Rhetorical Analysis Of Pearls Before Breakfast

Rhetorical Analysis of "Pearls Before Breakfast"

At 7:51 a.m. on January 12, 2007, Joshua Bell, "one of the world's greatest violinists"(3), hid his identity to play a free forty-five-minute presentation, which consisted of six classical masterpieces, at the L' Enfant Plaza Metro Station located in Washington, D.C. He pretended to be a street musician and his anonymous performance was just an experiment to find out if people would be able to recognize and appreciate beauty in the middle of rush hour and their target time to reach their destinations. This musician collaborated with Gene Weingarten, a reporter for the Washington Post, to carry out this experiment. This reporter wrote the results for the experiment under the title "Pearls

Before Breakfast," which was published in the same newspaper for which he worked. This article, which was called "a stunt" by the musician when he first heard about it, helped the reporter to win the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. In this experiment, Weingarten considered context, perception and priorities to see if we are able to appreciate beauty in the midst of chaos as we rush through life in our daily routine.
The dictionary defines context as "The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning and the circumstances in which an event occurs; a setting." In the article, Weingarten considers context.

Joshua Bell, “A onetime child prodigy" (4), is considered one of the greatest violinists and "finest classical musicians in the world"(2), and performs at the subway station. He plays on a violin handmade in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari and it is worth 3.5 million dollars. This instrument had been stolen twice before Bell purchases it. He does not want to be the theft’s third victim and that's the reason he rides in a taxi for only two or three blocks to get to the station. Also, considering the noises that the trains, the thousands of commuters, and cars outside the subway station make, the acoustics are "surprisingly kind" (2). After all, the internal and external noise of the subway station does not hurt the sound and, even though this performance is not in a concert hall, the acoustics help him to have a great presentation. The six pieces he selects and plays are some of the most elegant and beautiful classical compositions ever written. Bells chooses "Chaconne" to begin his performance and, according to the writer, "Bell didn't say it,… but it is considered one of the most difficult violin pieces to master" (9) and also "one of the greatest achievements of any man in history”

(9).
According to the dictionary, perception "is the process of perceiving something with the senses and the state of being aware of something." Perception is also considered in the question made by Weingarten. Every commuter's perception would change if they know the performer playing is Bell and not a street musician. There are several factors that affect the commuters’ perception in this experiment. One of these factors is the clothes he wears in his incognito performance. "He is a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington National baseball cap" (1). He is described as nothing out of the ordinary. People does not notice him playing, not even when he finishes one musical piece. "No applause, no acknowledgment" (15) and "moving right along…, he begins the next piece"(15). Another factor is the noise that bothers many of the commuters. That's why one of the men interviewed uses technology as a means to avoid it. This man uses his iPod, while many others use their phones and concentrate on their personal things. "People just said they were busy, had other things on their minds"(20) and does not notice the violinist.
The last thing Weingarten consideres is the priorities of the day and how we meet our responsibilities. Most commuters are in a rush in order to accomplish their priorities. They have their target time to get to work, to leave their children at school before going to work, and to commute to their destination. They are only following their daily routine because that is the "American way of life.” A life that is unbalanced and doesn't allow them to take some minutes to contemplate, enjoy or even recognize beauty encountered on their way. They focus on their personal things, leaving outside of their mind the things that are less important or have no value for them. The commuters "had other things in their minds"(20) that "had no memory that there had been a musician anywhere in sight"(20).
Weingarten adequately uses context, perception and priorities in his writing to find out if “beauty transcends” (2) in the middle of chaos. Despite that for free, “one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made”(2), people do not take a few minutes to stop and listen to recognize and appreciate the valuable art and talent of that musician. From this experiment, Weingarten found out that out of those who passed and did not have priorities such children and other musicians were those who stopped to listen and see him play. We are probably missing other relevant things because we do not take the time to admire the beauty around us. Most of the time, our way of life, due to our obligations and priorities, doesn’t even allow us to enjoy our families. I think that time is the key factor in this experiment because if this experiment were done when commuters were not in a rush, more people would have taken at least five minutes to stop, listen and admire art, and therefore, make beauty transcend.