What Is 42 A Rhetorical Artifact

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Breaking Barriers by 42 The rhetorical artifact that I have chosen to evaluate is the biographical sports film titled 42: The Jackie Robinson Story. This movie covers the rise of Jackie Robinson, the first Black athlete to play in a professional sports league, in the world of professional baseball. When thinking about Robinson in today’s context, we think of him as a legend and one of the best to ever grace the baseball diamond in the history of America’s pastime. He broke down the color barrier and made massive strides in the movement of inclusiveness, not just in sports, but in life altogether. Throughout this film, Robinson’s life is depicted in a rather explicit manner, but it all has a reason. 42 is a racial project that successfully suggests …show more content…

After spending the 1946 season with the Royals, Robinson is offered a contract with the Dodgers by Rickey for the 1947 season, and he accepts it. The 1947 season ensues with Robinson being the Dodgers’ first baseman, and by the end of the movie, Robinson leads the Dodgers to winning the pennant over the Pirates, sending them to the World Series. Brian Helgeland was the writer and director of the film, which means he was the creator of this artifact. All writers and directors of films want the audience to form a deep emotional connection between a character and the audience, and when looking at 42, the obvious connection that Helgeland wants the audience to make is with Jackie Robinson. This stems from Helgeland’s fandom for Robinson. In an interview, Helgeland stated that he is a big fan of the man who wore the number forty-two for the Brooklyn Dodgers “because of his courage and bravery on a day-to-day basis that he showed for years. I was fascinated by that” (Wakelee Lynch). The bravery that Helgeland is referring to is Robinson’s ability to continue playing in the MLB despite the outrageous amounts of racism he was dealing …show more content…

As I was combing through the internet, I did not find any other rhetorical scholars that examined the 42 film, but I found an entry written in a California State University, San Bernardino scholarly journal of history titled History in the Making. In this article, Alexandra Martin reviews the 42 movie. In her piece, she argued that “42 did a great job at showing what life was like for all African Americans in the mid-twentieth century, not just Jackie Robinson. Throughout the film, Robinson's wife and friends had to challenge segregation. Jackie and Rachel Robinson were kicked off a flight, because Rachel used a ‘whites only’ restroom. This shows how close minded and unfair society is” (Martin). When I think about the movie with Martin’s argument in mind, I realize that there were other Black individuals that had their experiences depicted in the movie. Martin’s argument sets the foundation for parts of my argument. Her point indicates that all Black people were treated in a very similar and horrible way in those days, and my argument states that the movie helps audiences understand that we have made progress with how Black people are treated in America

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