House of Cards as Rhetorical Narrative
“Perhaps we are drawn to narrative because of the innate narrative quality within us” (Vico, 1725). Giambattista Vico, an Italian theorist, believed rhetorical narrative to be a part of our very being and psychological make-up as humans. Rhetorical discourse is seen as politic, ideological and a dialogue according to theorists like Vico, Mihkail Bakhtin and Wayne Booth. According to the theorists, Rhetoric can be symbolic action, situational, a narrative or display.
Pinpointing narrative, it can be broken down into novels, movies, poems, short stories and plays most often. Analyzing Rhetoric as a narrative, and how it affects our actions and thoughts, is one that ultimately draws our attention because of our innate qualities and how they resonate with the features of narrative.
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Frank Underwood is the Democratic Congressman and the House Majority whip in the White House. Frank’s wife, Claire, is an environmental activist, with her own non-profit organization. Motivated to be more than a Congressman, Frank seeks to move higher on the political ladder. Frank is promised Secretary of State by the President Elect-Walker, on one condition; Underwood must help Walker capture the post of President. Underwood, as the sly and successful politician that he is and has learnt to be, gets Walker his wish. Underwood, shortly before the swearing in of new President, President Walker, learns that he has been shorthanded with the deal. The rest of the season unfolds showing Underwood and his wife, ploting against and serving cold dishes of revenge to Walker and the rest of congress on his way up the political
Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his bold novel, The Scarlet Letter tackles a variety of themes that include: sin, guilt, redemption, postfeminism, and organized religion's abuse of power. Hawthorne spoke in a somber and grim tone, designed to arouse a sense of suspense for his readers. The audience in which he was addressing would have been conservative Christians and women suffragettes, all of whom reflected the ideologies during this time period. By instilling clever diction, Hawthorne exposes hypocrisy in Puritanism and objects against the religion's superfluous punishments; which force individuals to endure unnecessary and extreme suffering.
This postcard builds suspense in the reader’s mind. Alex saying that this adventure could kill him makes the reader interested in finding out more. “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man.” (Krakauer 3).
In the article written by Vincent Barnett, he explains the different reasons that Machiavelli might have written “The Prince”. He also mentions the lasting effects of” The prince” and also mentioned how Machiavelli was ridiculed and judged for his brutally honest writing. Barnett mentioned that Machiavelli had lost his job as the secretary to the chancery in Florence. After losing his job he was arrested, tortured, and became extremely bitter. One of the possible motives for writing “The Prince” was that Machiavelli was trying to get reinstated back into his old job. Machiavelli could have also intended” The Prince” to hit the audience as satirical. Possibly to poke fun at all the failures of the political leaders and to make them look unintelligent.
“McCandless didn’t conform particularly well to the bush casualty stereotype.” Jon Krakauer, in his book Into The Wild, argues that McCandless was a unique personality who yearned for adventure. He supports his claim by the usage of epigraphs, interviews with McCandless’s acquaintances, and various maps that are indicative of where the protagonist travelled. Krakauer's purpose is to use an argumentative structure in order to convince the audience that McCandless was more complex than previously known. He uses a nostalgic and commanding tone in order to emotionally appeal to an audience who may have originally had different opinions on McCandless. In Into The Wild, Krakauer employs techniques of ethos and speaker in order to thoroughly convey
Rhetoric is a persuasive tool, consisting of logos which is logic and reasoning, pathos which is emotional language and ethos which is character and fundamental values. Rhetoric is a fundamental thing used by pigs and importantly Squealer, whom persuade other animals to follow the pig’s decisions and needs.
Rhetoric is the study of how writers and speakers use words to influence an audience. Pathos, Logos, and Ethos are examples of rhetorical devices, where the rhetorician would appeal to an audience to prove a point. In both the Declaration of Independence and The American Crisis #1, the authors use several examples of rhetoric to persuade their audience in the 1700s, to separate themselves from England.
Many people wish they can drop everything important to them and isolate themselves from society; very few people will even attempt this, but Chris McCandless breaks societal norms to accomplish this goal. In Into the Wild, John Krakauer tells the story of this young man’s life to inspire the audience to chase their dreams through the use of logos, involved sentence, and anecdotes.
A prosecutor’s job is to find evidence to support his case against an individual accused of breaking the law while a defense attorney tries to present evidence to prove the innocence of the person accused. Neither can be truly be unbiased about their evidence but each of them is motivated to confirm a particular position. Much like a defense attorney, in his biography, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer attempts to prove that McCandless’s tragedy was not due to his incompetence or lack of knowledge about the wild. He asserts emotions and rational onto McCandless’s experience as well as drawing similarities between his personal experience and McCandless’s in order to create a more sympathetic response from readers.
Award winning journalist and author, Jon Krakauer, in his book, Into the Wild, analyzes the life of Chris McCandless as well as the events that ensued his death. Krakauer’s purpose is to inform the reader about how and why Chris McCandless decided to embark on a journey into the wilderness of Alaska. He adopts an empathetic tone in order to impart to his readers that Chris McCandless was a very misunderstood young adult.
Nevertheless, discourse plays a crucial role in the rhetorical analysis process, as Grant Davie explains, the process goes from establishing the subject to identifying where discourse comes from and finally evaluating its importance and point. Moreover, the chamber of commerce is trying to get primarily affluent individuals to move down to Winter Park, Florida. Moreover, to persuade them that living in Winter Park is everyone’s stereotypical American
Vonnegut is very keen to express his choice of words throughout the novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. The phrase that is mentioned the most is “so it goes”. This phrase is mentioned over a hundred times at full length of the novel. At every time someone dies in the novel or a tragedy happens Vonnegut ends the passage with “so it goes”. Because the main focus of the novel is on the bombing of Dresden, Vonnegut is making a point that the war is awful but inevitable. He uses repetition to promote how common and cruel war and death is, in the big scheme of things. An observation done by Allen says “The plain old death will be there anyways. It leads us to the idea that, given that we all must die anyway, often cruelly or prematurely. The commonness
Rhetoric gives you an avenue to tell a story from your perspective in a way that connects with the intended audience without having to be one hundred percent substantiated. This writing style is evident in almost everything we read from billboards to Internet ads and even political speeches.
The word rhetoric is a form of literature that is used when one is trying to be effective in speaking and writing. Most people will utilize rhetoric writing at the same time they are trying to write a persuasive essay and not even know it. Not only is it used to persuade but also to motivate the reader on a specific topic or subject. I believe its the most effective style of writing and speaking that there is. This brings me back about two years ago when I wanted a fast sports car for my 17th birthday. I knew it wasn't going to come easy since my parents were very aware of my poor driving habits. This is when I realized I was going to have to be rhetoric, so I did just that. First, I researched all the important safety features the car had.
Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address” and Emily Dickinson’s “Success is Counted Sweet,” are two inspirational pieces of art that fall under two different types of discourses. The “Second Inaugural Address,” is a great example and definition of what Rhetoric is. It encompasses all four resources of languages- argument, appeal, arrangement, and artistic devices. “Success is Counted Sweet,” doesn’t cover the four resources of language that apply to rhetoric; therefore, it is categorized as a poem.
Being a Political Science major, you will soon understand why picking this particular show; House of Cards would make perfect sense. I’ve chosen the very first episode to elaborate on because I believe that the story goes in a linear path, and it would make little sense to start in the middle of the series. I only watched one episode and not two; each one is about an hour long. We begin with House majority whip Frank Underwood. He explains the certain negotiating skills that you need to be a professional politician. I can infer that what he was describing felt real, because of that fact that almost every day we hear about bi-partisanship in congress and how they work together in order to form a good piece of legislation. After that, We meet another character; Claire Underwood, Frank’s wife. They are what you would consider being the couple that wants to seek refuge in the public spotlight. They talk openly about each other’s ambitions and when Frank does not get a cabinet position as Secretary of State in the newly elected President, not Frank, Claire was also noticeably deterred by this