Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is a religious and philosophical movement developed during the late 1820s and 30s. It was a protest against the general state of spiritually and the state of intellectualism at Harvard University. I do not think that I fit into these characteristics, but I do agree with some of the ideas. Transcendentalists were strong believers in the power of the individual. This is one thing that I do agree with. I think that one person can have so much impact on everyone else. MLK for example still makes an impact on our world, even after his death.

                Another idea that these people possessed was that they believe that people are their best when they solely rely on themselves and are independent. I disagree with this. Nobody is truly self-reliant. Communities are formed based off of everyone being dependent of each other.  Being dependent is needed for a community to function properly.

Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby film is one of the most popular throughout the world. The Baz Luhrmann version incorporates classical 20's jazz, but with a hint of newer music to attract the younger generations. By doing this, it strengthened the movie as a whole. Music, to me, helps the audience understand the movie. The music tells us if it is a sad, happy, angry, or suspenseful scene. By adding the newer music that the audience is familiar with really reals them in and assisting them with identifying each character and what kind of person today they would relate to.

 One thing I vividly remember when reading The Great Gatsby is how everything and everyone was personified to symbolize money. Gatsby’s silk-spun shirts are either gold or silver or green-colored. Every one of the characters is assigned a specific value, which Nick precociously weighs in his mind. In short, everyone in this book looks like money, and fittingly, this soundtrack resounds like thick coins clinking together in a pile. Luhrmann and Jay-Z both know that hype sells.

Bowling for Columbine

To persuade his audience, Michael Moore used rhetoric strategies to show the audience how dangerous guns are. The main techniques that Moore used included pathos, ethos, and logos. By the use of these three rhetoric strategies, his argument against guns became stronger and more persuasive.

Pathos is a rhetoric technique used throughout the entire video. This is the emotion based argument. Moore travels to Columbine to show the audience the pain and suffering the town went through after the shooting. He also brought in two victims from the shooting, which touched the audience's hearts even more. This was a strength because by getting the audience emotionally connected, they are more likely to be persuaded that direction.

Along with emotion comes ethos. Ethos is the argument of values. Throughout this video, gun laws were the main topic. Moore discussed with a variety of people about their views on guns and how safety regarding guns should be handled. This topic comes with infinite answers because every person has different morals and values. To be persuaded by Moore, one's values of guns must match Moore's. This is a strength, but could be considered a weakness, depending on the audience.

Logos uses facts as an argument and was the strongest strategy Moore used. Straight facts are hard to argue with. There is no way around the facts of the number of people killed by a gun a year in America. Moore discussed shootings that occurred and showed people the hard facts about America and how violent we are compared to the rest of the world. Hopefully this became a reality check for the United States.