For a person like me majoring in Computer Science, this talk highlighted the importance of presenting ideas to the world. Chris in his professional world is certainly a genius roboticist, but in this talk, he has to approach a wider audience, to show the product of his effort to the world. So, he used different rhetorically effective approaches like metaphors, contrasts to illustrate how self-driving can make commutes safe, and be usable for a versatile group of people. Moreover, people like me majoring
of a synecdoche both Walt Whitman in “I Hear America Singing” and Langston Hughes in “I, Too” answer the diverse question of what and who are Americans. Walt Whitman who is the author of “I Hear America Singing” was born May 31st, 1819 in West Hills, Long
Perversity and Lawrence’s Prussian Officer Ferdinand de Saussure developed his "theory of the sign" as part of a more general course on linguistics he taught in the nineteenth century. The "sign" represents the arbitrary relationship between the signifier (a word, or even a sound), and the signified (the meaning we give to the word or sound in our minds). For example, the word "can" signifies a cylindrical container to me, but could mean something entirely different to someone who does not
"The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor." [It is] "a sign of real genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars." Aristotle in Poetics. Poetry is language that says more than ordinary language. It uses figures of speech. Each figure of speech may suggest several meanings with minimal words. It uses words with strong connotations and these words appeal to the reader's emotions. The language in poetry is strong. The Oxford English
downfall. A metonymy is different being this is a term or phrase literally replacing a word to stand in for the importance of another word or group. This is also used often in Elizabethan Era works and playwrights. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” … “We must wait to hear from the crown until we make any further decisions.” We know that one is not asking someone to physically lend him an actual ear, rather he is expressing that he has something to say to the civilization and want
The mead-hall, Heorot, functions as a synecdoche throughout the story Beowulf, representing the warrior culture of the Scandinavians. It is used as a tool by the authors to criticize the flaws of the Nordic culture while emphasizing the superiority of Christianity. In the poem, the main character, the warrior Beowulf, is tasked with liberating the great mead-hall, Heorot, from the mighty demon known as Grendel—a task in which he is successful. However, the way the mead-hall portrays the Anglo-Saxon’s
Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York is a sequence of confusing scenes of a man’s life that seems to be coming to an end in a rush of time as he loses his spirit, his drive and even his mind. The fluidity of time will give us a look into how Caden’s life will soon fall apart. The mental and physical illnesses Caden experiences are all signs that he is on his way to his grave. Caden Cotard is a theater director who is fresh off his last successful production of Death of a Salesman. He was presented
apostrophe, synecdoche, and metaphors to express his theme of the poem. An apostrophe is when the writer is referring to an imaginary character so that they can detach themselves from their writing (“Apostrophe”). The apostrophe is used throughout the entire poem when Housman addresses the deceased athlete, while omitting those exact words. In writing, a “synecdoche is a literary device in which part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part” (“Synecdoche”). The synecdoche
In Weldon Kees’ poem, “For My Daughter,” the narrator speaks of the bleak, dismal, and pessimistic future they envision for their daughter. Kees conveys this poem’s message of the future through the usage of rhyme, cacophony, alliteration and synecdoche. Kees uses end rhymes throughout the poem to compare and place emphasis on certain words. While all of the lines rhyme with at least one other, there is a specific example of end rhyme in lines seven and nine: “Parched years that I have seen / Death
fearful imagery with intention to show how cruel the racists are. The symbolism used in the poem aims to cover what is primarily the cause of fear: color. At last he uses an unforeseen synecdoche as a way to portray the daughter. The poem embarks on an eye opening journey with fearful imagery, symbolism, unforeseen synecdoche, and irony to show how white supremacy prevails over society. Symbols of attack one imagistically used to illustrate control over African-Americans. The speaker adds words like
A synecdoche is when a part of phrase is used to represent something as a whole. Martin Luther King demonstrated this device when he stated, “There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the negro is granted his citizen.” He’s insisting that there will be no peace until the negro has citizenship rights in America. The “negro” MLK is referring to in this statement isn’t just one person, it is for the whole “negro” community as a whole. He was using an example of synecdoche to express
The poem “Ulysses” is written in exactly seventy lines and in these seventy lines the poet uses synecdoche, personification, meter, and metaphors. All of these are used in hope of making the last line climatic. The last line is a quotable ending phrase “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.”(4, 70) The indecisiveness of the speaker when struggling to decide whether to stay or leave Ithaca to voyage to the “untraveled world” (2, 20) summarizes the poem. Throughout the poem it is obvious which
mother married his lesser uncle believing that his father and his mother were truly in love. Hamlet finds that neither religion nor his family can give him support. Hamlet’s soliloquy in this scene features many literary rhetorical devices such as synecdoches, metaphors, allusions, and personification. His miserable attitude conveys that the world is nasty and a bitter to place to live in and that fighting through it requires overcoming obstacles such as thoughts of suicide, depression, and religion
Rhetorical Figures in Leda and the Swan "Leda and the Swan," a sonnet by William Butler Yeats, describes a rape. According to Perrine, "the first quatrain describes the fierce assault and the foreplay; the second quatrain, the act of intercourse; the third part of the sestet, the sexual climax" (147). The rape that Yeats describes is no ordinary rape: it is a rape by a god. Temporarily embodied in the majestic form of a swan, Zeus, king of the gods, consummated his passion for Leda, a mortal
criticism, Henrik Ibsen challenged societal norms and promoted feminism, or at least equal rights, through the play. Henrik Ibsen uses Nora and Torvald as synecdoches for greater social ideologies, and through the conflict between them, he establishes a social critique of patriarchy and promotes equality. Torvald Helmer is portrayed as a synecdoche for patriarchal values through characterization and his tone towards Nora. Helmer repeatedly refers to Nora in a demeaning tone, through nicknames one would
More specifically, she uses synecdoche in saying, “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue / Who says my hand a needle better fits” (21-2). She utilizes synecdoche in choosing to draw attention to the “carping tongue” of those who would criticize her and keep her working only in the home. She also uses synecdoche to show the envy the speaker has of the great poet Bartas when she says, “But when my wond’ring eyes and envious
most of life, may well end up being all there is to show for it when old age presents itself. Throughout the poem, Eliot pioneers themes which a hundred years later still remain greatly present in works of literature and art, Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche New York being a prime example. At first glance, avoiding the pessimistic tone of Eliot’s, The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock seems almost impossible. From the comparison of the sky to “a patient etherized upon a table”(Eliot 1), to the “restless
and move on, Navajo elders forged a connection between the illness and modern cultural behaviors; they called their people to “return to their old ways” (37). Oral history teaches the Navajo be aware of changes in the land and to protect Navajo synecdoche by avoiding ominous threats like rodents (35). But more significantly, oral history, as taught by the elders, requires the Navajo to respect their ceremonial dances, winter shoe games, and spiritual artifacts by refusing to sell their culture for
scene, we have Canterbury and Ely discussing the fate of England and France under the rule of King Henry, and wondering at the change that came over Henry upon the advent of his father’s death. Using plenty of imagery, along with the metonymy and synecdoche that is so common throughout Henry V, they talk about his sudden bloom into kingship, how no one might have guessed he was half as knowledgeable as he acted in Henry IV Part I. In the dialogue before these particular lines, they talked about a bill
Michelangelo.” Prufrock thinks so little of himself that he does not even allow himself to simply have a peach or speak to women. At the end of the poem he speaks about mermaids “singing, each to each” but he does not think they will sing to him. Through synecdoche, personification, and allusion, he supports a message that some people are so overwhelmed by the world and of failure that they soon become stuck in a place where they feel unwanted and doubtful of themselves. Overall the tone of the poem is sad