Journal #2 – Excerpt from Chapter 47, Tess of the D’Urbervilles

I am working on another, similar passage from this book for my midterm, so I thought I would offer up this one for some analysis. I am struck by the sense of doom in this scene. In the novel, Tess is raped and “ruined” at 16 by her supposed cousin. She eventually marries for love but when she confesses her impurity, her husband deserts her. In this scene, she is working herself to death to survive while being pursued a second time by her cousin.

It is the threshing of the last wheat-rick at Flintcomb-Ash Farm. The dawn of the March morning is singularly inexpressive, and there is nothing to show where the eastern horizon lies. Against the twilight rises the trapezoidal top of the stack, which has stood forlornly here through the washing and bleaching of the wintry weather.
When Izz Huett and Tess arrived at the scene of operations, only a rustling denoted that others had preceded them; to which, as the light increased, there were presently added the silhouettes of two men on the summit. They were busily “unhailing” the rick, that is, stripping off the thatch before beginning to throw down the sheaves; and while this was in progress Izz and Tess with the other women-workers in their whitey-brown pinners stood waiting and shivering, Farmer Groby having insisted upon their being on the spot thus early to get the job over if possible by the end of the day. Close under the eaves of the stack, and as yet barely visible, was the red tyrant that the women had come to serve—a timber-framed construction, with straps and wheels appertaining—the threshing machine, which, whilst it was going, kept up a despotic demand upon the endurance of their muscles and nerves.

Everything in the passage seems symbolic of men dominating, raping, and torturing women. The machine is a medieval torture device with “straps and wheels.” I could change the first sentence to, “It is the beating of the last ounce of stamina from Tess.” I find it interesting that the tense changes from present to past between the two paragraphs.
Words that signify dominance: operations, stripping, throw down, insisted, tyrant, serve, demand, despotic, endurance.
Words that signify submission: inexpressive, lies, forlornly, bleaching, washing, waiting, shivering.

Journal Entry #1 Excerpt from Great Expectations, chapter 1

Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things, seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana wife of the above, were dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond was the river; and that, the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip.

I chose this passage from the first chapter of Great Expectations because Lanham used the opening of Bleak House, and it made me curious to see if I could find anything interesting in another Dickens’ opening. I have played with it a bit and meekly suggest the following. (Help me out. I feel like a big moron with these new, often hard to distinguish between terms, and I know it is time to submit our midterms.) First, I looked at nouns and verbs and it seems to be a static style with an abundance of nouns, forms of the verb ‘to be,’ and prepositional phrases. And maybe it sounds a bit bureaucratic especially with the obituary-like descriptions of the family. There is the obvious repetition of “and that” which is what? It’s not anaphora because it doesn’t begin lines or sentences, but it connects the list of items the speaker is identifying or naming. I don’t quite see isocolons following “and that” but there is a clear pattern of what a thing looks like and what it is. Bleak place=church; family=dead; wilderness=marshes; line=river; lair=sea; and bundle of shivers=Pip. Is this periodic style or running? There seems to be a movement from the giant idea of death and the immensity of the outside world to the tiny insignificance of the narrator, an orphan child. How do these patterns, if there are truly patterns here, affect the content of the narrator trying to identify himself in his world? -Laura

Journal Entry #2 - The "it" factor

Let me preface this journal entry by saying that thanks to the technology of DVRs I rarely watch commercials anymore. But, my New Year’s resolution to lose weight has placed me on the elliptical machine for 45 minutes a day without the luxury of the remote, so I am frequently at the mercy of what’s on. I have become fascinated with the current trend in commercials to use the word “it.” You fellow teachers know the battle with this neutered pronoun – but the word is becoming a staple of high profile commercials. The first commercial that grabbed my attention with the “it factor” was Ebay’s new campaign. “Whatever it is you can get it at ebay.” Click Here For Ebay Ad The commercial runs a series of images that imply groundbreaking, astonishing, and future altering results after obtaining “it.” The second commercial that I noticed has capitalized on the “it factor” is the Gatorade commercial “Is it in you?” Click Here for Gatorade Ad Images of stellar athletes at the height of their events are depicted as the words “it is in here” scroll by and vanish.

I am currently working with my high school students on arguments in advertising and this “it factor” reminds me of the appeal to curiosity that is working its way through advertising. Many high brand companies are sparking interest in their products by creating curiosity. Consumers go online to seek further information about the product and while online become ready-made customers. Moreover, the “it factor” in these commercials reminds me of Lanham’s periodic style as elucidated in chapter 3. The periodic style works with “balance, antithesis, parallelism and careful patterns of repetition.” The clever repetition of “it” in the Ebay ad is smart and implies achievement. The repetition of “it” in the Gatorade commercial links images of success with the company’s slogan. Additionally, I think these commercials reflect the pathos position, appealing to our emotional need for success and our desire to satisfy curiosity.

Journal Entry

Peace Little Girl (Daisy)

The rhetoric I have chosen for my first journal piece is one of the most controversial political commercials in history. I have included a transcript here, but if you have a media player I strongly recommend that you click the link and choose the Peace Little Girl (Daisy) thumbnail (it is the second from the top in the left hand column). The sounds and images are essential to really understanding the impact of this commercial. Some of you may have seen it before, or heard about it. The commercial was only run once on television and then pulled because it had such a profound effect on television audiences.

Peace Little Girl (Daisy)

Click Here For Daisy Commercial

Transcript:
SMALL CHILD [with flower]: One, two, three, four, five, seven, six, six, eight, nine, nine ....

MAN: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.

[Sounds of exploding bomb.]

JOHNSON: These are the stakes: To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the darkness. We must either love each other, or we must die.

ANNOUNCER: Vote for President Johnson on November 3rd. The stakes are too high for you to stay home.


Analysis:
The commercial begins with the innocent voice of a little girl struggling to count the petals of a daisy. She sits in nature with the sounds of birds chirping in the background. Then a male voice overpowers the littlle girl in a different kind of countdown as the camera zooms into the eye of the little girl to reveal an explosion.

The statement made by Johnson represents a tacit persuasion pattern. Isocolons are structured in an either/or pattern:

to make a world in which all of God's children can live
we must love each other

or

to go into the darkness
we must die

The announcer's statement (voiced over a black background with the phrase "vote for President Johnson on November 3rd ") represents the directive. According to Lanham, this simple phrase would reflect high style because it is serious, dramatic, and emotional.

As a matter of fact, the whole commercial represents a high style. The drama of the mushroom cloud, the emotional draw of the child juxtaposed to the dramatic countdown is meant to be persuasive from a pathos perspective. There is no logic in the argument; it functions on fear. It isn't surprising that this commercial is considered one of the first mudslinging commercials in television history. The implication that a vote for Goldwater means certain death is a pretty serious accusation.

How to make a link to a web site

When you click on "Leave Your Comment" in the text box to enter your information, if you would like to make a link to another web site (i.e. for your rhetorical journal) simply copy the web address and add an html link tag which looks like this:

<A HREF="http://www.google.com">Click Here For Google</A>
Note: in this example we are using the web address for google. The information around the web address is what creates a clickable link. It includes the less than symbol (<), the syntax A= HREF, and the greater than symbol (>) followed by the web address and ended with the less than symbol (<), a slash (/), the letter A, and the greater than symbol (>).

Here's What's Happening

A stands for Anchor. It begins the link to another page.

HREF stands for Hypertext REFerence. That's a nice, short way of saying to the browser, "This is where the link is going to go."

http://www.google.com is the FULL ADDRESS of the link. Also notice that the address has an equal sign in front of it and is enclosed in quotes. Why? Because it's an attribute of the Anchor tag, a command inside of a command.

Where it reads "Click Here For Google" is where you write the text you want to appear on the page. What is in that space will appear on the page for the viewer to click. So, write something that denotes the link.

/A ends the entire link command.

First Class Meeting

Just a reminder: Our first class meeting is on January 3rd at 3:30. The meeting location is yet to be determined.

English 504

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