(Attempted) Rhetorical Analysis

This is Cory Booker's speech from the DNC.  It is fairly short, but it's not a bad speech by any means.

"Let us not fall prey to the rhetoric that seeks to gut investment and starve our nation of critical common sense building for our future." -- Cory Booker

(Attempted) Rhetorical Analysis:

 

Ethos/Pathos/Logos:

Reading the short description before this video, I had no idea who this guy was.  Some mayor from Newark, NJ; there is no surprise that I hadn't heard of him.  But I suppose that there are some circles where that title or name might mean something.  But when watching the speech, Booker has a way of exuding confidence!  I can't even pin-point it, but something about the way he delivers his speech just makes me want to take his word for it, he is passionate and strongly spoken, and something about that just makes me want to take his side.  As far as pathos goes, I felt like this speech appeals to the Democratic hate of Romney and everything for which he stands.  While striking notes of patriotism and pride about the American way of life.  He also demonstrates a certain amount of sympathy for the middle class Americans.

Topics:

For topics, the first thing that came to mind was Epideictic Rhetoric, but instead of amplifying an individual, Booker is amplifying the Democratic Platform.  Here we can see Aristotle's definition of praise put into action.  Aristotle says, "praise is speech that makes clear the great virtue [of the subject praised]" (80).  Booker points out the high points of the Democratic Platform: leveling taxes, revamping the infrastructure, and supporting education.  He uses these "virtues" to elevate the platform while simultaneously condemning the Republicans'.  These seem like pretty specific topics.  In terms of more general topics, such as happiness, I think these topics are addressed by the collective use of these specific topics.  Happiness will be best achieved when the government is financially responsible which will allow the people to have money and live comfortably, and when everyone has an equal availability of education.

Enthymemes:

"Obama supports small businesses... our troops... education."  While this is only one premise that does not include a spoken conclusion, I assumed for this (suspected) enthymeme, the conclusion is: "vote for Obama."  It is not spoken, I think, because that is the basic conclusion of the entire convention.  With this being said, the unspoken premise is: "if you do not support Obama, you do not support small businesses, the troops, and education."  This is something that will be best if it remains unspoken, because there are, without doubt, republicans who support small business, the troops, and education.  

"This November, with the re-election of President Barack Obama, this generation of Americans will expand upon the hope, dream, the truth, and the promise of America."  This one is a little trickier, but I think that the wording here makes a huge statement.  This states that Obama will be re-elected.  I think what is implied here is "I will vote for Obama because I want to see this generation of Americans expand...."  I think this is interesting because the way the phrasing changes what is implied.  Perhaps this isn't a real enthymeme, but this seems to work backwards from the conclusion to supply a premise, when the initial premise is somewhat hidden in the conclusion. (I may have just made that more complicated by trying to explain it.)

An interesting point on which to write a paper would be about the view that the audience gets from watching on television/online.  This view is highly manipulated and, I suspect, it is much different from the viewing experience of those in the audience.  Instead of being focused solely on the speech, the viewers (as opposed to the audience for our purposes) are given multiple different shots of people in the audience and other people who will be speaking at the convention.  The altered frame through which the majority of voters will watch the speeches could have an important rhetorical effect on the viewers.

Topics

One of the interesting things that I noticed from the piece that I had selected in my previous post was that Clinton applies a considerable amount of topic of praise (Book 1, Chapter 9).  What I thought was interesting about this was that it was a considerable amount of praise, but not so much, albeit there was some, blame.  In the commercial that we watched in class on Friday, the topics of blame were equal if not greater to the topics of praise, but here, it was refreshing to see something different.

Highlights from Clinton's Speech

http://www.bradenton.com/2012/09/06/4187349/highlights-from-bill-clintons.html

These are just some highlights (very concise) from Bill Clinton's speech in favor of re-electing Barack Obama this November.  While I don't usually follow these campaigns very closely (or at all, and don't vote because I am uninformed), I happened to hear part of this speech the other day.  It was after this assignment had been posted so I listened particularly closely, mostly out of laziness and out of the hope that it would fill the requirement of the assignment and indeed, I believe it did.  I thought that this speech was a highlight of the flaw with the polarized bipartisanship election process in this country.  The whole time, Clinton talks only about what his candidate has done correctly and what the other has done wrong.  While this is probably the best way to win an election, I feel that this is so intellectually misdirected as to border upon useless.  It is my experience (as limited as it may be) that most people are dug into their Democratic or Republican corners, and perhaps the reason for this is that the seems to be nothing but corners any more....


An interesting quote I happened to stumble upon:

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"

Gorgias Question

I read in a character description that Callicles is an older rhetorician, which I found striking given that, to me at least, he seems to act very juvenile in his argument with Socrates (i.e. his obsession with power, and some of the remarks he makes towards Socrates individual points). Did anyone else recognize this and think that perhaps it is Plato remarking on the methods of the rhetoricians or maybe because Callicles is older, Plato has some sort of problem with the age Callicles is representing?

An Introduction

Well, I have sat here watching the cursor blink for two minutes trying to think of what a proper introduction should be; and as of yet, I have come up with nothing spectacular, so I'll just start at the beginning and ramble until I come up with something worth reading.  My name is Brady Jensen, I graduated from Three Forks High School in Three Forks, MT.  I am a junior, majoring in English Literature with the intention of entering a Ph.D. program after graduating (I've had my eye on the University of Chicago for a while).  An interesting note is that when I was in High School, I hated English.  I loathed it entirely!  And yet, here I am, planning on spending the rest of my life being a scholar of the English language!  Apart from school, some of my favorite things are golfing, fly-fishing, and reading.  When I'm not busy with school I enjoy being able to relax; but because of my nerdy habits, school is the biggest part of my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

This introduction took entirely too long to write; there is something interestingly intimidating about having to describe oneself.