Rhetorical Texts:
1a.) Meme
2a.) Poem
“Human Cycle?”
How many people,
Died,
Instead of survive?
Alive,
In a world pinning a skin color to their lives,
Died,
To malicious white pride,
Alive,
And loyal to those who protect,
Died,
to the same line in which society directs
Alive,
Until the officials say “SHOOT”
Died,
To the unestablished wearing blue
Alive,
Into the world of pain
Died,
As a young kid in the corner store with a dollar in change,
Alive,
Trying to reattain, what should have been gained
Died,
And failed until that very one prevails
Alive,
Into the world of life shattering blue brutality
Died,
Alive,
Dead.
Rhetorical Analyses:
1b.) Meme Analysis:
The argument for the meme is that parents like to diminish their own children for their comprehension level of the native language, instead of taking the time to instruct their child or educate them at least in the basics of their native language. The ability to speak Spanish might seem easygoing to someone is deemed Spanish or Hispanic but, learning a whole language and its rules can be hard even for the children surrounded by their native tongues, but get pushed into a society where that native tongue is not completely accepted/ or respected.
The intended audience for this meme is anyone who is a child in a Spanish household or a household where a parent speaks their native language/tongue, and this child does not. This intended audience should resonate or relate with the meme because of experiences, and the relatability of the experience described in the meme. The purpose of using a meme is to get the intended audience more comfortable to share out their tough yet sort or funny experiences that they have faced in a household with a parent who contradicts their actions.
I chose to do a meme because for the same assignment I picked to do a poem and I just wanted to switch out to a meme because memes defiantly ignite the emotions of the reader. I also wanted to do a meme because I have never created a meme in my entire life, so creating one now shows that I am more confident with sharing out a part of my life which hopefully can be relayed in the meme for my intended audience.
Pathos is the main rhetorical appeal present in the meme, and that is because there is no factual data within this meme so it cannot have logos, as well as there is not any credible source cited or anything to gain an understanding from, meaning no ethos. The pathos that is used in this meme is through an emotional example/vivid description. The description of this moment between a parent and their child is something that the reader will keep intact in their minds. The meme conveys that there might be a lot of emotional trauma or events that happen within your life, and when you feel alone remember that there is always someone who might be alike in the same emotions or experiences so you are not alone.
Another example of Pathos being expressed through this meme is through Humor. The meme image shows a balled-up fist from a children’s show called “Arthur” showing the specific emotion of anger or just annoyed at another character. The show “Arthur” is a very popular show that most of the readers will most likely understand the emotions and feelings behind the actions of the characters fist being balled up and how it connects to the emotions the readers feel after reading the caption of the language experience.
My final example of Pathos is also being expressed through Anger. The meme shows the character “Arthur” balling his fist up highlighting that his current emotion is anger. And with the caption of the meme it also is supposed to have the reader relate back to the characters feelings during that moment in the show. This is all done through relatability. My choice of a caption was to have a reader connect emotionally, sort of feeling of anger from their lives with just looking and rewarding the meme.
2b.) Poem Analysis:
The purpose of my poem “Human Cycle?” is to discuss the argument of police brutality. The topic argument has extreme relevance in today’s American society because every year we lose innocent people of color to the product of poorly trained law enforcement across the country. Police Brutality has a lot of history to it that some people may tend to forget about, so educating and re-introducing the topic is always promoting change for this world and more specifically America to grow in equality as a country. I want this poem to empower and educate the realities of the world that we live in, and for people who are not facing the adversities as others to make chance in at the least themselves so at least the people around themselves can grow up comfortable in their own skin.
My intended audience is anyone willing to make a change, people who advocate against police brutality, and people of color. This being my intended audience should connect the word choices I have incorporated in this poem like “survive,” “Pinning,” and “society”. This exemplifies the reason for fighting, the reason for change and most importantly the reason for living. My poem relies heavily on emotion to push my narrative and purpose into my audience.
The choice of writing this analyzing rhetorical piece as a poem was easy because poetry holds a lot of emotions and power that pushes people to fight more for the things that they want altered in their everyday lives. And with the topic chosen I felt that maybe this was the most connecting writing style that would get my message across to my intended audience.
The poem contains Pathos through the style of language used in the poem. For example, the repetition of the words “died” and “alive” highlights the bigger picture within the poem of police brutality and how in this cruel world that we live in you sometimes feel as though you one day might be a target of police brutality and it cost your life. “Alive” and “Died” are both two words that carry an emotional connection towards the readers, therefore repeating the two words over and over is supposed to cause the readers to build up their own emotional connection toward the poem. Repetition is a great technique that writers use to drill the the importance of their topic into the readers.
Ethos is present in this poem because of the current ideas that anyone can think of when they think about police brutality and the police as a whole and how they don’t represent people of color at all. When the reader continues with my poem they are meant to think of the people who have lost their lives to police brutality like Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and hundreds of others. Along with thinking of other they are challenger to think about America as a whole, and what they haven’t been doing to prevent police brutality. This is part of the reason why the word “SHOOT!” In the poem is capitalized; it is because when you put emphasis on a word which triggers my intended audience it immediately brings the brain to reflect, as well as feel a tiny piece of what the people who have faced police brutality have faced.
