Music Video Rhetorical Response

Rhetorical Response

The music video by Kanye West uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to argue its case that Kanye West is a champion.  The most prevalent one that I noticed was the use of analogy.  The video has depicted Kayne West as an Olympic champion to clearly illustrate and draw the connection to his success in the music industry. This analogy was used to simplify the image of Kanye West as a champion. From a directorial point-of-view it makes sense to employ this analogy because it is much easier to visually depict a champion sprinter than it is a successful music artist.  With the sprinter there only needs to be the depiction of the sprinter winning the race to get the point across.  This whole rhetorical strategy is applied to all of the rhetorical appeals.  The analogy applies to Pathos because of the rise and build of the story that causes an emotional response in the audience.  The analogy applies to Logos because the audience must logically make the connection between Kanye West's success in the Olympics and the music industry. The analogy applies to Ethos because Kanye West is a highly successful rapper and carries alot of respect with him in the musical industry. 

Music Video Observation/Reflection

Observation 

The music video that I chose to post is by Kanye West and the song is titled, "Champion".  The whole premise of the video is that Kanye West is a champion and the video uses some interesting methods to prove this point and create the hybrid text.  The first and undoubtedly most obvious construction of the video was its use of audio-visual interactions.  These interactions seem ordinary in the first 30 seconds of the video because the audience sees a man and hears the same man but when the Kanye West character is introduced the audience sees a puppet and hears Kanye West.  The puppet is an interesting prop used the video and I believed that is was employed to its full potential in the video.  It is personified to look like Mr. West and it is the main contributor of comedy to the video.  The puppet greatly adds to the satire of the Olympics and the idea of being a champion.  The lighting is great in the video.  When the puppet makes the tunnel walk it is dark and then he walks out into the blinding light and cheering crowds.  When there is a moment of strife or perseverance the light is low and ominous. The moments of success are illuminated brightly giving the moment a sense of accomplishment.  The dialogue in the beginning helps set up the story but when the actual song starts the lyrics no longer specifically pertain to the story of the video.  I like this pattern because  there are moment in the song where the lyrics and the video seem to match up and then there are moment that seem to give a prequel of the story.  For example there is a point in the song where Kanye West is talking about growing up in a poor family but his family isn't visually represented in the video but this fact only adds to the glorious victory at the end.

Reflection

The video "Champion" really is a great story.  It's about a man who grew up with a simple life but then made it big and now that he has the time and money he wants to go after his true dream of becoming an international champion sprinter.  That exact dream probably won't pertain to anyone but I think the concept of shooting for the stars and chasing down your dreams can apply to anyone and everyone.  I know that I have some pretty ambitious goals for myself but I'm going to try my best to achieve those goals.  I would love to live in a big house surrounded by 50+ acres of land outside of Lincoln but unfortunately I just don't have that kind of money so I'm going to have to set new goals to get to the big goal.  One of those goals is getting into medical school.  So I guess my point is that this video is really about achieving your goals and you don't need to be a world-class sprinter to do that

Jeremy B

Writing Project #2 Final Draft

It is estimated that an area of forest the size of twenty football fields is lost to deforestation every minute. (Deforestation) Since the dawn of humanity, We (humans) have used our world and its resources with complete disregard of our actions. The above piece is a illustration by Ken Sprague.  It is entitled "Weeping Leaf" and it illustrates a black mark on the history of man.  Weeping Leaf is a call for change as it points out the arrogant actions of humanity through the destruction of the very place we live... Earth.

Ken Sprague was born in 1927 and lived until 2004.  He was socialist political cartoonist and a journalist.  Sprague was also an activist in trade unions, civil rights, and peace movements. He always tried to empower the common people through his art by making a

 call for change. An ethical appeal can be found in all of his works. "In essence the leitmotif of his work is about power and the abuse of power as well as the resilience of ordinary people to that abuse.  He depicted the world as changeable and imbued his work with unfashionable optimism;  it was a world where ethics and values had relevance." (Green) Sprague commonly illustrated the abuse of power on the people but Weeping Leaf shows the abuse of power by the people.  

 

The focal point of the piece is appropriately the weeping leaf.  An objective viewer can see that there is something different between the leaf and its surroundings; this brings me to the first rhetorical strategy of the illustration.  Comparison-Contrasts is obviously employed within the illustration.  The artists is comparing the differences between the man and the leaf by drawing them in contrasting styles.  To understand these contrasting styles the man and leaf must first be fully analyzed.

 

The man is simple and plain.  He is wearing a flannel jacket and cap.  The 

man could be described as a lumberjack or woodsmen.  The man has an axe in his possession which he has used to fell a "tree".  He carries little emotion on his face but there is the sense of a slight smile of accomplishment as the man looks up at the falling tree.  Artistically, the man has been drawn with little detail and looks like any other figure found in the comedic strips of the funny pages.  The man is also very small in scale to the tree.   

The "tree" or leaf is a near artistic opposite of the man.  The leaf is rich in details and displays vivid use of shading and texture.  The leaf has been anthropomorphized with a mouth, nose, and eye.  The eye sheds a single tear. The leaf is very large in scale to the man, so much so that the man sees the leaf as a tree.  

There are a variety of argumentative points that arise from the comparison-contrast in the illustration. The main argument that the drawing is addressing is that man is arrogantly wasting the Earth and its resources which in turn will cause detrimental effects.  The use of detail is a great starting platform.  As the focal point, the leaf is drawn with great detail to show  that there is something inherently natural and beautiful about it.  This is an appeal to a viewers pathos.  There is a nostalgic calling to nature through the detail of the leaf.  The leaf also causes an emotional response by showing emotion while the man causes no em

otion.  The anthropomorphized leaf shows sadness in its tears, anguish in its mouth and shock in its eyes.  "Pathos" itself means "suffering" or "feeling" in Greek and the leaf, unlike the man, is obviously demonstrating Pathos. 

 

The comparison of scale is crucial to the artist's argument.  The man sees the leaf as a tree because it is so large or is the man very small?  This paradox reveals a few more points to the main argument.  The man is small in comparison to the leaf because man as a species has acted pretentiously by overbearing on nature with little forethought of our actions.  Man only sees the value of the timber and resources of the tree and not the value of the tree itself.  Nature has a priceless value and gives the world life. The man is drawn small because he can't grasp the repercussions of his actions.  The leaf is meant to be a leaf that is why it is drawn as a leaf and that is why the piece is titled, "Weeping Leaf".  This is important to clarify because the simple fact that it is a leaf is very important.  By drawing a leaf and not a tree the artist is making a statement about the value of nature.  If this one single leaf has to suffer that much, what would the man do to the Earth if he cut down a whole tree?  With respect to the scaling of the illustration, a whole tree to the man could include entire ecosystems or more.  This comparison of scale and size is a hybrid rhetorical appeal of pathos/logos.  The audience must first logically realize the  gravity of the illustration before they can have that deeper emotional drop that is caused by realizing that it is not only the leaf that will suffer but also ourselves.

 

Cause and effect is implemented within the artist's illustration to strengthen his argument.  The man chops at the leaf with an axe causing it to fall.  The effect of the chopping is the emotional response of the leaf which is symbolic to the downward spiral of the environment.  This is undoubtedly a logos driven rhetorical appeal that is calling the audience to use its logic and realize the tragedies of man's acts against the Earth. 

 

The absence of color within the piece is an interesting rhetorical strategy.  By leaving color out, the artist is allowing the audience a more direct view of his argument.  The audience does not dwell on the picture itself but on the picture's meaning.  This

 makes the picture more accessible to  deeper thought and all of the rhetorical appeals especially ethos.  Ethos can also be found in the modern cultural contexts of the piece as environmental issues such as climate change are on the rise.

  

"Weeping Leaf" is an eye-opening piece of work.  It is a call to arms against the abuse of the environment.  Sprague believed in a world that is changeable.  Weeping Leaf is a testament to that belief and through the various strategies and appeals Sprague has made his

 argument.

Work Cited

"Deforestation." Botany: UWC. 1 Feb, 2001. 19 Nov, 2008.

http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/envFacts/facts/deforestation.html

Green, John. "The Guardian." Ken Sprague Fund. 2004. 20 Nov, 2008.

 http://www.kenspraguefund.org/about_guardian.html 

"Ken Sprague." Wikipedia. 21 Nov, 2008. 21 Nov, 2008.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Sprague

Art Work Rhetorical Analysis

The Artwork piece that I chose is called "Weeping Leaf".  The creator/artsist of "Weeping Leaf" is a man named Ken Sprague(1927-2004).  He was a socialist political cartoonist, journalist, and activist.  Sprague was involved with trade unions, civil rights, and peace movements.  He was known as a cartoonist for the people and was very interested on how ordinary people effect politics and vice-versa.      

The cartoon, "Weeping Leaf" has an environmental theme.  It deals with the age old domination of man over nature.  The cartoon more directly deals with the issue of logging.  This is a tradition in its own right and there are deep roots of logging in American and European history.  The cartoon is political and environmental because the two have become intertwined as man has realized the wealth in nature and used it.  Now it seems that man has realized the necessity for nature and it is becoming clearer everyday that we(man) are dependent on nature to survive.  So this cartoon can take the environmental theme and pin-point down to the issue of logging but can also explode into a political statement about the incoherent value of nature or Global Warming or human ignorance.

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