Rhetorical Analysis

Dark, sexy, alluring. The glamorized side of drug use is chic, just like this commercial. But there is a distinct dichotomy between the positive perception of drugs and reality. As this commercial analogizes, taking drugs is like “lining up to destroy [yourself].” Extensive support of analogy and the acute effect of sights and sounds make the pathos of this commercial truly effective.

While there are many important factors to this piece of rhetoric, the overarching device used to support pathos is analogy. The entire commercial is an extended analogy for the self-destruction of drug use, specifically the use of cocaine. It is clear that this is the target drug due to the visual similarity of the line of brain matter to lines of coke. The analogy is that doing coke is like fishing around inside your cranium for a chunk of brain, cutting it into lines and snorting it. This analogy is very carefully constructed to make sure that the point comes across clearly. For this to work, the analogy must rely upon a comparison and contrast of actual drug use. The scene is easily compared because it is a realistic place. There is nothing out of the ordinary or fantastic about a club and its bathroom. The actual preparation and ingestion of the substance is also realistic. What is incredible and bizarre is what the man is snorting. This is the crux of the analogy, where it really comes to a head and makes apparent that drug use is detrimental to one’s self. Ultimately, in case you weren’t paying attention to the man snorting the bloody mess, the analogy is stated clearly at the end: “Every day people are lining up to destroy themselves.” As if this wasn’t enough, the authors of this commercial utilize a pun to place more stress on the specificity of the drug. The text states that “people are lining up…” The dual connotations of this phraseology aren’t blatantly apparent like the brains on the toilet. However, this cleverness is a bit of purposeful irony, which also supports the emotional claim.

Other elements central to this ad are the sights and sounds present. This commercial, supported by Care NZ, a New Zealand rehabilitation service, starts the narration with a trendy club scene. The narrative arc builds steadily, peaking with a moment of grotesque realization when the main character pulls open his head. The visuals and sounds leading up to that point are important, but not nearly as important as they become the second he steps into the bathroom. At this point, the sounds are noticeably reduced, creating a private, intimate, perhaps even clandestine feel. The idea is presented that this kind of drug use is a person, secret act. The deed is an internal action that isn’t necessarily deliberate. It is an internalized process over which the person may have no control. The colors, which were previously muted, but representative of most of the spectrum, become sharply black and white. Learned color associations put white into the schema for “good” and black into “bad”. However, this commercial plays with those associations, perhaps providing an illustration of how your perceptions are altered by drugs. While the split colors of the bathroom stall imply that the black bottom half is a “hell” in which he is crouching, the pristine white of the toilet argues the opposite, as does the white associated with cocaine. Of course, these sharp colors also serve to reinforce the shock value of this man’s actions. This shock value is where the pathos of the ad really hits home. The scare tactics utilized by this ad might be an exaggerated use of pathos, but they do work. The colors set up the scene for a visceral (literally) reaction to the action taking place. There is a certain gross-out factor that makes your eyes widen and your stomach clench, but which draws you in even while it makes your emotions throb just like this guy’s exposed brain.

Not only do the colors have an emotional effect, but the sounds serve to enhance the experience. The action in the bathroom has been taking place in relative silence until he peels back his scalp. We are then assaulted with a noise that falls somewhere between a saw and dial-up internet. This mechanical, metallic sound grates on the nerves, just like the credit card slicing through his brain. It’s a nails-on-a-chalkboard effect which, in most people, causes a physical reaction. It makes your brain hurt and sends shivers down your spine. It’s these kind of details that make this commercial creepy—and therefore, effective. Sensory correlations such as sound and smell are important to humans, especially when stimulating emotional responses. Everyone has a song that they associate with a place or a person. People definitely associate particular sounds with particular objects. This is exactly what this commercial aims to do. This piercing sound is quickly associated with horror and undesirable reactions.

Just as distinct, associative sounds are important in the Care NZ commercial, they add a unique focus to some of the most interesting scenes of the movie Requiem for a Dream. In this clip, many of the sounds actually belong to the image with which they are portrayed, like the lighter. Some however, have no direct connotation, such as George Washington and a giggle. However, there is an association that is made between the action and the sound, no matter how disparate the two might be. There is quickly a kind of autonomic Pavlovian response. The increasing speed of the sounds, coupled with the percussion beat creates a physical and emotional response. You’re drawn in to this cadence of drugs, not unlike how the club scene in the commercial serves to draw you in with a good beat. Then, there is also the mirrored gross-out factor at the end of the clip. The image of the needle sliding into that infected puncture mark and the knowledge that it’s self-inflicted makes your stomach churn. Both of these sickening moments illustrate how using drugs is a form of self-annihilation. Indeed, the conclusion of Aronofsky’s film shows the four characters in various states of destruction. One is dead, one is in jail suffering from painful withdrawals, one is institutionalized and the fourth is hospitalized with an amputated arm. All of them wind up hurting because of drug use.

While Requiem for a Dream definitely showcases a more realistic approach to drug use than the commercial, the message is still the same: drug use is analogous with massive devastation. These pieces of rhetoric advance the dark and dirty side of drug use, whether the end result is physical or mental. They state quite clearly that no amount of rhetorical appeals can save you from the destruction that is the corollary of this action.

William Henry Lewis Extra Credit

If there is one thing I strive for in my creative writing, it is the kind of lyricism exhibited in William Henry Lewis’ prose. “Sounds making themselves on dark pages” exactly describes my impression of his work. I really just don’t have the words to sufficiently explain how much I enjoyed hearing him read. I was particularly interested by his admission that he doesn’t remember his dreams. I guess that I’ve always just taken it for granted that I’ll be able to wake up in the morning and remember most of my dreams from the last night. For someone who doesn’t remember his dreams, he manipulates time, space and somnolent probability exceedingly well—at least in my experience. He captured the fluidity of dreams accurately, especially how you can start in one place and find yourself in another. Of course, maybe I just don’t remember the “traveling” parts of my dreams, but it always seems as though I jump from one place to another. His writing reminds me a lot of e.e. cummings, whose work I adore. It doesn’t all make sense, but it certainly does make an impression. His words are unfamiliar, thrown together in novel combinations—like jazz—washing past. He has a talent for making the vernacular align to his cause, not unlike Jason Robert Brown’s music. Finally, the whole experience was topped off by his wonderful, musical voice. It made me want to start hitting the writing harder.

rhetorical analysis draft

Dark, sexy, alluring. The glamorized side of drug use is chic, just like this commercial. But there is a distinct dichotomy between the positive perception of drugs and reality. As this commercial analogizes, taking drugs is like “lining up to destroy [yourself].” Through visual and auditory support of logos, pathos and ethos, this advertisement functions as a strong anti-drug statement.

This commercial, supported by Care NZ, a New Zealand drug rehabilitation service, starts the narration with a trendy club scene. Mirrors on the wall and nondescript, but hip club music plays. The colors are dark, but varied. There are blues, reds, greens, yellows. While it is clear that the focus is on one man, the other people and objects also draw attention. Everything else is forgotten, however, twelve seconds in when the audience’s focus comes completely to this one man. He enters the men’s restrooms, the sound dims and the colors become shades of black and white almost exclusively. He enters the stall, kneeling in front of a pristinely white toilet (something unseen in clubs) and lays out a couple of things on top of it. The audience is then horrified when he reaches back and peels open his head, accompanied by a metallic/mechanical sound that has that nails-on-a-chalkboard effect. Here, a brilliant red is added to the colors, emphasized by the pure white of the toilet. He picks up his credit card and starts cutting the piece of brain he just pulled out and this is the point that the audience truly understands what he’s doing. That same sound follows for the next few seconds while he forms lines of the brain matter and then licks the card clean. He then rolls up a bill and snorts the lines, coming to a close up of the bloody mess being sucked up the tube. The shot then pulls out and the man gets up, leaving his credit card, incidentally. The next shot is a close up of blood dripping out of his nose, him wiping it away and licking it off, and then the dilation of his eye, all set to that same piercing sound.

The logos of this ad is supported by some of the only text in the spot: “Every day, more and more people are lining up to destroy themselves.” The cause and effect aspect is clear. If you do drugs, then you’re destroying yourself. The next line of text furthers this cause and effect reasoning. “If you need help call 0508 CARE NZ.” The commercial suggests that that getting help should be the next logical step. The wording is also significant because it reinforces the specificity of the target drug. It isn’t just drugs in general this ad is going after. It’s cocaine, which is made clear by the lines that he’s snorting, but also in the text, “people are lining up.”

Ethos, defined as an appeal to the goodwill of the speaker, is also important in this commercial. The “speaker” in this case does no speaking, but ethos can also be inferred through actions. The focus of the ad is a young man probably in his mid-twenties. The audience is unaware of his intentions through the first twenty seconds of the commercial. What we do know is that he’s well-dressed and good looking. Perhaps he’s looking for someone or going to the bar for a drink. There is a slight element of suspense while we wait to find out what he is doing or what is going to happen to him. The ethos of this figure, then, falls into the realm of ambivalence. We don’t trust or distrust him initially, but we’re willing to give him a chance. The audience is then horrified when he reaches back and peels up a part of his scalp to reveal what should be his brain. Whether intentionally or not, it looks nothing like a real brain. This might be a statement to say that he’s been pulling his brain apart for a while and so all that’s left is a soupy mess. His ethos is sent crashing down when he starts cutting the piece of brain into lines, clearly insinuation that this is a parallel to coke use. Thanks to years of being told that drugs are bad, especially hard drugs like cocaine, most people now view this man as distasteful and untrustworthy. This is both an illustration of the analogy of the whole ad. It is illustrated that doing coke is like destroying a part of yourself, and an important part at that. He didn’t cut off a bit of skin, he pulled out part of his brain.

The pathos here is controlled almost exclusively by sights and sounds. It is important to note the target audience for this commercial as well. The setting, specifically, sets the target range at club-going age, somewhere between 18 and 28. This scene appeals to that age group. The music is something you immediately recognize as something you can dance to. The dark colors make it seem intimate and sexy. We feel interested and good about what’s going on in the first twelve seconds. The man then goes into the restroom, something with which we’re all familiar. At this point, the sounds are noticeably reduced, creating a private, intimate, perhaps even clandestine feel. The colors, which were previously muted, but representative of most of the spectrum, become sharp and black and white. Outside the bathroom is a happy club scene; inside, things are serious. The camera follows him into the stall, which is split, top and bottom, into white and black, respectively. Learned color associations put white into the schema of “good” and black into “bad”. This can been seen as reinforcement of the negative connotations of what he’s about to do. The audience can see this stall as representative of heaven and hell, then, and he is crouching quite firmly in hell. The purity of the colors also serve to highlight the shock value of that bright red piece of brain plopping down on the toilet lid. This has been taking place in relative silence until the point when he pulls back his scalp. We are then assaulted with a noise that falls somewhere between a saw and dial-up. This is a noise that can be equated with what one might imagine a “brain ache” would sound like. The noise is creepy and intended to give goosebumps and make one feel queasy. It cuts across your nerves just as the credit card is cutting across this chunk of flesh.

The emphasis in the next 4 seconds is on the “drugs”, to increase the audience’s horror of what’s going on here and make sure that the analogy between using drugs and damaging yourself is clear. There is a wide shot and then a return to a close-up of his hands rolling the bill. The blood under his fingernails is clear. It’s these kind of details that make this commercial truly creepy—and therefore, effective. The next shot is wider again, but quickly returns to a close-up of the end of the rolled bill and the bloody matter disappearing up it. That same noise can be heard, but it’s more subtle now, allowing the full conscious focus to be on the fact that his man is snorting his own brain. The shot then pans upward, creating a well-like effect and this guy is at the bottom of it. The implication is that he’s in a place from which he can’t escape. The final shot is a close up of his nose, blood dripping from it just as coke might. The noise, which we have now come to associate with ingestion of blood and bad things is back in the foreground. He wipes away the blood and, as if it weren’t bad enough already, licks his finger clear. The noise then sustains in something like a crescendo through the focused dilation of the eye.

Just as sounds are important in the Care NZ commercial, sounds add a unique focus to this clip from the movie Requiem for a Dream. And, just as seen in the advertisement, there is a gross-out factor in the insertion of the needle in the infected puncture mark. (Etc, etc, more tying in and wrapping up.)

Clinton's Rhetoric on Women

“Hillary has fought the relentless and insidious efforts by far-right Republicans to limit the protections of Roe v Wade, while also working hard to expand access to family planning services.” Hillary Clinton’s campaign site is remarkably free of overt mentions of opposing candidates. The above quotation demonstrates one response to the opposition without naming names. The word choice in the quotation paints Republicans in a negative light. Interestingly, the word “relentless” can have positive connotations, but “insidious” is rarely every a positive trait to possess. Hillary, according to her website, as fought with, what one must assume, is equal relentlessness. Hillary’s website employs other rhetorical strategies. As a presidential candidate, the rhetorical strategies seen aren’t blatant as opposed to those we might see in commercials and product advertisements. Another rhetorical device used is example. The website uses examples of past acts to show how Hillary has been an advocate for women and will continue to do so. This is directed at women and people who care about women to show them how Hillary will impact their lives. And, with more than half the population being women, this seems like a pretty smart move to make. The website also constructs a persona for Hillary through the glowing depiction of her character. Based purely on the website, one has no choice but to believe that she is the upstanding leader portrayed. The character set up here fits most comfortably into the “entertainer’s stance” outlined in chapter three. The text is clearly important and it is aimed at gaining the approval of the audience, but in order to do so the character is elevated above all. The “canons of rhetoric” are also present. According to chapter three, arrangement and style “assume particular importance” and those are both used to good effect on Hillary’s website. The page on women’s rights starts out with a strong thesis and goes on to support that thesis multiple times in a logical order. The style supports the image that Hillary wants to portray: strong and assertive, but also a woman, and a classy one at that. As any good piece of advertising, the website also employs rhetorical appeals. The whole piece is steeped in the logos of her previous achievements. It stands to reason that she would continue her track record. Ethos can be found in her work to prevent teen pregnancies. Who really approves of teen pregnancies? Probably no one. Hillary has also worked “to empower low-income women”, which plays upon our knowledge that poverty can be awful and anything that can be done to remedy that situation, especially where children are involved, is a wonderful thing. Finally, we have ethos. One must believe that Hillary would not jeopardize something as hugely important as her presidential campaign by giving a false representation of her character. American’s never want to be lied to and now more than ever voters are going to be looking for a president who is going to be straight forward. For someone to start out their campaign with lies would be extreme folly.