According to a recent study, 155 million Americans regularly play video games. Concerned with the ability of interactive personal-narrative video games to leave these 155 million Americans with selective memories of historical events, Aaron Hess analyzed the narrative rhetoric in the video game Medal Of Honor: Rising Sun. His selection and analysis of the video game led him to formulating the essay question; “What functions do narrative histories as presented in video games perform for players?” Hess’ analysis of the video game through narrative method criticism is appropriate as it properly fulfills the narrative requirements. To be considered a narrative, a rhetorical piece must comprise at least two related events with a unifying subject organized in time order. Immersive and first-person shooter games such as Medal Of Honor: Rising Sun are formatted in a way where the player is guided through different challenges, …show more content…
obstacles, and story lines that are all part of an overall plot. The game includes multiple different events in the form of challenges, that are related since they are all part of an overall storyline and goal. There are multiple ways that all the events in the video game are connected. Within the video game, there is a personal narrative and a metanarrative that combine to form the plot. All the events are unified as part of this overall plot whether as a result of the personal events in which the main character is involved, or as a result of events that take place in the historical narrative of the game. The game’s narrative is based off of World War 2 history beginning with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
In books and movies, narrative rhetoric is known to fully immerse readers into the plot and make them feel as if they were a part of the story. As noted, the video game’s first-person perspective provides gamers with the opportunity to directly experience a historical narrative. The game involves a quest for personal and nationalistic revenge, as a result of the the disappearance of the central character’s brother and the destruction of Pearl Harbor. As Hess recounts, the beginning of the game has players navigating the ruins of Pearl Harbor immediately after the bombing. As a result of this, players directly experience an important historical moment through the eyes of technology. The game contains real video clips as well as digital animated scenes. Hess’ is concerned in his critique, that because of the selective nature of the history displayed in the game, players end the game with a selective and altered understanding of the history of the
war. The main argument that Hess makes is that the strong power of narrative rhetoric is, in this case, dangerous as it misinforms players. Gamers play this game for entertainment, but finish the game with a selective knowledge of the events of World War 2. The game also fails to represent the true extent of destruction and agony involved in war, which can lead to a misunderstanding of the challenges of war. The aforementioned Pearl Harbor scene of the game is a perfect example of narrative rhetoric. This highly immersive portion of the game acts as a museum through history, giving the player the ability to navigate through the destruction that results from the Pearl Harbor bombing. Hess’ argues that the ability that players have to directly experience a virtual rendition of the aftermath of the bombing, leaves players with a possibly altered understanding of what actually happened in the beginning of World War 2. In general, this component of the game is a perfect example of the multiple requirements of narrative rhetoric; and it is therefore important that Hess hyper-focuses on this section of the game. An important challenge with Hess’ criticism is that it considers that players are trustworthy of the game and hope to attain some historical knowledge as a result of playing. There are many different objectives that narrative rhetoric might have including: to legitimize an act, to repair or restore order, and to comfort or bring relief, among many others. In this case, Hess analyzes the game as if it had the objective to educate players of historical knowledge. Therefore, Hess is concerned that players are being misinformed and provided with selective knowledge. In reality, this game, like many video games, is meant mainly to entertain players. Video game companies focus on the component of entertainment to boost sales. While the selective knowledge has the potential to misinform players, education isn’t the objective of the narrative and players mostly understand that. In general, Hess’ criticism of the narrative rhetoric in Medal Of Honor: Rising Sun is very well written. Hess appropriately follows the procedure of criticizing a piece of narrative rhetoric, and picks an artifact that definitely qualifies as narrative rhetoric. His analysis of the realism and historical accuracy of the game is important, but it is misunderstood because of a lack of understanding as to the objective of the narrative rhetoric in this artifact. The historical accuracy and realism are for the sole purpose of enjoyment of the audience, which is of benefit to the players for obvious reasons, and to the producers of the game since it leads to higher sales. The beginning of Hess' critique is evidence of the understanding that the video game is only game and not a full historical veracity. Hess’ writes that players of the video game are surprised when they come accross the final scene of the game which commemorates the Veterans of World War 2. The surprise that players feel when they see this is a result of the fact that they see the game as something fictitious, and are surprised to see a “real world” component. These same expectations are held by players as they play their game; they hold a clear understanding that they are playing a game and not sitting through a history lecture. Hess’ misinterpretation of the objective of the narrative rhetoric in the video game inhibits his ability to appropriately criticize the use of the method.
In 102 Minutes, Chapter 7, authors Dwyer and Flynn use ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to the readers’ consciences, minds and hearts regarding what happened to the people inside the Twin Towers on 9/11. Of particular interest are the following uses of the three appeals.
“People who had incurred the displeasure of the party simply disappeared and were never heard of again.
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
Margaret Talbot spends a good deal of time at the outset of the essay describing the situation at Sarasota High School, Yet her primary subject is neither that school nor its students. What is her rhetorical strategy in examining this one school in such dept?
The Letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of several civil rights activists who were arrested in Birmingham Alabama, after protesting against racial injustices in Alabama. Dr. King wrote this letter in response to a statement titled A Call for Unity, which was published on Good Friday by eight of his fellow clergymen from Alabama. Dr. King uses his letter to eloquently refute the article. In the letter dr. king uses many vivid logos, ethos, and pathos to get his point across. Dr. King writes things in his letter that if any other person even dared to write the people would consider them crazy.
Grand Theft Auto IV promotes hetronormative hierarchical distinctions between feminity and masculinity through its framing of female and male bodies, its presentation of females as objects of the male gaze and its encouragement of players to adopt and act out a hypermasculine role. It is of vital importance that we do not exclude race, gender or sexuality from discussions of videogames, because as Leonard (2006, pp. 84) asserts, doing so ‘contributes to problematic, if not faulty, understandings of video games and their significant role in contemporary social, political, economic, and cultural organization.’ Instead as players we must engage in discussion regarding videogames and, as Jenkins writes, we must ‘find a way to move beyond our existing categories and to once again invent new kinds of virtual play spaces’ (1999, pp.
In this chapter, Henry asks Wilson if he’s going to run, and explains that many good men end up running away. On that same page, Crane describes how Henry felt at this moment as seen in the quote above. Henry feels like a “mental outcast” at this point because he worries of what will happen if he feels the urge to run. The quotes above foreshadows the later instance where Henry runs away.
Pollan’s article provides a solid base to the conversation, defining what to do in order to eat healthy. Holding this concept of eating healthy, Joe Pinsker in “Why So Many Rich Kids Come to Enjoy the Taste of Healthier Foods” enters into the conversation and questions the connection of difference in families’ income and how healthy children eat (129-132). He argues that how much families earn largely affect how healthy children eat — income is one of the most important factors preventing people from eating healthy (129-132). In his article, Pinsker utilizes a study done by Caitlin Daniel to illustrate that level of income does affect children’s diet (130). In Daniel’s research, among 75 Boston-area parents, those rich families value children’s healthy diet more than food wasted when children refused to accept those healthier but
The movie trailer “Rio 2”, shows a great deal of pathos, ethos, and logos. These rhetorical appeals are hidden throughout the movie trailer; however, they can be recognized if paying attention to the details and montage of the video. I am attracted to this type of movies due to the positive life messages and the innocent, but funny personifications from the characters; therefore, the following rhetorical analysis will give a brief explanation of the scenes, point out the characteristics of persuasive appeals and how people can be easily persuaded by using this technique, and my own interpretation of the message presented in the trailer.
Bissell comically explains what he would say to his hypothetical children, “My beloved Kermit, my dear little Hussein, at the moment America changed forever, your father was wandering an ICBM-denuded wasteland, nervously monitoring his radiation level, armed only with a baseball bat, a 10mm pistol, and six rounds of ammunition, in search of a vicious gang of mohawked marauders who were 100 percent bad news and totally had to be dealt with. Trust Daddy on this one (351).” His impulsiveness and love for Fallout 3 causes him to miss a pivotal moment in history. Impressively though, games can be considered art; for example, Fallout 3 includes “skulls exploding into the distinct flotsam of eyeballs, gray matter, and upper vertebrae (354).” Bissell describes the effects happening within the game and how realistic they can be. Games are purely awe inspiring. The makers of Fallout 3 poured rigorous amounts of energy to create a beautiful “past-future never-never-land weirdness (355).”
Jonathan Kozol revealed the early period’s situation of education in American schools in his article Savage Inequalities. It seems like during that period, the inequality existed everywhere and no one had the ability to change it; however, Kozol tried his best to turn around this situation and keep track of all he saw. In the article, he used rhetorical strategies effectively to describe what he saw in that situation, such as pathos, logos and ethos.
Video games have changed rapidly over the last few decades from the old days of Pacman and Invaders on the coin-operated arcade machines. Nowadays, they can tell award-winning emotional stories like big budget Hollywood movies and best-selling critically acclaimed books. The Last of Us is one of those stories that involves the player in the narrative from start to end of the game. Writers Neil Druckmann and Bruce Stanley put their heart and soul into making The Last of Us a truly memorable experience. The game speaks to the player on a different field than most games and movies, asking the player if they are making the right moral decisions in the game and if the player really is the hero in the post-pandemic depiction of the world.
In most games, players often find themselves combating an enemy that can either be the computer, a player on the other side of the world or even themselves. In any case, both players argue that he or she should be victorious and the other should not. In Anderson’s article, he purposely injects the views of an opponent who believes that gaming provides beneficial applications to one’s, or another’s, life.
3. “Video Games” by Chris Jozefowics. Published by Gareth Stevens Publishing 2010. Pleasantville, NY 10570-70000 USA. Produced by Editorials Directions Inc.
As technology advances, new and creative forms of entertainment immerge from these advancements. One form that has grown immensely in popularity over the past dozen years has been video games. Taking form nearly four decades ago, video games have been one of the major embodiments of the growth of entertainment technology. Today, video games have taken many shapes, from the general PC and console games to special applications that can be found on social networks and even millions of cell phones around the world.