September post - Mallory Clark

Mallory Clark

Christina Ivey

Communication & Culture

September 29, 2016

Blog Post: September

            “Rhetoric is an action that creates meaning, informing human beings about how to understand and react to the world” (Palczewski, Ice, and Fritch). This is a line from the article titled, “Rhetoric as Symbolic Action” where it describes the importance of rhetoric and its use in communication, persuasion and symbolic meaning. As a communication major I hear the word rhetoric all the time, I thought I had a pretty solid grasp on what it means until I read this article. It showed me that rhetoric is more than the way you put words together to have a more persuasive meaning, it’s symbols put to action by human beings to share ideas, it helps people come together and make decisions about matters of common concern and helps construct social reality. I thought it was interesting how symbols are a big part of rhetoric as well, I didn’t know they went hand in hand before. Symbols mean different things to everyone, I loved the article used an example of an American flag as a symbol. To some it represents freedom, other people might think of Christianity and faith, while others might think of corruption and greed. When combining symbols into rhetoric when we communicate it paints a picture of what we are trying to say more so than if we just have a symbol. The two work hand in hand to create meaning, provoke thought or feelings. The article also talks about how rhetoric is essential in a democratic society, I would agree. The way someone speaks can change everything, when rhetoric is implemented in speech they can have a great influence on people. Take Ronald Reagan and Adolf Hitler for example; both were famous and well known for very different reasons. The thing they have in common is the fact that they both were amazing speakers and rhetoric was present in every speech. They made people feel, think and act based on what they said. I love how rhetoric can not only provoke thought and feelings but it can also be powerful enough to create action. This article was so informative in that sense because rhetoric is around us all the time, we experience it and use it every day sometimes without even noticing. Rhetoric can also be different in cultures, my family is Colombian and the way I say things and use symbols in order to persuade wouldn’t work the same way or have the same effect if I’m around my Colombian side of my family. After reading this article I was more aware when people were using rhetoric and in my head I paid attention to symbols and how I thought of them. It’s crazy to think of how one can alter people’s decisions with the use of rhetoric, I’m noticing it all the time in everything around me, even in movies and television shows. One example I would like to share is in one of my favorite movies “The Lord of the Rings”, specifically the third movie in the trilogy, “Return of the King”. At the end of the movie where men need to fight against the goblins and evil creatures of Mordor, Aragorn spends one minute giving the group of men a battle speech before they fight together. The group of men fighting are from either Gondor or Rohan, these are two separate cities who didn’t always get along or see eye to eye. Nonetheless they came together in the end in order to fight evil and survive. In the battle speech Aragorn knew he had to make them work together and fight as one. He used rhetoric in this speech to not only motivate them but to change their viewpoint of each other in order to fight better. He started out stating the separation by saying, “Men of Gondor, men of Rohan; my brothers”. By this he was showing how they are different but mean the same to him. Then he finished off with the statement, “On this good earth I bid you stand, Men of the west”. It always gave me goosebumps when he said that and I never knew why. Aragorn changed from the beginning by separating them and then by the end of the speech he showed how we are one and we are all fighting for the same result.

Here is a link below to Aragorn’s battle speech so you can see the rhetoric being put to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwMUY5ro5Xo