Bruno Mars Grenade

Expressing the hardships brought forth by unrequited love is one of the most commonly conveyed themes by popular music artists in the contemporary era. The record “Grenade” by Bruno Mars is no exception to this trend. In the song, Mars proclaims his relentless love for a girl, speaking directly and exclusively to her. Unfortunately, as a victim of unilateral love, he is inferior in the power relationship. Both in the lyrics and the video of the song, the girl possesses the dominant ability to manipulate Mars’ emotional and physical well-being either negatively by being apathetic towards his love, or positively by opting to return his affection. From such a position of inferiority, Bruno Mars employs rhetorical strategies such as literary devices,

logical fallacies, and the interaction of textual and visual rhetoric to construct a credible ethos while appealing to the emotions of the audience. Ultimately these strategies successfully convince the listeners to support him in believing that he deserves the girl’s love.
First, Mars demonstrates the extreme extent to which he loves the girl in the lyrics, determined to persuade the audience that the girl should return his love. He employs words which allude to violence such as “bullet”, “blade”, and “grenade”, to showcase his disposition to experience physical pain for the girl’s love (Mars). By persistently using such vocabulary, he insinuates that these destructive objects will not hinder his obsessive love for her. In the chorus, Mars’ infatuation with the girl is made even more apparent, as he boldly states that he would “catch a grenade for [her]”, “throw [his] hands on a blade for [her]” and even “jump in front of a train for [her]” (Mars). His willingness to make such sacrifices is purposely depicted in the chorus which, through repetition, places particular emphasis on these lyrics. In due course, these phrases and words contribute to Mars’ ethos—they strengthen his character by exposing his authentic commitment to sacrificing life and limb for the girl. In turn, the ethos of credibility convinces the audience to take his side.
While building the legitimacy of his own character, Mars also utilizes pathos in order to move the audience into thinking that the girl should return his love.

He achieves this by directly characterizing the girl as both apathetic and immoral. To begin with, he brings her apathy to light by the constant reiteration of the phrase “I gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash” (Mars). The diction he uses in this line is critical—his statement that the girl nonchalantly “tossed” all his love in the trash fully demonstrates her disinterest and brings out her evil nature (Mars). This verse, alongside Mars’ declaration that the girl “never…loved [him]” even if he was willing to “die for [her]” fully attests to her cold-heartedness (Mars). Furthermore, Mars proceeds to expose her lack of moral consciousness, stating that if his “body was on fire, [she] would watch [him] burn down in flames” (Mars). The usage of vivid imagery in this case exposes the girl’s clear lack of basic human values. It illustrates that she would callously stand by and watch as Mars suffers serious physical duress and perhaps even death. All in all, the specific diction and powerful imagery employed by Mars throughout the song successfully appeals to audience’s pity, and is an effective use of pathos to win over their

support.
In the visual rhetoric, Bruno Mars forwards the same argument, but more powerfully so. In the beginning of the video, he strategically uses the setting to establish the depressing mood and enhance the pathos. Mars is shown sitting on a dark navy bed within a dark room; the absence of light in this opening scene appropriately portrays the gloomy atmosphere and his emotional distress. Throughout the video, the rain is also a recurring motif, which is a widely known symbol that represents misery and despair. All of these aspects of setting employed by Bruno Mars effectively invite the audience to step into his shoes and understand his sufferings, which again, rouses pity and empathy for him. These emotions are precisely the ones Mars attempts to enforce throughout the entire visual rhetoric—by illustrating his suffering and stating that the girl is the source of it, he encourages the viewers to believe that she must put an end to his miseries. In this case, Mars’ use of pathos through setting is a proficient rhetorical strategy that augments the support received from the audience.
These viewers and listeners are further allured into advocating Mars and his claims by the joined forces of the textual and visual rhetoric. The first such interaction takes place in the tunnel, as Mars endures the physical burden of dragging a piano through the middle of the road. As he states that he would “jump in front of a train” and “do anything for [her]”, a poor, homeless man raises both hands up in clear confusion, questioning why Bruno would such things for the girl (Mars). Later on, when Bruno declares that he would “catch a grenade” and “throw [his] hands on a blade [for her]”, a man on the streets who seems to be mentally handicapped mocks him, laughing at his stupidity for considering such acts (Mars). Finally, when Bruno claims that “[he] would die for [her]”, a priest who walks by gives him a hard, judgmental look—clearly disapproving his willingness to give up his own life for a girl. Mars’ interactions with the society in these various forms serve to strengthen his ethos (Mars). Despite the disapproval and mockery of the society, Mars is prepared to do whatever it takes to get the girl’s love, and will allow no one and nothing to get in the way. These particular scenes are a direct exertion of ethos, and serve to showcase the legitimacy of his character to the audience.
Additionally, the cooperation of the lyrics and the video allow each line to be delivered to the audience with more strength and emotion.

In this visual rhetoric, Bruno Mars sings the chorus while displaying his suffering and distress through his facial expressions. Such facial expressions are especially exaggerated when he sings phrases that have caused him significant hardship such as “you said you loved me…but you never, ever, ever did baby” (Mars). During these scenes, the intended audience can carefully examine the emotions revealed by Mars and genuinely commiserate for his suffering. Moreover, the audience is encouraged show empathy for Mars by observing his body posture in specific scenes. For example, when he sings that “I would die for you baby, but you wouldn’t do the same”, he looks down hopelessly to the floor, demonstrating his depression (Mars). In this way, facial expressions and bodily movements are successful rhetorical strategies that Bruno has used by combining the video and the lyrics. The interaction between the two elements undoubtedly adds to pathos, which serves to continuously gain the support of the

audience.
One area in which Bruno Mars does not seem to have significant success is his use of logos. Bruno’s logical argument is that because he is willing do anything and sacrifice everything for her, the girl should at least give him a chance. This is clearly a logical fallacy of confusing cause and effect. The mere fact that he is determined to do anything for the girl does not signify that he deserves her love or that he is the best suited man for her. Thus, his argument is not supported by facts and is logically invalid—it is fundamentally held together by the expectation that his appeal to the girl’s emotions would make her return his affection. However, while some may argue that this logical fallacy retracts from his overall purpose, in actuality, it adds to both ethos and pathos. Mars’ obsession with the girl is so extreme to the extent that he lets go of his sense of logistics and instead blindly pursues her love. This rouses pity in the audience, and is a successful employment of pathos. Simultaneously, it demonstrates the stakes he is willing to take for the girl, and also succeeds as an efficient utilization of ethos. In the end, this additionally persuades the audience to take Mars’ side.
To conclude, Mars has productively utilized literary devices, logical fallacies, and the interaction of the lyrics and video in order to win the support of the audience. Ultimately, the establishment of himself as a trustworthy character and the appeal to the audience’s emotions has forwarded his argument that he is willing to sacrifice anything for the girl, and that audience should support him in believing that she should “do the same”. Although Bruno did not actually succeed in persuading the girl to love him back neither in the lyrics nor in the video, it is evident that the strategies he employed nevertheless sways the audience to take his side.