What Rhetoric do you remember being employed during and in the aftermath of 9/11?
Well on September 11, 2001 I was sitting in my fifth grade classroom. All of a sudden one of the teachers came running in with tears streaming down her face and she said the Twin Towers have been hit. My teacher gets up in a panic and lines us all up to head down to the library to watch the TV.
At this point there wasn't much discussion or even talking for that matter. The adults were in shock and us kids were confused with what was going on. Once we reached the library all I remember is seeing live footage of the aftermath, the flames and panicking people, and the replay of the airplane hitting the towers.
On the bus ride home everyone was quite again. We were all listening to the radio. I still wasn't sure of what had happened. When I got home, my mom sat me down and explained to me what was going on. After that I began to worry, because my dad was on the east coast for his job. Thankfully he was safe.
During this time, there wasn't any persuasion going on. The people were already persuaded. We had an enemy, a War on Terrorism, that united the entire country. The days following I remember seeing people pray and gather together to support one another. I heard about all of the heroes on TV and the supportive speeches being made about our fallen citizens.
As far as rhetoric goes, a lot of symbols were used in the process of communicating to the citizens: TV footage of aftermath, replays of the crash, interviews with family members of the fallen, images of the American flag. Some speeches were persuasive in nature when it came to discussing the action the U.S. was prepared to take. When addressing this pathos was used significantly. The audience was extremely important in this case because it was not only U.S. citizens, but the entire world, even the ones who attacked us.
As far as introductions, I liked Borchers' introduction best. It was the easiest for me to follow, especially since I do not have a strong background in Rhetoric. It gave good breaking points to stop and think about the points made or to take a rest. I don't have a long attention span, so I need this. I started reading Herrick's introduction before the class started, but stopped after the book was changed. I really liked the introduction as far as I read. It was intriguing and Herrick really grabbed my attention.
Glad to hear, Mira, that you liked Borchers. I was hoping so. I think it's a fresh way of presenting rhetoric, as you say. Definitely the phrase "war on terror" making terror an enemy we can all relate to. Much rhetoric being used, for better or worse. Do you think your teacher in the 5th grade did the right thing? Was it important that people watched the event live?
ReplyDeleteWatching the event live definitely stained the event in my memory forever. I can't say that it was right or wrong because I was honestly too young to comprehend what was going on and my teachers didn't really know the extent of what was happening either until we were already watching. They couldn't have known the sequence of events. I do wish they would've explained things a little better to us, but I understand that they were in shock too.
DeleteWould you say, perhaps, that the pathos was addressed more to the world, in order to secure backing? I'm asking, because I don't really think the American people needed a lot of convincing that something had to be done to avenge the fallen. Do you remember anything in particular that stood out as reaching to other nations, as opposed to focus specifically on the US?
ReplyDeleteI agree that we didn't need a lot of convincing. At that point I don't think the rest of the world needed that much either. I think it was afterward that we kept trying to remind the world and ourselves what had happened is when we really appealed to pathos. The thing I remember most is the TV broadcasts of the wreckage and footage of people searching for survivors.
DeleteOne interesting though that came to mind as I read your post was the idea of silence. We usually look at rhetorical choices as deliberate use of symbols, but does silence count as a rhetorical choice as well? We definitely feel something as a result of this silence and I'm pretty sure it was a conscious choice. It'd be interesting to look at the role of silence in rhetorical studies.
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