Rhetorical Critique On The Cat's In The Cradle '

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Lessons in Time and Life:
A Rhetorical Critique on “The Cat’s in the Cradle”
I. Intro
The majority of children cannot wait to become a grown up. Too late they realize that growing older isn’t as glamourous as they thought. People are always taught to learn from our mistakes, but what if some mistakes take too long to realize? Many people learn life’s lessons too late. Children and adults are taught through fairy tales, songs, books, television shows, and movies lessons on how to live life and avoid mistakes. Songs and music are important because they connect to emotions. They project images into people’s minds through the lyrics, and the song itself can have a special meaning and emotion to different people.
Music connects to the emotions present …show more content…

The song didn’t have anything to do with the class at the time, but my professor liked the song and wanted us to try and understand what it is about. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my teacher was trying to get the students to look at the music rhetorically. The song “The Cat’s in the Cradle” came out in 1974, and is based on a song written by Harry Chapin and his wife Sandy (Harry Chapin – Cats in the Cradle). The song is about how quickly time goes by. A man keeps putting off spending time with his son because he is too busy with work. Once he is older and has more time, the tables turn and he finds that his son is now the one who is too busy to spend quality time. When the son was younger he always said “I’m gonna be like you dad, you know I’m gonna be like you”. Once the father is old he sadly realizes that his son really did become like him.
The topic of “The Cat’s in the Cradle” is time, and life. The fact that once time is gone, it’s gone for good. There is no making up for lost time, and you cannot change what you didn’t do. Enjoy life while you can because there is no making up for it when you are no longer busy. It’s easy to hear and listen to advice, but it is much more difficult to follow through with advice in the moment. The song uses the imagery of a man’s life passing by and how it has influences his son’s

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