Reflective Post

1) What information did you find useful in this class?

I really enjoyed my time in Rhetorical Criticism. I found most the methods very interesting, but the one i found most interesting was Pentadic Criticism. This was because it made it easier for me to see how people who do advertising and marketing made something appealing to an audience.

2) What was your favorite part of this class?

My favorite part of the class, were the group discussions because we always had so much to say and unique views. My other favorite part, was looking at everyone's artifacts because they were always interesting, like the movies, books and songs.

3) What do you think was the most challenging aspect of this class?

The most challenging aspect of the class was trying to find the right artifact. This was because many of the artifacts I wanted to do, would be difficult to make 700+ words for a decent essay.

4) How might you incorporate the knowledge and experiences gained from this class into your life beyond this classroom?

I will use metaphorical criticism to help me understand more songs and find a deeper meaning. This will help me discover different artists that I may like because they have similar metaphors.

5) Think of a question or issue that is most pressing to you right now. How would you use your knowledge of rhetoric and/or rhetorical criticism to gain perspective on this question or issue?

I would use my knowledge of Ideological Criticism or another method to gain perspective to see what the writer might be trying to portray.

Fantasy Theme

For the next paper, i will use Fantasy Theme criticism to analyze the movie, "Harold and Kumar go to White Cancel". The main characters in this movie are Harold and Kumar. They both are college students, but Harold reflects the fun loving non chalant attitiude that many college students have, while Kumar reflects the college student who strives to do well and impress his family. They both are presented in to be easily identified within an audience of people from around the ages of 17-25. The boys want to go to White Castle, a place they have heard of that has the best food around but the obstacle, is that they are far away and run into alot of things that hinder them from reaching White Castle and returning for Kumar's exam. The plot of the stories has alot of things that people will see in college, like keg parties and marjuana. This story is very similar to the American Pie movies because they both deal with college experiences and the sometimes fun and sometimes awkward things that happen. The symbolic convergence in this movie, are "weed aka marajuana smoking" and "Neal Patrick Harris", "exctasy" "hitch-hiking"

Sorority Row

My artifact to analyze is the movie Sorority Row. This movies is about a group of girls in a high class college sorority called Theta Pi. The ladies in this sorority choose to play a cruel joke on a boyfriend who cheated. The prank goes wrong when the girl who is pretending to be dead is killed by the boyfriend. The boyfriend was trying to make sure she was dead and get rid of the evidence (her body) so he stabs her and actually kills her.

The themes in this show a sense of security because many of the college greek life has secrets and in this movie, the accidental killing of the girl, named Megan, was one. These girls stuck together through it all. They bond together to have a same story and create alibis so the police cant arrest anyone. Another Fantasy theme in this movie is "the perfect family". This is because, many of the girls wanted to call the police after killing the girl. But one of the girl's father was a senator and the president of the sorority made a hypothetical story. She told her "how would the press view your father and his senator campaign if it leaked that his daughter was a murderer."

Inglorious Bastards

Inglorious Bastards is about a guerilla war group sent into Germany to kill Hitler. This group uses disguises and other means to get close to Hitler's whereabout. While trying to locate and kill him they run into a woman named Shoshanna Dreyfus. She was a Jewish woman who saw her family get murdered and is plotting revenge on the Nazis. One of the Nazi officers falls for her and wants to use her theater to show a movie about the greatness of the Nazi's. He doesn't know that she is a Jew and promises that all the top officers including Hitler will be at this movie. Shoshanna meets the "Bastards" and they work together to bring the Nazi's down in a fiery death.

Ideological criticism is shown in this movie. One of the many ideals shown is ethnocentrism. This is because the Nazi's put their world and ideals higher than anyone else's. They put the Jews in a category lower than everyone else because the Nazi's thought they were inferior. An example of this is when Shoshanna's family was killed in front of her eyes.

Presentation

-a brief description of your artifact

-information about what personally interests you in this artifact

-the significance of analyzing this artifact

-the method of criticism you will use to analyze the artifact and why

I like my artifact because i am a rihanna fan, and i have been following her career from when she first came out as a long haired innocent island beauty, to her good girl gone bad phase and now to the post chris brown half naked phase. :) This video is a single off her new CD and the video looked really interesting because of her lyrics and the way she portrayed them in the video, with the gun,jail and scenes where she is bleeding. I will use ideological criticism to show that that "love is easy to fall in but hard to get out of" because the video seems to be talkin about a couple who cant decide which person should break up, hence the passing of the pistol.

Pentadic Criticism.

Using Pentadic Criticism, I analyzed the fairy tail, Cinderella. The Agent in this tale, is Cinderella. This is because she is the main character of the story.

The Act for this tale is that she wants to live happily ever after.

The Scene in this fairy tale, i believe is the village where Cinderella and her Step family live. This is because, it is the main scene of the whole tale. Everything takes place in or around the village. The agents Purpose is to escape the horrible conditions that she lives under. Her step mother is mean and evil and makes her clean and do horrible chores for her step sisters. They make Cinderella sleep by the fireplace and give her old clothes to wear. The Agency is how the agent accomplish the act. The agency for this tale is, that her fairy godmother helps her by magically creating a dress and she meets the prince and they married, meaning she escaped her Step Family's household.

Rihanna: Russian Roulette

My artifact to be analyzed is the song and music video, Russian Roulette, by the Carribean pop artist, Rihanna. This song is featured on her most recent CD entitled, “Rated R.” This song has went gold in the United States and is her most recent single. To begin, this song is called Russian Roulette. Russian Roulette, is a type of suicide game that people play. It involves putting a single bullet in the chamber of a gun or pistol. This barrel is spun, pointed at the player’s head and the trigger is pulled. The object of the game is simply to not die.
This song and video has been confidential because the fact that Rihanna is a teen idol. In her video she is in a asylum where she pleads to the guard and observers singing ,”And you can see my heart beating, you can see it beating, im terrified….so to past the test…just pull the trigger” Throughout this video, there are sign the can give the viewer a reason to believe she is talking about killing herself over life. Another part of the video is where the outline of her heart shows through her skin in a outline of blood. Also, there is a scene where she sits across from the man she is in love with and on the table there is a gun. During the whole video they pass the gun back and forth, playing “Russian Roulette”.
Another section of the video is when, Rihanna is swimming and a stream of bullets fly through the water and some of the bullets miss her but a few pierce her helpless body. This video tries to explain how love can be so hard. I think she is trying to explain a relationship that had problems and is now on the verge of ending. She wants the relationship to end but she is not sure and does not want to “pull the trigger.” At the end of the video, a single gun shot is heard and the camera is not on Rihanna. This shows that it was not Rihanna who “pulled the trigger” but the young man sitting across from her.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RihannaVEVO#p/u/6/ZQ2nCGawrSY