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"Waiting for Superman" Visual Rhetoric Paper

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“One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman didn’t exist... I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us.” Just as many children look up to fictional characters such as Superman, parents rich or poor, look up to our school system to educate their children. However, too many of these parents are beginning to realize that proper education, like Superman, is nonexistent. In Waiting for “Superman,” Davis Guggenheim addresses the teachers union about the failing public school system in America. Through the use of ethos, anecdotes, statistics and visual and audio elements, Guggenheim attacks a problem too precious to let slip through our fingers. Davis Guggenheim is a father. …show more content…

And of course, we can’t forget Bill Gates. In fact his view may even have the most impact of all. Bill Gates is rich, extremely rich. He may have dropped out of Harvard University, but he’s rich. So it may seem senseless to include him in a documentary that is trying to prevent drop outs right? However if Gates was able to drop out of a prestigious college and then go on to be the second richest man in the world, what does that say about education? Perhaps if every child was given the opportunity to receive the same education Gates had, by the next few generations the U.S. could be spewing with millions of “Bill Gates” ready to become billionaires. These three individuals are great components that establish a strong sense of ethos for the film, but the personal stories of the five families’ struggles are what truly making it moving. Guggenheim's use of pathos in the film is horrible. Horrible in the sense that the audience is sucked into a black hole of empathy for these five families. There is Anthony the boy who lost his father to drugs. Bianca, the little girl who couldn't graduate. Daisy, the girl who has the brains but not the school. Francisco, so adorable it breaks you’re heart he can’t receive proper education. Emily, the one who is almost out of time. It’s not a coincidence all of these children have at least one challenging condition they live with everyday. Nor is it coincidence that every

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