pixar uses to further its cause. They use their own stories as analogies to explain how they hope their audience will live their lives. The employees’ analogies are especially powerful because their analogies are based off of their own life stories and are incredibly personal. Anaphora is the last major rhetorical device used in Pixar’s film, and it is perhaps the most important and inescapable device of the entire paper. It is the most important because it the film’s thesis, “It Gets Better,” was said over and over again, because that is what the employees want you to know. It Gets Better.

This speech by the famous 1940’s actor, Charlie Chaplin is a great example of rhetoric in action. The speech is an excerpt from the 1940’s American movie called, “The Great Dictator”. The film was designed to satirize the dictatorships in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The speech is interesting because it outlines the problems and travesties the dictators in Europe committed, which sound very similar to the problems bullied have with their bullies. The speech itself is especially interesting because even though it is nearly 80 years old, it can still be applied to today’s events using through rhetoric. The video seen throughout the speech is a compilation of many different short clips that relate to what Chaplin is saying in the speech, which gives this particular rendition of Chaplin’s speech a special flavor. The speech itself is certainly rhetorically powerful, but the video’s rhetoric is also impressively immersive.

The video’s rhetoric is especially potent because it is taken a speech made nearly 80 years ago and applied to today’s world in a way the writers of the piece likely never expected. The video is very open ended and can be easily interpreted to mean different things, but one meaning is certain, the cruelty that runs rampant all over the world needs to be wiped away if we hope to live peacefully.

Chaplin’s rhetoric is complex and difficult to apply to bullying, but if one views the dictators as bullies and the soldiers and citizens as the bullied, it becomes much simpler. The way Chaplin satirizes the dictatorships is the main way this piece can be applied to bullying. For example, when he is telling his audience that, “we think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity,” he is saying that humans need to worry less about efficiency and productivity and more about helping one another. This is very similar to the Pixar video’s theme of acceptance and perseverance. Chaplin’s tone is a complicated mix of reassurance and forewarning about the consequences our actions have on the world; but more importantly, the consequences our actions have on groups of people, and individual people.  When Chaplin says, “We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way”. His tone suggests that he not only wants to people to live peacefully side by side, but flourish and thrive with the help of each other. Pixar also seeks strength in unity, but in a more direct manner.

Chaplin does offer hope to those who need it when he explains, “To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die”. The diction used in these sentences implies that the bloodshed and pain is only a passing, and a utopian society will eventually become reality. This utopian theme is common throughout the anti-bullying movement; because the bullied must believe there is something better yet to come, something to make up for all the pain and sorrow.

The imagery used throughout Chaplin’s speech is excellent. It flows perfectly with the larger picture the filmmaker is trying to paint. He uses Chaplin’s speech to illustrate today’s problems and compare them to the problems in the 1940’s. For example, during Chaplin’s sentence about living, “by each other’s happiness,” an image of the starving African children appears. This is to further prove the point that there are still people out there who wish to make this world a poorer place for their own betterment, much like the bullies who constantly harass their victims.

The final and most emotionally hard hitting video is a YouTube short titled, To This Day. This video is a collaborative effort, animated by a large group of passionate volunteers. The video’s narrator reads the poem “To This Day,” by Shane Koyczan, while the story plays out on the screen. The poem itself is written by Shane Koyczan, but the video is animated by nearly 25 volunteers who each animate their very own 20 second piece of the video. Because of this unique and tasteful decision, every 20 seconds offers a distinctive feel and unique touch, giving the video a constructively diverse and powerfully emotional story, while maintaining a strong anti-bullying message, a message that is very similar to the message presented by Pixar.

To This Day uses many different types of rhetoric as effectively and professionally, while maintaining a very quaint, but incredibly emotional tone. Nearly every second of the seven minute video is filled with some form of rhetoric, but the most obvious and important styles of rhetoric are used with regards to the fantastic imagery and beautifully done animation of the video are imagery, mood, and tone. The poem also manages to artfully employ some rhetorical elements, such as parallelism, invective, and vocal tone. There are a few rhetorical techniques that both the poem and the animation employ. These include catharsis and appeals to emotion and logic.

The “To This Day” speech uses many of the same rhetorical techniques used by the first two videos, but it resembles Chaplin’s speech in that it presents its argument very differently than either of the previous examples. The poem itself manages to use parallelism to emphasize a point. Koyczan uses the phrase, “to this day,” constantly throughout the poem. He uses it to emphasize the fact that bullying has, and will continue to affect, each of the subjects of his poem for their entire lives. This message is also evident in Pixar’s film by their stories and anecdotes and in Chaplin’s speech by his reference to a hard and cynical world.  Invective is used often in “To This Day”. For example, when he tells the audience, “how can you hold your ground if everyone around you is trying to burry you in it?” The enormously forceful wording used in “To This Day” is there because the author absolutely needs to convey the message that is the lifeblood of this video; that life is worth living, and that it can’t get better until the viewer believes it will and sheds the sorrow hued glasses through which they see the world because of the bullying. Vocal tone is the most obvious rhetorical device used in To This Day, and is arguably the most effective device used. The audience can clearly hear what the narrator is emphasizing and the emotion the author is feeling is apparent in every word. This is similar to, but much more powerful than  both Pixar’s and Chaplin’s video, which is why this video is the most moving out of all of them, because how can an audience fully buy into a video like this when they aren’t even sure if the people in the film believe in what they are saying. It is clear that Shane Koyczan means what he is saying.

Visual rhetoric is a powerful technique that gives another layer of depth to this stunningly brilliant video. One technique in particular, catharsis is used to evoke many emotions, from fear, to anger and even sadness and despondency. The masterful use of catharsis is evident throughout the entire video. Some of the images are incredibly provocative and draw out emotion more effectively than any of the imagery in either Pixar’s or Chaplin’s films. The visuals also appeal to emotion and logic much more intensely than either of the other videos because the examples in To This Day are unbelievably sad. They illustrate the life of children struggling with a problem many adults could not face themselves. It chronicles, in painstaking detail, how every day is like another pound being added to their pack of pain and misery, until they collapse under the pack’s immense weight and shatter, only to rebuild stronger and wiser than they had even been before. Neither Pixar, nor Chaplin comes close to that painful level of realism. To This Day is undoubtedly the most well thought out and effective anti-bullying video because its use of rhetoric is so refined and poignant. Not only does its use of rhetoric exceed expectation, it uses the most of effective form of rhetoric, anecdote, extremely effectively.

On the whole, these videos are all different in context, but similar in the message they offer. They are all powerful advocates for the anti-bullying cause, but they manage to in interestingly different, yet equally effective ways; whether it be through a poignantly touching compilation of the life stories of the bullied, an anecdote of the difficult struggles experienced by those who most people would rather ignore, or a well animated, emotionally piercing chronicle of the life-changing effects bullying had on three people. Each of these videos ask the viewer to consider the notion that we all deserve respect and dignity, regardless of appearance, gender, or social stereotypes. If everyone listened to the message these videos send, our Earth would surely be a much more peaceful place.

Works Cited

Chaplin, Charlie. “The Greatest Speech Ever Made.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 15 July 2011. Web. 16 March, 2013.

Koyczan, Shane. “To This Day.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 12 March, 2013.

Pixar. “It Gets Better – Love, Pixar.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Nov 2010. Web. 13 March, 2013.