A rhetorical analysis of We are the many
Introduction
The song We Are the Many is written at the time when Occupy Movement was undergone and people were gaining increasing awareness of their rights to democracy and social and economic equity (Khatib, Killjoy and McGuire 2012). The writer is Makana, a Hawaii guitarists, is one of the advocators of this movement. As the slogan of the movement is “We are the 99%”, this song is named We Are the Many. The song is penned when the Occupy Wall Street Movement has spread nationwide to Hawaii, Manaka creates this song to provide action support to call for US government to restructure its economic, political, legal, social system and ask for a more democratic community. This song has received 0.37 million
…show more content…
views on YouTube (2014). In this song, Makana uses a lot of rhetoric to present his concern about the few rich people have control over the politics and economics, leaving the rest majority disadvantaged by this lobbyists and threated unequally.
People will rethink their situation and take action to flight for changes to develop an equal and democratic community for the majority of residents-the low and middle class. Logos, Ethos and Pathos-these three appeals can be fully shown in it. Since the main purpose of rhetoric is for persuading, Makana choose to the deliberative rhetoric may be probably suitable to serve for persuading people to participate in the movement.
Logos
When trying to form a logic argument, Makana uses lots of indicators and examples to show the invention of the inefficient current political system, which is attributed to the few own the most power when conducting policies and regulations. “Law”, “lobbyists”, “bureaucrats”, “government”, etc. These words have exposed the reason of the movement and the focus. There are five paragraphs in the song and at the end of each paragraph, the chorus will be repeated:
“We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of
…show more content…
you Till you do The bidding of the many, not the few” () This is not only describing the form and action of the movement but also emphasising the goal of the movement is to notice government or Politian that the system should serve as a mechanism for the whole society instead of the wealthy monopoly and giant business. Also the repetition used here aims to show the result of occupation based on the unequal distribution and further inspiring more people to turn their demands into actions to support the movement. The parallelism and repetition comes up to a better rhythm and structure of the lyrics. Makana has applied a simply musical rhetoric rhythm and rhyme in the first to the fourth paragraph, using words with similar pronunciation at the end of each line. This device help the song memorable to audience. To arrange the invention with a proper relationship, he writes words “enforce”, “sacrificing” and “thievery” sequentially in the third paragraph. These three words act as a signal to indicate the compulsory strategy of the strong and wealthy few. And caution the public that they have been exploited to the extent they no more have to bear it. Consequently, it is written in the following that the cruel policy leave people no choice but fight back this system. Then it again repeat the chorus to enable people to recognise the occupation is only result for the reason mentioned above. It implies a cause-effect relationship in the third paragraph and the desperation of the many to make up their mind to fight back. Meanwhile, people from all walks are participating in the movement, especially the worked middle class, so the language of the lyrics should be specific targeted the main participants of the movement, that is the leading audience. “Value of wage”, “daughters and sons” and “improve their plight” are some example symbols of what the most labours are concerned about. This can help to persuade the targeted group that the Occupy Movement is related to their life so that they should know the truth and decide to join the movement seeking for the normal rights. Manaka choose the content of his song to ensure it works for the targeted audience and can convince them naturally because they have a substantial relationship with those issues. Ethos Refer to the writer of We Are the Many, Makana is not an academic researcher but a Hawaii musician. It may originally overlooks his creditability. However, regardless of the musician identity, Makana is actively advocate this movement. At the time when Honolulu followed the popularity to raise the occupy movement throughout the island, Makana penned this songs and a few days after, he performed this song wearing a T-shirt with “Occupy with Aloha” in the dinner of APEC in front of the President Obama for 45 minutes (Tomlinson 2011). This can proved that he is sincerely support the movement with his action. And “Rolling Stone” Magazine has valued “We Are the Many” as the “Occupy anthem” (“Makana to perform at Palace” 2012). Therefore, the authority of Makana is trustful as he is an advocator standing on the pros side of the groups in the movement. Also in the song, he use a disproportional amount of first and second person “we” and “you” to illustrate that he is not a spectator but one of the participants actively engaged in this movement to seek for substantial change. And the use of the first and second person increase the feeling of intimacy, further arise individuals’ memory of self-feeling and self-experience. This enhances the creditability of the lyrics and result in a better outcome that people are growing accepted the idea of the movement in an emotional sense. For successfully deliver of its rhetoric, a music usually utilise musical features such as tempo, rhythm and repetition (LeCoat 1976).
The tempo and chords have no significant change within the song, but it does highlights the repetition part- the chorus. As the chorus is often the most memorable section of a song, Makana rises his volume in this section to exploit a stronger feelings and have an effect on naturally emphasis the content. Similarly, it floats to transit to the next paragraph. Also at the end of last paragraph, Makana slows down the tempo and volume down in singing “we are the many’ and back to its normal tempo and volume at the last sentence “you are the few”. In performance, the suddenly change smoothly indicates the song goes to the end and in expression, simply emphasising the lyrics without trace. And this sound like he is speaking out the slogan of the movement with an authority
sense. Pathos Metaphor is one of the obvious devices used in this song. With metaphor, it is easier to explain one thins using the explanation of another things (Aust 1995). Specially, this device can provide a more visualised picture of what is described. “Against the ones who’ve trapped us in a cage”, “You enforce your monopolies with guns” and “Your thievery has left the people none”, these sentences have clearly applied this device. The impact of it is that now the audience can directly feel how cruel and exploit of the wealthy few. This can provide them a visualised and accurate terms in exploring their evil. Moreover, it notices people that after knowing the truth, it is time top action and fight against the current unfair system. Antithesis
The tone during the whole plot of in Brave New World changes when advancing throughout the plot, but it often contains a dark and satiric aspect. Since the novel was originally planned to be written as a satire, the tone is ironic and sarcastic. Huxley's sarcastic tone is most noticeable in the conversations between characters. For instance, when the director was educating the students about the past history, he states that "most facts about the past do sound incredible (Huxley 45)." Through the exaggeration of words in the statement of the director, Huxley's sarcastic tone obviously is portrayed. As a result of this, the satirical tone puts the mood to be carefree.
The verses each deliver a message of equality and the chorus is repeated with the intention of the audience considering their input towards reconciliation. The chorus is repeated 3 times, which is usually done to reinforce the central idea within a song. There are two separate verses, one that starts with the words “black fella white fella” and the other, which starts with “all the people of different races”. This format is repeated to help emphasise the idea that equality is important, regardless of your skin colour. The text structure is ordered in a way that tells a story about equal opportunity, and the way it is formatted is important in communicating this
Repetition is used many times in this song, especially when it states the phrase ‘ You better listen to your tribal voice’, ‘So you better get up and fight for your rights’ and ‘say c’mon, c’mon stand up for your rights’. These phrases mean a lot the writer Yothu Yindi, so by repeating them many times it means that he is trying to get you feel the same angry and fearless emotion he is, so you can take a stand and speak for what you think is wrong. Personification is also used many times to show that not just the writer wants you to feel this way but other matters are as well. Personification used in this song includes ‘the whisper of the morning light saying get up and meet the day’ and ‘walking of a rainbow dawn’ which gives human characteristics to other states of matter. Sometimes not all phrases are stated clearly that is why symbolism is used to add a different effect to people’s writing to make it more interesting and intriguing. It states in the song Tribal Voice ‘All the people in
Despite there being hundreds of video game releases every year, most of these games are unoriginal and therefore unplayable. There are countless video game genres, but one of the most popular genres in the past few years have been the zombie games, also called survival games. I was thoroughly convinced that all the games in this genre were clichéd and overdone, until I played the video game The Last of Us. Even though it is a survival game, the focus is not on gruesome zombies or gratuitous violence, making it already vastly different from the others. Instead, the focus is on telling a story. Between the gorgeous graphics, serene music, and flawless acting, it already goes beyond being just another “zombie game,” but this isn’t even accounting
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.
In former Civil Rights Activist, Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “Beyond Vietnam-- A Time to Break Silence”, he asserts that the war in Vietnam is utterly immoral and has a far negative implication, not only for Vietnam but for the United States as well. In this speech, King uses three main rhetorical devices, in order to strengthen his position on this war. The three main rhetorical devices: ethos, pathos, and logos, are universally considered as the three necessary tools of persuasion in literature.
During the debate, we covered all three elements of the rhetorical appeals: pathos, logos and ethos. In the beginning, Jiale talked about the Second Amendment, stating that United States citizens have the right to keep and bear arms. She then applied this concept with a historical event of the independence war with Britain. From referring to the history, this established the ethos of our group. Audience knew that we have done research about the topic and our arguments are reliable. During the debate, we paid close attention to other
Rhetorical appeals apply to everyday life and the three sections of the rhetoric’s cover all elements of persuasion. Moore and Machiavelli do an outstanding job of explaining their points and why you should believe what they are saying. Both author’s did a great job of educating and informing their viewers although they were two significantly different pieces. Moore and Machiavelli’s work are each their own with respect to purpose and lessons but they also both come together in regards to using Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals.
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.
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
He says "we" almost 30 times, I like this because he does not want his listeners to work throuhg these hard times on their own. He wants to be there helping them throuhg these rou...
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.
She uses illusions and allusions by saying “We realize the importance of light when we see darkness.” and, “This is the compassion that I have learnt from Muhammad-the prophet of mercy, Jesus christ and Lord Buddha. This is the legacy of change that I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.” She uses a metaphor of “light and darkness” to show how we realize the importance of our voice when we cannot use it and need it the most. She additionally refers to famous icons and leaders of religion to compare herself to. Malala also gives statistics, saying 57 million children are not receiving the education they deserve. She makes the audience face the honest truth and continues to build her argument by saying, “The extremists are afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The power of the voice of women frightens them.” She uses this to connect education with women’s rights and how society treats women differently. Malala uses anaphora effectively, as well. With her repetition of the words “their right” in the 6th section of her speech, she passionately gets her point across, making us feel just as passionate. With Malala’s ability to speak confidently on this subject, she tries to unite us by using “We” and “Us”. Malala urges us to start a revolution, to join her in bringing change. This makes the audience feel as if she needs you personally, to help her cause. She also gains sympathy by mentioning the women and children struggling from
The media’s influence on society is a main issue, which is, portrayed though the lyrics. People believe a large quantity of information that is presented from news “One nation controlled by the media” and entertainment programs. The media is so powerful it can make the audience agree or disagree on whatever is being presented. Techniques are used such as repetition, which therefore positions the audience to lose trust in the media.
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.