Rhetorical Analysis Of Sustai Stand For The Silent

According to nobullying.com, nearly 160,000 thousand students stay at home every day because they are afraid that they might be bullied. With the growing technological advances, bullying can take place anywhere ranging from school, the bus, or even through the screen of cellphones. Bully, an awe-inspiring film seeks to create awareness to the most problematic conflict that adolescents face in this country. The documentary explicitly captures five families with children who struggle with bullies. Through the use of pathos, tone, ethos, comical relief, figurative language, and rhetorical implications, the audience is left with a very gruesome impression of injustice, and a lamentable experience of bullying.

At first, the documentary is categorized as “R” due to vulgar vernacular said by the bullies. However, “Katy Butler, a 17-year-old high school student from Michigan, delivered a petition (with more than 200,000 signatures) to the Motion Picture Association of America's office in Sherman Oaks, California” (EW.com). In time, she persuaded the doubtful MPAA to categorize the rating of the film to “PG-13,” because the ratings hindered a compelling part of its key audience; all students enrolled in middle schools and high schools. Bully’s primary goal is to create awareness for school bullying and to

sustain an anti-bullying program. About 97% of the documentary involves real footage and personal interviews. The other 3% is transitional text. Bully prevails to convey its purpose through footage and testaments. The filmmaker uses an emotional appeal to portray the toll of bullying. The producer of Bully allegedly shows the audience, unedited, real, footage of bullying that occurs at schools. Every time they interview the person who has been bullied, the producers never comment on anything. This allows the audience to experience the reality of bullying through their own eyes. Only selecting five children who are victims of bullying allows the film to be able portray unique personalities and minute details of their lives. Since the audience can relate to these innocent victims, it causes a sense of frustration and sympathy to arise. Being able to see through the innocent victim’s life gives the audience an idea of what bullying is really like. Sometimes all it takes is to imagine a walk in someone else’s shoes and see the effects of what bullying is like.
Another rhetoric element that is used effectively is tone. In contrast to completely word- based or animated text, the documentary utilizes a combination of images, words, and audio to portray a tone of somberness and, at times, dissatisfaction or prosperity. The audio track consists of slow moving, acoustic music, creating peaceful and tranquil moods. The animated text used in the documentary is capital white letters on a black background. The monotone colors help maintain a solemn tone. Even with the transitions from people’s testimonies, the short footages fade in and fade out, and usually at the end of each short footage the audience is left with a few seconds of silence. The silence expresses a state of shock, which allows people to think about what they have witnessed, feel the atmosphere of the music and the gruesome effect that bullying has on others. Sometimes silence is needed for people to open up about their feelings and thoughts.
The filmmaker also uses ethical appeal to convey their purpose. It is wrong to morally degrade humans to take their own life. Time and time again, these students have asked principals, superintendents, and police officers about their bullying situation. No one ever helps them get the help they need. In the film, Kelby could have received a basketball scholarship but due to bullying no one likes her because she is lesbian, so she quits the team. Not only did bullying cost her a scholarship but she almost lost her life. She attempts suicide three times. Since the students are not being helped to minimize bullying they are going to their last resort which is suicide. Additionally, Kelby’s high school teacher takes role and said “Hello everyone, boys and girls and then there is Kelby” (Bully). This appeals to ethics because the teacher should know better and should not discriminate on sexual orientation.
The filmmaker also uses comic relief effectively. In one scene Kelby reveals an experience in which she saw some conflict going on. She discovers that the fight was coming from jocks in a small minivan. As they were speeding towards her, she thought they would slow down, but they kept going and she was launched onto the windshield of the car. She comically laughed and said “I couldn’t have gotten hit by something cooler like a jeep or something? But no, a minivan” (Bully). The filmmaker relieves some tension from all the melancholic scenes and adds humor to it. It lightens up the mood and makes the audience more intrigued.
Figurative language is also used in the film. Kelby’s Dad states that the school board gives you “the same plastic smile” when you ask them to do something about the bullying that occurs at the school. The filmmaker is trying to prove their point that one has to keep urging the schools to do something about bullying. On the other hand, some might argue, the school board cannot do much because the parents are the one responsible on how they raise their child. The child has to be in a good house hold with parents who care about their child’s education. It is their responsibility to teach them that is not right to degrade their classmates or anyone in general. Since bullying can lead to suicide. Studies have shown that “This risk can be increased further when these kids are not supported by parents, peers, and schools. Bullying can make an unsupportive situation worse” (Stopbullying.gov). It is only logical that these kids have their unconditional support from their parents because a life cannot be recovered.
Stand for the Silent is the liaison between these innocent victims.

Thanks to the new organization founded by Ty Smalley’s Dad, kids will finally be bullied less. He travels around the whole country spreading the word of how bullying can hurt someone’s lives permanently. Unfortunately, he lost his son due to bullying. Smalley does not want anyone else to experience the tragedy he went through. Smalley says he won’t rest until there is a change in this country, and feels he is failing his son if he does not take a stand. Ultimately, the filmmaker made this film to prevent and to start an anti-bullying association and the let the world know the harsh reality of

bullying.
The ones to blame are parents, bus drivers, administration, and teachers. Bus drivers do not watch the kids and protect their safety. They have one job and that is providing a safe bus drive from school to home. The audience feels frustration towards bus drivers because they are not enforcing any rules or regulations. All administration and teachers do is create excuses on stopping the bullying problem. Instead, they blame parents for not teaching their kids morals and not teaching them that they are not supposed to bully anyone because that can lead to violence and sometimes death.
The film concludes with the survivors, the loved one's friends and family members of bullying release blue, white, and black balloons into the heavens. The emotional impact draws the audience's mind to all the human loss. Pure white souls that have left the physical and have freed themselves from the torture they’ve endured here on this earth. The blue hue of the balloon reminds the audience of all the tears that these innocent victims have shed in their short life. They then contrast these colors with the black balloons, signifying the tragedies that occurred. As the audience watches the balloons as they disappear into the distance, society is left to wonder what the first step is to solve this controversial problem in our schools and communities.