Rhetorical Analysis – Forgotten Man

Maynard Dixon’s painting, Forgotten Man (1934), is a social protest piece showing the feelings of working class people during the depression. His argument is that the leaders of the country did not do enough to help and protect the common people of America.

Forgotten Man link

WATCO: Ignoring the common man during the depression on the future of the American economy?

Claim: Ignoring the common man during the depression hurts the future of the American economy because failing to help people who are struggling takes away their hope of ever being successful.

Implicit Assumption: Whatever takes away people’s hope of ever being successful also hurts the future of the American economy.

Audience: The leaders of the country who, in Dixon’s opinion, were not doing enough to help the many people who struggled economically during the depression.

This painting uses persuasion on several different levels. The artist depicts a man who is rejected by society without society even really knowing or caring about it. The Great Depression was a time when people looked out for themselves because the economy was not strong enough for them to support anybody else. The man in the picture is discouraged and sitting on the curb while everyone else walks by without even noticing he is there. This image builds credibility with the audience and is effective in building emotional attachment to the piece. The man’s down-trodden countenance and posture are an accurate depiction of the despair many people felt during that period, and Dixon’s views are not dissimilar from the feelings of many others at that time.

I feel that this painting is an effective argument on behalf of the working class of America. It reminds people of how difficult times were in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and how success can be such a fragile thing. The painting is sad and thought-provoking, yet beautiful to look at and emotionally moving. Nobody wants to go back to that, and hopefully our leaders will do things that will prevent that from happening again.

Free Writing – Pieces of April

My wife and I just finished watching Pieces of April, a movie made in 2003 starring Katie Holmes (before she married Tom Cruise and could actually be in movies). The show is about a girl named April (Holmes) who leads a rebellious life and has been estranged from her family for many years. He mother is terminally ill, however, and she invites her family to New York City – a five hour drive from their suburban home – to join her for Thanksgiving dinner and try to salvage any kind of relationship that had been damaged in the past.

Most of the movie chronicles two storylines. One is April’s adventure in attempting to make a Thanksgiving dinner that won’t completely disappoint her family. This is entertaining because she doesn’t really cook. Due to a broken oven, she is also forced to go door to door in her apartment complex asking if she can borrow people’s ovens to cook her Turkey. Along the way she makes plenty of new friends and even learns to cook a bit. The other plotline focuses on her family and their trip to New York. None of them really want to visit April because of all her past misgivings, but a feeling of obligation drives them to visit, especially if it’s the last time she’s able to see her mother. Their trip is full of surprises, which is representative of the entire show. April and her family are only together at the end of the show for a minute or two, but their separate journeys to get to that point are worth watching, and the resolution is satisfying.

This film was both quirky and sad at times, and it effectively conveyed the feelings of a family trying to find the desire to be together despite life’s mistakes and tribulations. Every family deals with difficult times, but small and deliberate expressions of love go a long way to healing any past wounds. Pieces of April is a short film (only 75 minutes), but it is also though-provoking and well worth an hour of anyone’s time.

Pieces of April trailer

Free Writing – Sports & Undergraduate Education

Sports have been something that I’ve loved since I was very young. I played soccer and baseball all through my youth and into high school, while also collecting thousands of baseball, basketball, football, soccer, and even hockey cards along the way. There was a time when I could literally tell you the main statistics of just about every player that was currently playing professional sports. Thus was my interest in the sporting world. Now that I’m in college and looking to make a career out of sports reporting I find myself reflecting beyond the playing field into the deeper aspects of the sports I’ve enjoyed since I was a child. One thing that is particularly interesting to me is the high level of influence that sports figures wield in our society. Even, and maybe especially, on college campuses, the balance of power does not lay where one would normally suspect. It is not so gradually becoming a stark reality at many major universities that the person with the most influence is not the college’s president, but rather the head football coach. The coaches are paid much more than any administrator on campus (including the president) and the marketing and financial implications of the football program are too large for anyone to ignore. Many colleges bend over backwards to do anything that will help them compete athletically with their rival schools, while the focus on academics is being left somewhere in the background. You just don’t see any million-dollar teachers out there, even though they have a much larger influence on a much broader group of people than any football coach ever will. It will be interesting to see how the education aspect of college fairs in the future in its competition with athletics.

Technique Analysis – Practicing Introductions

Introduction #1

I never thought it would take me close to a decade to graduate from college, though I guess my life is filled with lots of things I hadn’t thought about before. I knew I wanted to go to BYU since I can remember, but now that I’m here my main goal has gradually turned into developing an effective way to get out of here. It seems that many people know exactly what they want to do with their lives from a young age, and college is just a quick stop for them as they proceed with the rest of their lives. Me, I just knew that I wanted to go to BYU. And as much as I love it here, that particular dream has extended its welcome a bit too long. Is it better to map out your life while you’re still a young teenager, or should you let experience and time decide what route you should take?


Introduction #2

My Grandpa Bagley is the smartest person I know. He knows just about everything there is to know about apples. And about chemistry. And about Africa. And about chickens (which absolutely terrify me, so I won’t talk much about them). One thing I’ve come to learn over my 25 years of life is that there isn’t much that my grandpa doesn’t know about. He worked as a physicist for the government, makes the best apple cider in the world, taught chemistry at the University of San Francisco, and served as a mission president in Zimbabwe. Regrettably, he has also had chickens for as long as I can remember. He is kind, gentle and charitable, and he would claim that he is no different from anybody else in the world, but I know better.

Rhetorical Analysis – “Rule of Law” in Cambodia

In his essay, “Striking a Blow for Democracy in Asia,” Jeffrey S. Brand argues that Congress’ action of suspending much of its $35 million aid package to Cambodia will do nothing but strengthen Prime Minister Hun Sen’s position of power.

WATCO – Congress suspending its $35 million aid package to Cambodia on the promotion of democracy in the country?

Claim – Congress’ suspension of its $35 million aid package to Cambodia weakens the promotion of democracy in the country because eliminating funding for the “Rule of law” program keeps Cambodian people from learning how to support democratic institutions.

The most obvious audience is whoever reads the article, but Brand clearly wants the decision reversed, so someone in Congress or with the ability to influence Congress would be his main audience.

Brand uses persuasion in his article on a few different levels. He appears to be credible because he teaches law at the University of San Francisco (USF) and is also the director of the university’s Cambodia Law and Democracy Program. He uses an almost patriotic sense of emotion when describing the plight of Cambodians to learn how to support the functions of a democracy. This appeals to most (if not all) Americans who are grateful for their freedoms and liberties. He also outlines a brief history of the “Rule of law” program in Cambodia, along with the country’s political problems over the years, which adds a logical flow to his argument.

Another way that Brand’s argument is persuasive is that he uses a sufficient amount of facts and history to paint a picture of how government funding would promote democracy in Cambodia. His argument also seems typical of what someone opposing the suspension of financial aid would say, and his facts and historical background are accurately and concisely stated. Finally, his article is relevant to Congress because when he wrote that article the situation in Cambodia was obviously unsettled and somewhat up for debate.

I feel that Brand’s argument is persuasive enough to merit some extra thought and consideration about the benefits of withholding aid from Cambodia. He is obviously passionate about the issue and effectively uses facts and reasoning to express his stance. The only problem I have is that his position at USF may lead to a strong bias on behalf of the Cambodian people and the programs that are meant to help them. Those strong ties may make it difficult for him to think and reason objectively, which would in turn significantly weaken his argument.

Free Writing – The Elephant Man Review

I watched an interesting movie the other day called The Elephant Man, which was made in 1980 and stars Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt. The main theme I got out of the movie is that people who take advantage of others do not lead fulfilling lives. John Merrick (Hurt), who was born with severe physical deformities, was exhibited as a freak and shown at the circus as entertainment for people with morbid curiosity and low morals. The story leads us to believe that this is how he spent his entire life, for he was "owned" by a man named Bytes, who made his living by showing of John's limitations. As his caretaker – if you can even call him that, for he didn't seem to care about John very much at all – Bytes was not happy with his pitiful existence, and was even more miserable at the end of the show after he had kidnapped John from the hospital only to find that John would not go along with his Elephant Man act anymore. The last we know of Bytes is that he was drunk and asleep in his carriage, which very well may have doubled as his home. Another character who took advantage of John was the night porter, who collected money from random drunks, among other people, in return for late-night tours into John's hospital room. In return for treating John like an animal the porter got exactly what he deserved – a swift knock upside the head, which amounted to a painful pink slip.

These two characters were balanced out by Dr. Frederick Treves (Hopkins). Dr. Treves showed kindness to John, and while he openly debated his own motives for entering such a strange friendship, his compassion helped John to feel human and gain a sense of his personal worth. Dr. Treves did not take advantage of John, and his life was blessed with a meaningful relationship and an increase of respect from those around him. During one emotional encounter, Bytes exclaimed to Dr. Treves, "Do you think you're better than me?" I'll take the liberty of answering his rhetorical question with a resounding yes! Dr. Treves was much better than either of the two main antagonists, and the quality of their lives is evidence of this. I would recommend seeing The Elephant Man. I wasn’t always comfortable watching the movie, but that ended up being a good thing because my mixed feelings caused me to really think about how I interact with others.

The Elephant Man trailer

Technique Analysis – Enthymemes

Situation #1 – Affordable housing is always difficult to find around campus, and this problem was not helped by the fact the BYU has decreased the size of the boundaries where students can find university approved housing.

WATCO – Shrinking the approved housing boundaries on the lifestyle of BYU students?

Audience – BYU administrators who are in charge of student housing.

Claim – Shrinking the approved housing boundaries cramps the lifestyle of BYU students because shrinking the approved housing boundaries increases the amount of money students have to pay for rent every month.

Implicit Assumption – Whatever increases the amount of money students have to pay every month also cramps the lifestyle of students.


Situation #2 – It seems that the most powerful person at many large universities is not the university’s president, but rather the head football coach. The head coaches make more money than the university presidents and have a very large influence on campus.

WATCO – Focusing on athletics over academics on the level of education at a university?

Audience – The governing Board of Directors at large universities.

Claim – Focusing on athletics over academics decreases the level of education at a university because prioritizing football and basketball encourages students to study less and party more.

Implicit Assumption – Whatever leads to more parties and less time spent studying decreases the level of education.


Situation #3 – English 312 is a difficult class, and there are probably easier alternatives for students who need to take an advanced writing class to graduate.

WATCO – Taking English 312 on a student’s experience at BYU?

Audience – BYU students who are not majoring in English and are deciding which advanced writing class to take.

Claim – Taking English 312 enhances a student’s experience at BYU because learning how to write for specific audiences pushes students to learn valuable communication skills that will be helpful in many different occupations.

Implicit Assumption – Whatever helps students learn valuable communication skills enhances the student’s experience at BYU.

Rhetorical Analysis – T-Mobile

You probably can’t watch TV for more than ten minutes these days without seeing a cell phone commercial, which may not necessarily be a bad thing because they are some of the most creative commercials in recent memory. Of all the cell phone commercials, however, T-Mobile MyFaves are my very favorite, so I picked one of them to analyze.

T-Mobile Creepy Daddy Commercial

The argument of this advertisement is that getting a T-Mobile phone will help parents regulate their children’s activities and keep them in check. The general audience is anybody who may be inclined to purchase a cell phone, and the specific audience of this commercial is any parent who wants to keep in close contact with his or her children, which, not coincidentally, happens to be a popular reason to get a cell phone in the first place.

The ad uses persuasion on several different levels. It is credible because many people recognize T-Mobile as a legitimate company and may even know people who have phones from T-Mobile. This ad also reaches out to the emotions of a parent who cares for the well-being of his or her child and wants to make sure that he or she is okay. This particular situation uses humor to effectively convey the dramatized feelings of a protective father. The father in the commercial uses his patriarchal influence and exalted spot in his daughter’s phone to intimidate her date before they go out that evening – and you better believe that kid’s going to have her home right on time, if not early! What father wouldn’t want this kind of result? Finally, the logical side of the advertisement is that using a cell phone is an affordable way to stay close to those who are important to you. If sending a text message or even just having a phone will help build relationships, then many people will invest in the amazing technology that is a cellular phone.

I feel that this is an effective advertisement to its target audience. On a personal level I find this ad very funny to watch, but I also happen to know that my dad (who has two teenage daughters and another who will eventually become a teenage daughter) enjoys it thoroughly as well.