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THE RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF SINGLE ROOM OCCUPANCY Miscellaneous social influences via diverse social media outlets bombard us with abundant argumentations every second of our lives. Comprehending and evaluating how these rhetoric aims to convince us into particular forms of thinking and acting is beneficial to formulate informed and well-grounded responses and argumentations (Carroll 46-47). When scrutinized, Single Room Occupancy, a short documentary film by Artemis Shaw and Alexander Wolf Lewis appears as a skillful attempt at connecting individual and societal levels of a multi-faceted problem, namely the effects of gentrification in Harlem, New York on low-income elders. By way of the heart-wrenching stories of Max and Buzz, directors intend to invite white millennials buying into the revitalization processes in this …show more content…
district to consider the ethical dimensions as well. Rhetorical Situation Single Room Occupancy by Artemis Shaw, a student at New York University and Alexander Wolf Lewis, a graduate of film studies at Columbia University intend to address the consequences of gentrification in Harlem, New York. The exigence, better-said the pressing circumstance is framed as the unintended consequences of these recently accelerated processes on low-income elderly (Carroll 50). This short documentary film invites the viewers to think more about the ethical dimensions of these processes by zooming into the lonely lives of two old schoolers, Max and Buzz. They strive to hold on to their homes, memories, and friendships in contemporary Harlem, going through vast transformation and facing these changes with the constant fear of displacement. Rhetorical Strategies One of the two characters Max Vesterhalt is an African-American lady at her sixties, once one of the Bond Girls back in the days, now a Christian missionary. She is portrayed with her ups and downs fighting resiliently back the threat of eviction in the district. Buzz, also an African-American elderly man with a terminal condition that estimated only a few more years for him was another resident in the same apartment. Indeed, the viewer is sadly informed at the end of the documentary that he had passed away in early 2017. Buzz, waiting to die except Sunday nights when he plays drums at a nearby Jazz club, surrounded by his memories engraved in his single room occupancy, touches the hearts of the viewers for sure, by “giving a very human face” to the effects of gentrification on individuals (Kander n.a.). The real-life stories of Max and Buzz, “evoking an emotional response in the viewer” (Carroll 53), signal to the preference of the directors to use emotions for drawing attention to the undesired consequences of gentrification in Harlem, New York on low-income elders with no support systems.
In other words, this short makes use of pathos as its main artistic appeal to convey its message (Carroll 47, 52). Indeed, even though anyone interested in the consequences of urban regeneration and gentrification processes would not regret to spare 12 minutes of their time watching this short, the focal audience intended to be persuaded in a particular way seems to be the “white, upper class millennials” that gentrifies the district to whom Max enjoys yelling as seen in the supermarket scene (3:53; Kander n.a). This group, in the words of Shaw “young, urban people who are…sheltered from the real violence of gentrification on a daily basis” like herself and Lewis (Kander n.a.) is mainly invited to think twice about their steps in an ethical sense: the well-off profits and benefits made out of this district is depriving many people of their basic need of
shelter. The purpose of the directors with respect to their inductive reasoning (Jones 164), is to bring up a moral dilemma for this newcomers by closing-up on how it feels to be living with a constant fear of being displaced. Director Shaw confirms this in her own words: “We wanted to show gentrification for what it really is. News articles in the New York Times covering gentrification often feel like more like real estate ads and don’t often highlight the struggle for tenants” (Kander n.a.). Thus, here is the response of one of the directors in response to “what does the rhetor want me to believe after seeing this message?” (Carroll 52). This short intends to “influence the way the viewer will interpret reality, rather than attempts to document reality” conforming to the arguments of Smith and Rock on how a documentary should be defined as a statement (60). Cinematic Techniques: Structure, Details, and Constraints Single Room Occupancy as a statement in the form of a short documentary makes use of various cinematic techniques that give away themselves best in the details. To evoke emotions and by doing so to convince the viewer to initiate an ethical thinking, where he/she is invited to take into consideration the impact of his/her own seemingly mundane conduct (moving into Harlem in pursuit of benefits and profits) on others’ lives (such as those of Max and Buzz deemed disposable by the urban regeneration and gentrification processes in this district), directors start out by taking us into the apartment on 110th street. While the viewer enters the building along with a long shot to establish the general setting, we are informed about the previous struggles between the residents that aim to stay and the new owner of the apartment that aims to empty the building no matter what. Distortive phone calls and remarks at the background accompanied by the choice of besetting sound are resorted to underline the tension in the atmosphere. Then we are invited into the lonely lives and rooms of Max and Buzz respectively, listening to their standpoints, stories in full shots. Once we are in the rooms listening to Max and Buzz, directors make use of extreme close-ups to give us hints about the past lives of these two elders. The shots where Max puts on a lipstick (2:56) and Buzz plays the drum (7:34) give us hints in this respect. The disruptive impact of gentrification in the district is caught by abrupt camera shots, movements. Low angle shots where the police came to evict the building add up to the constant tension of the tenants. Not only tilts and pans, but also eye-level angles along with Dutch angles have gone hand in glove with the untidiness of these rooms full of memories engraved into little objects stretching from photos, pills, children paintings, birthday cards etcetera. These details disorient the viewer to make him comprehend the confusion and stress of the characters in focus. Cutaways and wipes along with cross-cuts complement such disorientation and confusion caused by the constant fear of being evicted as well as the dim lightening used most of the time. The choice of front and back lightening also helps in portraying the helplessly good nature of the characters as well. All of these cinematic techniques feed well into the purpose of the short and makes the viewer as if he/she is the one interviewing these two elders since there is not a narrator but only them speaking out their worries, disappointments, struggles in resistance in face of tiresome situation they have found themselves in at their late age. In this context, the cinematic techniques are of help in portraying an atmosphere that is tense and gives the viewer a sense of suspension that works well with the short’s purpose of evoking emotions to persuade the viewer into an ethical self-interrogation. There are constraints that may also be depicted in this short documentary film. For instance, the logos is not incorporated effectively with the main artistic appeal pursued, namely pathos and the call for particular shared values, ethos (Jones 167). Put differently, the directors have not given any background information, data, facts about the urban regeneration and gentrification processes in the district on the basis of a well-informed research on the social, economic and political aspects of the problem at hand. Even though the emotions evoked by the short are strong, the correlation between gentrification and the current state of Max and Buzz’s lives remains to be weakly addressed. Furthermore, even though the cell phone footage merges well with the gloomy tone of the film and the tense setting in the worn-out apartment and untidy rooms in focus, it may also be suggestive of a limited production budget. Instead of a Conclusion: In the overall account, the rhetorical context and strategies along with the cinematic techniques employed in the short documentary film, Single Room Occupancy confirm that it is a talented attempt at tying up individual and societal levels of conduct in face of a pressing circumstance brought about by urban regeneration and gentrification processes experienced in recent years at an accelerated rate in Harlem, New York. It is important to take the invitation of this short if one is concerned about the consequences of his/her own seemingly mundane aspirations on others.
Mitchell Duneier excerpt from ‘When You Gotta Go’ in Sidewalk depicts an analysis of the New York sidewalk life. In this excerpt Duneier explores a socio cultural environment to portray those who are seen by the rest of society as unsuitable. He brings representation to the fact and aims to covey to the reader that there is a clear economic gap when comparing the lower and upper class of societal groups and aims to argue that there isn’t a place for these people in typical society. The group in which Duneier focuses on in this excerpt in the people working on Six Avenue in New York City and aims to deliver a comprehensive interpretation of the individuals who work on the street as well as focus on how these individuals have formed these informal social structures to help and support
Several works we have read thus far have criticized the prosperity of American suburbia. Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, and an excerpt from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "A Coney Island of the Mind" all pass judgement on the denizens of the middle-class and the materialism in which they surround themselves. However, each work does not make the same analysis, as the stories are told from different viewpoints.
He begins in Chestnut Hill, a high-income neighborhood in Philadelphia, at the city’s boundaries on Germantown Avenue. Anderson eloquently points out what most do not notice consciously, but are truly aware of as a matter of self-preservation. This self-preservation becomes more prioritized, or vice-versa, as a ...
Proud (2014) describes Shoreditch, an area in east London as a metonym for unlucky pieces of real estate that have had the hipster formula applied to them. situates the term in space, going one further to describe hipsterfication as “Shoreditchification” However the term “hipster” has been mentioned in other geographical works such as that of David Ley and Tom Butler (1980; 1997), in the theories of “the new middle class” of gentrifiers. Hipsters have turned themselves into “self-gentrifying urban Bedouins”, “popping-off then popping-up” where ever is cheapest (Eror 2014). The perceived advantages and disadvantages that this new “creative class of the skilled, educated and hip”, bring are mixed in literature (Companella; Kotkin
Another noteworthy urban sociologist that’s invested significant research and time into gentrification is Saskia Sassen, among other topical analysis including globalization. “Gentrification was initially understood as the rehabilitation of decaying and low-income housing by middle-class outsiders in central cities. In the late 1970s a broader conceptualization of the process began to emerge, and by the early 1980s new scholarship had developed a far broader meaning of gentrification, linking it with processes of spatial, economic and social restructuring.” (Sassen 1991: 255). This account is an extract from an influential book that extended beyond the field of gentrification and summarizes its basis proficiently. In more recent and localized media, the release the documentary-film ‘In Jackson Heights’ portrayed the devastation that gentrification is causing as it plagues through Jackson Heights, Queens. One of the local businessmen interviewed is shop owner Don Tobon, stating "We live in a
This text also persuades readers about how race is an issue of gentrification. The author’s claims on the issues show that gentrification is mainly influenced by race and income. The writer wrote the text also to show how the media can be influential to be discouraging poor colored communities, criticizing the views on gentrification in those areas. There are some persuasive appeals that are supported by the author in the text. The first is Ethos, he is a credible source in his claims retelling his own experience as a paramedic and how his patient impacted his criticism on how the media portrays the “hood” as being atrocious and worthless in the community. The author also attempts to convince his readers through his own emotions, including specific evidence and claims for his appeals. The second persuasive appeal used is pathos when he explains how these communities are dealt with moving place to place being invaded from their own residence and businesses. The third persuasive appeals he presents is logos, which he describes the situation of the the people being affected by this issue first hand to show the reader it is a mistaken
Inner-city life is filled with glimmers of hope. The children had hopes of leaving the dreadful streets of the ghetto and moving into an innovative and improved place. There are times when Lafayette states, ...
“The Deeper Problems We Miss When We Attack ‘Gentrification’”exhibit their opinion on the positives of gentrification and the potential of “revitalization” in low-income urban communities. Badger argues that gentrification brings nothing more than further opportunities for urban communities while integrating citizens of different social classes.Furthermore , she continues to question if gentrification is in fact the monster that brings the prior expressions against gentrification where she says “If poor neighborhoods have historically suffered from dire disinvestment, how can the remedy to that evil — outside money finally flowing in — be the problem, too?”(Badger) Stating that the funds generated from sources external that are brought into these communities can’t be problematic. This concept is further elaborated in the article “Does Gentrification Harm the Poor” where Vigdoor list the potential positive enhancements gentrification can have on an urban area in America ,stating that gentrification can
... motivation for wealthy individuals to return to the inner-city core but it also provides impetus for commercial and retail mixed-use to follow, increasing local revenue for cities (Duany, 2001). Proponents of gentrification profess that this increase in municipal revenue from sales and property taxes allows for the funding of city improvements, in the form of job opportunities, improved schools and parks, retail markets and increased sense of security and safety ((Davidson (2009), Ellen & O’Reagan (2007), Formoso et. al (2010)). Due to the increase in housing and private rental prices and the general decrease of the affordable housing stock in gentrifying areas, financially-precarious communities such as the elderly, female-headed households, and blue-collar workers can no longer afford to live in newly developed spaces ((Schill & Nathan (1983), Atkinson, (2000)).
In conducting this assignment we visited the neighborhood of Washington Heights. During our visits we interviewed several of the residences; so that we could get a first hand prospective of what it is like living in the community, why they settled in the community and the many changes that they have witness durning their time in the neighborhood.
In discussions of Gentrification, one controversial issue has been with displacement. Gentrification is the process of renovating and repairing a house or district so that it complies to wealthier residents (Biro, 2007, p. 42). Displacement is a result of gentrification, and is a major issue for lower income families. Gentrification is causing lower-income residents to move out of their apartments because they’re being displaced by upper class residents who can afford high rent prices and more successful businesses. Throughout out the essay, I will discuss how gentrification affects lower income residents and how it results in displacement. Then I will follow on by discussing some positive and negative effects that take place because of Gentrification.
Lance Freeman tackles the issue of gentrification from the perspectives of residents in the gentrified neighborhood. He criticizes the literature for overlooking the experiences of the victims of gentrification. The author argues that people’s conceptions on the issue are somewhat misinformed in that most people consider it as completely deplorable, whereas in reality, it benefits the community by promoting businesses, different types of stores, and cleaner streets. These benefits are even acknowledged by many residents in the gentrified neighborhood. However, the author admits that gentrification indeed does harm. Although gentrification does not equate to displacement per se, it serves to benefit primarily homeowners and harm the poor. Additionally,
Gentrification is designed to improve the quality of life for the residents, but the fact is that it pushes out old residents to welcome in young and wealthy citizens. To analyze the demographic even further, gentrified neighborhoods in New York City have seen an increase in white population despite a city wide decrease. As Kate Abbey-Lamertz of the Huffington Post states, “The report notes that change is driven by educated people moving in, rather than by existing residents becoming more educated.” These changes are being driven by a millennial demographic who can afford the changed aesthetic. The influx of millennials are pushing out families whose lifestyle can’t keep up with the changing demographic. Even though these changes have been occurring for almost thirty years, and the city hasn’t made the changes needed for people who need low income housing. New York City’s gentrification must be slowed in order for people in low income housing to catch
The young males in the documentary both were raised in single mother households, and did not have the presence fatherly figure in their lives. Their mothers work tirelessly to provide for their families, which leaves little time for family bonding and a lot of time for the boys to either be alone or socialize with friends in the community. The school teacher, Ainsworth Morgan, also grew up in Regent Park and describes how the individuals behaviour and way of navigating things is different based on their socialization in Regent Park. The boys are constantly surrounded by young men who have dropped out of school, been in trouble with the law, and resorted to selling drugs as an easy means of living. The appeal of engaging in risky activities in times of boredom or hardship is all too familiar. Morgan describes how the temptation of the streets is much more attractive than what is occurring at home. He elaborates on several aspects of the spatial organization of the Regent Park community including the “lure of the streets” and the neighborhood’s tendency to overlook positive achievements. Morgan says in the documentary, “When you come back to the hood, you get more respect getting out of prison than you do getting your Master’s”. If this is what these individuals are constantly exposed to, it becomes the norm. This demonstrates how the socialization process among
New York City that is depicted in Taxi Driver seems to be too real to be true. It is a place where violence runs rampant, drugs are cheap, and sex is easy. This world may be all too familiar to many that live in major metropolitan areas. But, in the film there is something interesting, and vibrant about the streets that Travis Bickle drives alone, despite the amount of danger and turmoil that overshadows everything in the nights of the city. In the film “Taxi Driver” director Martin Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader find and express a trial that many people face, the search for belonging and acceptance.