Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis for Project 3

Film: Shot Through the Heart:
Pathos: This film appeals strongly to the emotions. The story is about two life friends, one Muslim, one Serb, and both are sharpshooters, who end up being on different sides when the Bosnian war breaks out. In Sarajevo, there is a serious of impossible murders being that were the victim was there was no way that someone could have shot them. It turns out to be the Serb friend and the Muslim one must kill him.

Ethos: Along with Pathos, there is a definite Ethos appeal evident in the film. The Serb friend obviously takes the values of the Serbs to heart and begins doing horrible things. Such as killing little kids and innocent people, but still remaining friends with the Muslim guy. The Muslim guy finds out about his friend being responsible for this and must make the decision, to kill his friend that is seriously violating basic human values.
Logos: There does not seem to be a strong Logos element in the film. It is a media used strictly for entertainment and there is no requirement for it to present a Logos argument.

Picture: The Peace Palace
Pathos: The building certainly has a Pathos element to it. First of all, it is very important to know that it houses the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations. Second, it is named The Peace Palace. Couple these two facts together and its name has more relevance. The ICJ is meant to settle disputes between two states and has successfully done so in a peaceful manner. Also, on an unrelated topic, it could be argued that most architecture is designed with invoking emotions, which this one does. Simply by the design you can tell this structure houses something very important.
Ethos: Values does not play a large role in this picture. The ascetics of a structure seem to be mostly designed to invoke an emotion. Although, it could be said that persons from different cultures probably interpret the design differently, it seems hard to argue that one could fail to realize the significance of this structure.
Logos: There can be some logic involved in this picture. Mostly by considering what it is this building houses. The International Court of Justice is also the largest international law library in the world.
Book: Beyond Westphalia: National Sovereignty and International Intervention
Pathos: The Pathos argument here would be quite as it seems to be a research book regarding territorial sovereignty.
Ethos: Values does play a role here. One of the dominating issues in International Relations throughout the 20th Century and to this day is national sovereignty. National sovereignty has been held sacred by nations for hundreds of years (since the signing of the treaty of Westphalia in the 1600s) and is only now beginning to erode with Globalization and Human Rights. The conflict in politics is between two values, those who disagree with the sacredness of sovereignty and those that see it as a threat to human rights.
Logos: The book is basically a researched argument so it appeals mostly to Logos. Relying much on history and facts more than anything else.

Song: Georgian National Anthem
Pathos: A national anthem is clearly designed to appeal to emotions. They sing about the glory and greatness of its country and often has its intended effect of stirring nationalist sentiments in its people. For example, think for a moment what you felt when you heard Aretha Franklin singing our national anthem during the Inauguration.
Ethos: This is an example of the intimate relationship that Pathos and Ethos have. National anthems are meant to stir emotions regarding you nation, however it is certain values that need to be present for these emotions to appear. The values in a national anthem would of course be love for your nation.

Number 10

Summary
The interview began with Charlie Rose recalling the time Toni Morrison had invited him to the Nobel Award ceremony and his refusal. Followed by a little discussion about how you never regret the things you did, just the things that you didn’t do. Their discussion than turned to Morrison’s newest book, Love and Rose asks her to tell him about it. She explains it as telling the story about the actual complex situation going on during the Civil Rights movement, which she said that is generally over simplified. She wanted to describe the transitions on the black community as the became assimilated into the larger society. Rose than asked about Beloved, mentioning that many have called it her masterpiece. This position she does not agree with, saying instead that she has not yet created her masterpiece. Afterwards, their discussion turned to writing it self with Rose asking about if it has become easier. To her, writing does not become easier with each successive novel, as each is a completely black slate. She also talks about the importance of “bearing-witness” to her characters. Of not making her pain, their pain. The pain and feelings in the novel have to belong to the character. The interview finished with Rose asking Morrison to read a passage from her book. The passage seemed to explain that people spend their entire life attempting to out do the world, to better it in a sense. However, no matter how hard they try the world will always win.
Reaction
Although this is cheating a little bit because we already discussed this is class, however, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the interview has a very casual nature. Although, it was obviously a real interview, the atmosphere was very conversational. Kind of like two people just simply talking. At the same time Rose’s questions were very effective at getting a story. In other the questions were very open ended and lent themselves to elaboration. Furthermore, she brought up needing to talk about the complex lives of the African Americans during the civil rights movement. The points she made sense, that with Martin Luther King and Rosa parks the history that we are generally taught is over simplified.

Reflection
Once can certainly draw connections between this interview and Vogler. While reading Vogler’s book, it is very apparent that creating a human element in a story is of the utmost important. Morrison reiterated this. She talks mostly at the end of the interview is that what people need to do most is to be human. She also talks about bearing witness to her characters. This really struck me as I immediately thought of Elie Wiesel. He is another Nobel Prize Laureate who talks a lot of bearing witness. Mostly conveys the importance of those who had born witness to tell their story. To me drawing this connection to two Nobel Prize winners is very interesting and perhaps important.
Questions
1.) How important does she believe that those who have born witness tell their story.

First Part of the Project 3

Project Three Analysis Handout
Presentation description: (MLA Format)


1. Describe the visual and textual elements which reflect issues from your Project Two exploration.
Film: Shot Through the Heart
It is actually about the Bosnian war, which is of course different. However, there are many similarities between the Bosnia conflict (although it was much larger than the Georgian one) and the Georgia one. One being is that they were mostly ethnic is nature.

Picture:
The picture is of the peace palace in The Hague. This conflict has gone on for decades, and is not being decided in the peace palace, in front of the International Court of Justice.

Book.
Beyond Westphalia?: National Sovereignty and International Intervention
This book is about national sovereignty, which is one of the issues at stake here. Georgia felt that its territorial integrity is threatened and that Russia was interfering with it by supporting Abkhazia’s independence assertion.

Music:
Not exactly sure yet.


2. List the overall argument and purpose of the image/film/song/text? (one sentence)


Film: Shot Through the Heart,
I picked this film simply because it is about an ethnic conflict. The main story is about two friends that are on opposite sides of the conflict. Although, the Abkhaz conflict was not nearly the scale or seriousness of the Bosnian one, it still is an ethnic conflict at its heart. The film kind of shows some of the horrible things that occur in ethnic conflict.

Image: The Peace Palace, I chose the peace palace as the image because it is where the International Court of Justice. At this point the Court is where the conflict is being fought. So far, I would assert that it has not resolved this conflict, however it will be interesting as to what its judgment turns out to be. It could have important implications for Georgia, Abkhazia and how Racial Discrimination is interpreted.

Book: Beyond Westphalia?: National Sovereignty and International Intervention, One of the largest issues in this conflict is regarding territorial integrity. The Georgian government is obviously concerned about its terrirorial integrity. In other words it does not want to be smaller. Arguably, this seems to be a concern for the regular Georgian citizenry as they are currently protesting and calling for the resignation of their president because his actions seems to have resulted in Abkhazia and South Ossetia being successful in gaining their independence.


3. Describe the specific audience for the presentation. (Age, gender, education, etc.)

The specific audience would be college students at Eckerd because that is what the presentation seems to be intended for. More specifically probably those that study political science or IR, because this is a matter that is fairly field specific.

The Simpsons

The Simpsons Critique.
The Simpsons may be seemingly about humor or simply is a parity of a middle-class American family. However, when you look between the lines it may become apparent that The Simpsons is lampooning some much more deeper issues. The prominent ones appear to be capitalism enslaving the middle class, consumer culture and men’s supposed disrespect for their wives and women. More examples lie with the characters Bart and Lisa. Bart is supposedly the embodiment of the failures of the American school system, and Lisa is meant to be the embodiment of reason. What is important to note about this is that although her statements are normally voiced as reason, they are more often than not simply ignored. Normally, a television show doing this would not have a chance getting airtime, however, The Simpsons were aired by the relatively new network, Fox, whom was willing to take the risk. The result was a television program that gained enormous popularity in an environment where this should not have happened.
Response
Some points I can see, however, others I believe are stretching logic. For example, it is clear that the Simpsons is in many ways meant to ridicule the American life, arguably the mundane aspects of it. For example, the fact that Homer must got to his job that he hates everyday. The author argues, however, that the story shows some cases where Homer leaves his job, but always has to return to it for some reason. One example is that he left work for a bowling alley, but then has to return to the power plant because of a new baby. I fail to see how this is demonstrative of capitalism’s control over our life. All in all, Homer leaving a dream job to return to a better paying miserable job can also be demonstrative of bad luck as well. The bottom line is that there is probably a lot of truth to the statements, but I seriously doubt that The Simpsons creators had anything so deep in mind when writing the cartoon.
Reflection
It seems that cartoons are a popular medium for critique of society in some way. Simpsons, as it was demonstrated definitely directs satire towards certain aspects of a middle class family. But there are other shows out there as well. We are all familiar with South Park, which seems to ridicule really anything. For example, there was certainly an episode meant to demonstrate the writer’s opinion of the new Indiana Jones movie because in this episode one of the characters has dreams about George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg raping the character Indiana Jones. Also, the show seems to point at the masses (meaning general population) having a tendency to be jumpy and terrified. There was an episode about Family Guy planning on showing an animation of Mohammed. In the episode, the Muslim world sent threats and such to America and the public decided to bury their heads in the dirt so they did not see it, thereby doing what the terrorists wanted.

Questions
1.) How is the nuclear power plant meant to represent capitalism especially consumerism? It is not explained well, there should be more evidence of this rather than the author’s speculation.
2.) Bart may explain the failure of the school system, but how is Lisa explained as she went to the same school as Bart?

6 Word Memoir

This is my six-word memoir.

http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/story.php?did=60092

-Nick

Free Rice (Xtra Credit)

Notice of donation of 1000 grains of rice. 12:58 PM 4/11/2009
Many strange words..... much use of dictionary required.

Themes from "The Bell Jar"

1.) By being in an institution it may show you as being "defective", however, perhaps madness is a good thing.
"A Mad Desire to Dance," by Elie Wiesel or really any of his novels where he does try to bring appreciation upon the madmen that are in his stories.


2.) Maybe the institutions themselves are not places where awful things happen and perhaps the staff at these places may genuinely wish to help.



3.) Perhaps the things that you build up in your mind that are supposed to be big special moments, are actually just part of the everyday drudge of things.

Mad World, Gary Jules

The Approach and The Ordeal

Summary
This section of Vogler dealt with The Approach and The Ordeal parts of the Hero’s Journey. The Approach is the preparations a hero undertakes before entering the deepest darkest lair of his journey. This is the point of the journey where he stocks up on resources and resolve and prepares to enter The Cave (which is representative of the deepest darkest part of the Journey). The Cave is kind of a special world within the special world, with its own rules and environment to it, usually one that is quite foreboding. Within this cave is where the next part of the story, The Ordeal occurs. The Ordeal is very important part of the story and certainly needs to be the climax of at least the second act. The heart of The Ordeal is the hero’s death (or seeming death) and his rebirth. It is also where he faces the Shadow, but it is important to note that he does not always destroy the shadow here; it is just as likely to escape so that there may be a final showdown later. Theatrically, this is meant to build the tension and allow the audience to feel some sort of emotion for the hero, especially sadness when he is seemingly dead, but this turns quickly to happiness or hope when he suddenly springs back to life.
Reaction
As usual, Vogler describes the importance of the audience’s human emotions during these stages, in particular the Ordeal. The reference how humans pay good money to experience a taste of death is spot on. The experience of tasting death does make you feel more alive and therefore makes sense that it should belong in a good story. A good story does indeed have moments that make you feel emotions; this is proof that the story has succeeded in drawing you into it. Moreover, a story needs to contain tension. If everything is just easy, predictable and you draw no connection to it you will be bored. Therefore successfully delivering tension in a story is another key aspect of making it successful.
Reflection
This is an easy one to draw connections with. I do not believe The Ordeal is lacking from any story that I can think of. Even The Metamorphosis is riddled with Ordeals. For example, when Gregor first leaves the room and his father tries to harm him and Gregor ends up harming himself in the struggle to get back into his room (though on a note I would say the emotional aspect is missing here, for some reason Kafka always creates characters that you do not really feel sorry for). Sometimes it seems that a story can end with the ordeal. For example, in A Good Man is Hard to Find, there is a slight build up to he meeting with the misfit, which does end with the families actual death and that is also where the story ends.

Questions
1.) Is it possible for a story to not have an ordeal? Can you think of any?
2.) Can an ordeal suddenly appear without the buildup that Vogler describes?

Annotation 6

Crossing the Threshold and Tests, Allies, Enemies

Summary
Crossing the threshold is the ultimate crossing into the special world. The threshold symbolizes the point of no return, kind of like the moment when you are on a rollercoaster and it begins to move. Typically, the hero requires some sort of shove to cross the threshold, for example a person that is very close to him may be murdered, captured or hurt in some way. Just before crossing the threshold there is often a threshold guardian the hero must deal with. Once the hero has crossed the threshold, we are finally immersed and introduced to the special world. In the beginning, the parameters of the special world need to be established quickly and this is the use of the “Tests, Allies, Enemies” section of a story. The tests work to establish the rules of the world and hone the hero’s skills towards being in the special world. Also, in the beginning, the hero will meet some allies that will aid him/her in the special world and will surely encounter their enemies as well.

Reaction
Because every story does indeed need the “special world”, “crossing the threshold” I would argue is a necessity in every story. In the “Tests, Allies, Enemies” section Vogler brings up the bar or saloon. This is another recurring theme throughout his books, is that a bar seems to be a very useful dramatic element and his arguments for this make sense. They can be representative of the “watering hole” where creatures naturally congregate; therefore they are an excellent location to learn the parameters and circumstances of the special world.

Reflection
I can think of no story where “Crossing the Threshold” does not exist. Even in my own “making sense” piece used an exact type of threshold that Vogler describes in the book, “Do I go on living my life as I always have, or will I risk everything in the effort to grow and change?”. Although my wording in my story was not this exactly, the situation was exactly the same. Even in “The Metamorphisis,” this is evident. The crossing happens in the beginning of the story, when Gregor realizes that he is no longer the same form as he once was and chooses to accept it and make do with his new situation.

Annotation 5

Summary
After the Normal World and the Call to Adventure we come to two more related points in the hero’s journey, those being The Refusal of the Call and the Meeting with the Mentor. The Refusal is meant to set a point in the journey that sets up the dangers involved with continuing on the journey. There are several types of refusals, for example the hero can give weak excuses, avoid, be willing, refuses persistently or there can be conflicting calls to adventure. Immediately after the refusal, sometimes during it, is the point in the journey when the hero will meet with the mentor. Probably the most important occurrence here is that the mentor usually gives the hero some sort of gift that will help the hero on their journey.
Reaction
There was one category that Vogler mentioned which is the persistent refusal of the call and how this always has to end in tragedy. This makes sense and it seems that it could be the entire story in itself. For example, the result if you are always too cowardly to take a risk. Another interesting aspect from this section was the fact the mentor has to always give something useful. Perhaps in dramatic stories this has to always be true, however, I do not think it has to be in every good story. Although, Vogler had made it clear quite a few times that every aspect of the Hero’s Journey does not have to be present.

Reflection
These two parts of the journey are very easy to spot in famous stories. For example in Star Wars, when Obi Wan initially tries to convince Luke he is met with refusal, even after giving him the gift. Only after the murder of his caretakers did he embark on the journey. In the stories that we have read for class these are not so apparent. In “The Metamorphosis” I would say the hero was willing and therefore did not experience the typical Refusal. He awoke in his strange state and decided that he was going to make do with it and continue about his normal day with this strange state that he was now in.

Peer Review

My peer reviewer made sentence level comments that mainly focused on parts that seemed vague. They were helpful and actually very similar to some of the comments that Prof. Kat made.

-Nick

Annotation #4

Summary
Every good story is basically centralized on some hero’s journey. This journey needs to have a point and needs to be well defined, which is what the beginning of the story attempts to do. There are various ways to begin a story and no way is perfect for every story. For example, some stories may begin with a prologue that depicts the event that will ultimately propel the hero onto their adventure. Some stories may instead begin in a more linear fashion, beginning in the ordinary world. This is an extremely important part of a story. It is where the stage is set. The ordinary world is established and the heroes role within it. This is also the point where the hero is introduced and we get to find out what their weaknesses, strengths and other attributes are. This is also the point in the story where we see the call for adventure that kicks off the rest of the journey. It is important that the normal world contrasts with the special world, it makes it far more interesting and works to enhance the dramatic effect of the story.

Response.
This is a recurring theme to all my responses, but I cannot help but believe it must be one of the most important aspects of Vogler’s book. That is he makes many references to the audience being able to relate, identify or even emphasize with everything going on. A large role of the normal world (or beginning of the story) is to establish the human reasons are hero is the way that they are and why they must undertake this journey. Everything is targeted to being relatable on a human level.

Reflection
It is kind of interesting how I can take what Vogler is discussing here and apply it even to my own life. For the paper that we had to write, this is obviously something that I had to do. In my case for example, I think often of my ordinary world, which is Vermont. Back there, everything is seemingly normal for me and I know that things would be simpler. Instead however, I am here in a special world. In school, away from my friends and family and certainly facing down a challenge. So it is becoming more and more clear how broadly Vogler’s discussion can be applied.

Questions
1.) How far can a story deviate from the linear journey model that Vogler is setting up?
2.) How can this be applied to non-fiction writing, where perhaps many of these elements being describe simply are not there?

Annotation 3

Summary.
While the Hero and the Mentor are arguably the most important or central archetypes, a good story cannot contain just those two. Most good stories will contain a variety of archetypes and they typically fall into these categories, Threshold Guardian, Herald, Shapeshifter, Shadow, Ally and Trickster. All of these archetypes hold certain roles for the dramatic element of the story, but are also meant to represent some human psychological element as well. For example, the shadow who dramatically is typically the villain or enemy of a story may be meant to psychologically represent a repressed pain or weakness of the hero. Lastly, as is true with the Hero and Mentor, these archetypes are often simply masks, that the same character may where during their journey.
Reaction
There is not too much of a new reaction to this when compared to the overview of archetypes. They do make sense, especially these ones that Vogler points out. A consistent point that he falls back on, that I feel is very important is comparing the archetypes and various parts of a story with our human element and ourselves. I am going to guess at this point, simply because of the repetitiveness of this point that it may be one of the more important aspects of story writing. The story and its characters must be “human” in nature.
Reflection.
As we read the book, he points our very good examples that clearly follow the points he is making, however, when we look at class readings this is not so. For example, in Indian Camp, these various archetypes are not so easy to spot. Certainly some of them are there, such as Hero and Mentor, however The Shadow and Shapeshifter on the other hand do not seem to be present. They probably are, but obviously only visible to the trained eye.
Questions
1.) Can a story have multiple examples of all archetypes?
2.) I really wished the Volgler would connect these archetypes with non-fiction or more analytical pieces.

Heroes and Mentors

Summary.
In every story there exists various archetypes. Although, there are about many archetypes as there are human roles, some are far more important than others. The most notorious of these archetypes is the hero himself. The hero is of the utmost importance to the story; in fact may be a microcosm of the whole story. He is the one that has to be shown as normal or human, and then go through an ordeal, face death in the face, be redeemed and then finally return home a more “complete” person. Paralleling the hero is the mentor. This archetype is broad and simply represents someone or something that influences, empowers and ultimately pushes the hero to undertake his or her journey. Like the hero, the mentor can be tragic, dark, unwilling or willing and is often an “ex” or fallen hero.
Reaction
Vogler makes some very important points here. I believe the most useful ones were made in the introduction of “the hero”. Notably, the fact the hero must be flawed in someway, or must be clearly shown to be a human. It is very true that is may be difficult to follow a hero’s story if he is omnipotent. But if you are able to see the humanness of the hero, you may be able to emphasize with them and be truly able to put yourself into his or her shoes.
Reflection
What Vogler describes here can be easily observed. For example, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” I would argue that the “hero” may be the grandma. When the story opens we see that she is very human, she wishes to go back to her home and to relive all of these various memories. Perhaps her son is meant to be the “mentor”. He clearly is thinking that it is best to stay home and when the back road appears he was the one that warned it was best not to go down their.

Questions
1.) I noticed that there is no “villain” archetype. I must wonder if the villain is meant to be the hero’s parallel, or perhaps the “anti-mentor”?
2.) Is their any story that can get away without a hero or a mentor?
3.) Is it safe to assume that a hero does not always have to be a person, but can be a group or organization or some other aggregate?

Childhood Hero

Sorry, I completely forgot about this assignment before we discussed it today. Anyway, my childhood hero is Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was always timid when I was younger. Also, and not to toot my horn, I was polite and listened to rules. I liked Charlie because I did see a lot of me in him. I always kind of noticed other people's behaviors and knew that is not how I wanted to be.
Another aspect of his story that I really enjoy is that because of his polite and respectful behavior, he wins the ultimate prize. The one person in that group that really deserved it!

Next "hero" of mine, would probably be considered an anti-hero. Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. I never fully understood why I enjoyed him so much, but I beleive it was mainly due to the fact that he was in many ways my opposite. Like I talked about above, I was always very timid and respectful as a child. Nobody ever had to worry about me breaking rules or running amok. For Calvin on the other hand this is not true. He is almost maniacal. Very hyper, rarely listens to rules and gets into tons of trouble. I suppose there must have been a part of me deep down that wanted to be a rascal.

The last hero is kind of laughable, but if you grew up in my family you would understand. He would be none other than Bernie Sanders, one of Vermont's senators (but back then a congressman). My dad is a political fanatic which probably explains my fascination with it. Anyway, Bernie is very synonomous with Vermont. For those of you that are familiar with it, Vermont is a very unique place with a very unique political attitude. Fiercly set in our ways and not afraid to get loud about it. Bernie Sanders is very attuned to Vermonters needs and has been a staunch defender of it. On top of that, he is very loud on Capital Hill. My dad used to talk about him often and we even went to forums where he was speaking. I suppose you could say he is a hero my dad passed down to me.

Journal 1

A PRACTICAL GUIDE
Summary
Every good story throughout human history; namely those from Mythology up to Hollywood in the present day, is in its basest form “A Hero’s Journey”. This journey is almost always made up of 12 “parts” that symbolize some sort of conflict or obstacle the Hero must overcome. Essentially a good story will always begin with the “Hero” in their “home” setting to establish their “person” and their origins. There will have to be conflict of course which will require that the hero needs to leave this comfortable world and go to the “special world” where they will be “tested”. In this “special world” they are “reborn” and emerge a different and typically better person. Once they have succeeded with their conflict and gained the prize they were seeking, they must then return to the home that entails another test of sort before they are allowed home.
Reaction
When I really think about this there is really little I can think of in disagreement. It does make sense. A story would be incredible boring if it didn’t have a conflict. The author was keen to point out the death being exciting. You really are not more alive then when facing death and if that can be felt in a story than undoubtedly it is a successful one. I am not yet sure how good story telling is going to be tied into analysis and persuasion. I also noticed the author talks about himself a lot.
Reflection.
Again, the author is obviously keenly aware of what makes a good story. His citing movies certainly help a writing layman such as my self draw easy connections with the points that he is making.
Questions
1.) I do not yet understand how “a good story” will be useful in persuasion and analysis.
2.) Although the author did say that they do not have to follow the order they have to follow, or that all 12 points do not have to be used, it would be nice to know exactly what points have to be there.

Blog Opened, Writing Class Begins!!!