Reflective Post

Communication 335 Rhetorical Criticism was a class I would have never considered taking on my own, but I really enjoyed it. The class taught me how to write papers using methods of criticism, to analyze different artifacts. I liked how we could analyze pretty much anything we wanted with these different methods. In the long run, I think it helped my writing skills, and taught me a whole new way of how to think critically, and approach artifacts from a different angle. My favorite part of this class, was hearing all of the different ideas that the classmates came up with to analyze. They came up with some of the most interesting things, that I would have never thought of. The most challenging aspect of this class, was that it was hard to grasp some of the methods. There were certain times when it was hard to understand the methods and could be challenging to apply those methods when we were writing. I can use what I did learn from this class and incorporate it into my everyday life. I could simply see a commercial, or some sort of artifact, and automatically think about, and apply a method of criticism in my head. This class has made it better for me to challenge myself and think outside of the box. I am not really sure what questions or issues I have that are pressing to me right now, but when I do, using rhetoric will allow me to challege things that are not usually challenged and view things from a different light. I really enjoyed this class, and I am sad to see it end! It was very Intriguing. I went into the class not knowing what it was about, and came out with a whole new understanding on rhetorical criticism.

Essay #2 Ideas

It has been hard for me to pick an artifact for this second essay, I have been racking my brain over it, but I decided I was going to use an idea I had at the beginning of the semester.

The artifact I am going to analyze through is www.Postsecret.com. I would analyze this artifact with Pentadic criticism. The Postsecrets is a website and a book, but since I do not have one of the books I am going to analyze the website. Postsecret.com is website where you can view all kinds of "secrets" people send in on the back of a postcard. It is a form of art, for people to be creative and express themselves through there trials/tribulations or about the good times of life, love and happiness. The postcards are anonymous sent in to the address 1335 Copper Ridge Road, Germantown Maryland to a man named frank, who started this whole tradition. The website is revealing the secrets that were sent to him. You can view the exact postcard, not just what is written on them.
Agent-the person sending the secret
Act-The secret or sending the secret
Agency-The postcard
Scene- the minds of the person sending the secret
Purpose-to expose the secrets they have kept bottled up inside.

Scene - Act: yes
Scene - agent: no
Scene - agency: yes
Scene - purpose: yes

Act - Scene: no
Act - Agent: no
Act - Agency: Yes
Act - Purpose: yes

Agent - Scene: yes
Agent-Act: yes
Agent - Agency: yes
Agent - Purpose: yes

Agency-Scene – yes
Agency - Act – yes
Agency- Agent-no
Agency-purpose-yes

Purpose-Scene: no
Purpose-act: yes
Purpose-agent: no
Purpose-agency: yes

As a result of these ratio's, the most dominant element that is the controlling term is the agent.


Another idea I thought about doing, is a song called Penny and Me by Hanson. I know Hanson is not supposed to be cool anymore, but their new music and lyrics are pretty good. I really liked this song and thought it would be good for metaphor criticism.

Cigars in the summertime under the sky by the light,
I can feel her read my mind,
I can see it in her eyes,
Under the moon as it plays,
Like music every line,
There's a rug with bleeding dye under the fan in the room,
Where the passion's burning high,
By the chair with the leopard skin under the light,
It's always Penny and me tonight (Sayin' OhOh),

On the plane step up with both my feet,
Riding in seat number 3 on a flight to NYC,
Got my bean in a coffee cup next to my seat,
Catch the view and another good book to read,
Sitting at home on the friendly sky's,
Missin' her eyes,
It's always Penny and me tonight,

Cause Penny and me like to roll the windows down,
Turn the radio up,
and push the pedal to the ground,
And Penny and me like to gaze at starry sky's,
Close our eyes, pretend to fly,It's always Penny and me tonight,

Staring at a million city lights,
But still Penny and I are all alone beneath the sky,
Feel the wind brushing slowly by,
If I could soar I would try,
to take these wings and fly,
Away to where the leaves turn red,
But no matter where I am instead,
Singin' along to feelin' alright, (MmMm) or makin' it by in the pink moonlight,
It's always Penny and me tonight,

Cause Penny and me like to roll the windows down,
Turn the radio up,
push the pedal to the ground,
And Penny and me like to gaze at starry skies,
Close our eyes, pretend to fly,
(Singing OhOh)Close our eyes pretend to fly,
It's always Penny and me tonight,

penny likes to get away,
And drown her pain, in lemonade,
And Penny Dreams Of Rainy Days,
And Nights Up Late By The Fireplace
And aimless conversations bout' the better days,

Singin' along to feeling alright,
yeah,makin' it by in the pink moonlight,
It's always Penny and me tonight,

Cause Penny and me like to roll the windows down,
Turn the radio up, push the pedal to the ground,
And Penny and me like to gaze at starry skies,
close our eyes pretend to fly,(Sing OhOh)
close our eyes pretend to fly,
It's always Penny and me tonight,Sing OhOh)

Penny and me tonight,
Penny and me tonight,Penny
and me tonight.(yeah)

I think that the song is not just talking about a girl, its talking about music, and how music is free-spirited, happy, love. Music can relate to how love and relationships can make you feel. Music can make you feel just as happy and loved as this girl "Penny" could. Music would be the Tenor and happiness and love would be the vehicle.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbowBluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbowWhy, oh why can't I?

Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland, I think, makes people think of fairytales and childhood. I thing most everyone thinks or feels something when they hear this song.

Character Theme: I, me; the song is in first person; therefore the character would be the person singing the song or reading the lyrics. The character is whoever puts themselves in the position of this song. Other characters, but not the main characters, are the birds, and bluebirds.


Setting Theme: The setting is this place “somewhere over the rainbow.” It is representing a place that is better than here, where there are no troubles. In my opinion it can be up to the audience, or listeners, or up to the character. It is a place out there that you envision is better and where there are no stressed.

Action Theme: There is a better place somewhere out there, you just have to hold out hope and eventually you will get there. This song backs up the theme of “The grass is always greener on the other side.” This song is the search for something good and helps portray that image of that better place to you. If you are ever upset this song helps to remind you that there is something better and to hold onto hope for it.

Film Festival

In the ONFilm Festival at Old Dominion I went to see the film Welcome to Dongmakgol. It is a Korean Film Directed by Kwang-Hyun Park. This movie could be considered an anti-war film. Welcome to Dongmokgol is about some soldiers from North Korea and South Korea ending up in this village in the mountains. The people in the village do not know of the war going on, and do not know much about the outside world. The people in the village are very innocent and are not fearful of anything. In addition to the North and South Koreans winding up in the village an American Pilot’s plane crashes into the village, where they end up trying to take care of him. All three of these sides in the war were stranded in this village together, where they all agreed to restore the village’s food supply because they accidently blew it up. They find each other starting to form a bond and understand each other. They start to realize that they didn’t have a good reason for their hatred of one another. They realize they everyone as an individual is a good person. So when American soldiers think that the American pilot is being held by Koreans and is shot down, they plan to attack the village. So the North Koreans, South Koreans, and the American pilot form together to try to stop them from attacking the innocent village.

The main theme of this movie I think revolves around peace. I am still unfamiliar with the Metaphoric method, but I think that would be the best to analyze this artifact. Before the film the lady who did the introduction and talked about the film mentioned how there was a lot of symbolism. She talked about how the white butterflies represented peace, And also about the flowers, and how they represented peace. When the American soldiers were coming down to attack the village white butterflies swarmed around them. This was a sign that there was peace here. These butterflies reappeared throughout the movie. It was not as hard as the soldiers thought to achieve peace. It took the innocence of the people in this village to show the soldiers and the American pilot that their lives are so much happier when they can love one another. There was a little girl in the movie named Yeo-il, which is a Korean way of representing peace, or as one together. In the film everyone called her crazy, but she was the happiest most innocent person in the film. I think this represents peace because sometimes when you think about peace it is a crazy concept. Just like everyone thought this little girl was crazy, the American pilot and soldiers thought peace was crazy. The soldiers never want to leave this village because they are happy and found a place for themselves their. Dongmakgol was peace and harmony. This movie had a great twist; I really enjoyed seeing it, and enjoyed having to read the subtitles. It was fascinating to watch a foreign film.

POSTSECRET (pentadic criticism)

The artifact I am going to analyze through Pentadic Criticism is www.Postsecret.com. The Post secrets is also a book, but since I do not have one of the books I am going to analyze the website. Postsecret.com is website where you can view all kinds of "secrets" people send in on the back of a postcard. It is a form of art, for people to be creative and express themselves through there trials/tribulations or about the good times of life, love and happiness. The postcards are anonymous sent in to the address 1335 Copper Ridge Road, Germantown Maryland to a man named frank, who started this whole tradition. The website is revealing the secrets that were sent to him. You can view the exact postcard, not just what is written on them.

Agent-the person sending the secret
Act-The secret or sending the secret
Agency-The postcard
Scene- the minds of the person sending the secret
Purpose-to expose the secrets they have kept bottled up inside.

Scene - Act: yes
Scene - agent: no
Scene - agency: yes
Scene - purpose: yes

Act - Scene: no
Act - Agent: no
Act - Agency: Yes
Act - Purpose: yes

Agent - Scene : yes
Agent-Act: yes
Agent - Agency: yes
Agent - Purpose: yes

Agency-Scene - yes
Agency - Act - yes
Agency- Agent-no
Agency-purpose-yes

Purpose-Scene: no
Purpose-act: yes
Purpose-agent: no
Purpose-agency: yes

As a result of these ratio's, the most dominant element that is the controlling term is the agent.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a film about a man named Joel, and a woman named Clementine. The two people fall in love, but after years of trying to make their relationship work they, Clementine has a procedure done that erases Joel from his memory. Once Joel realizes that she had him erased from her memory, he then decides to have the same process done. While Joel is getting his memory erased he sees happier memories from the beginning of their relationship, and struggles to hang on to some trace or memory of Clementine. The majority of the film takes place in Joel’s head, where his memories of Clementine are being swept away. They meet again in the future, with both their memories of each other totally erased, but are still drawn to each other, with no record in there mind of ever being in love.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind suggests and ideology that is not one that actually happens in reality. It creates and Ideology around memory and fate. The film wants the audience to act as if this procedure to erase memories is true, and to look at it in different perspectives. Eternal Sunshine, all through out the movie portrays the question; if you could have someone, or something, from your memory erased, would you? Clementine no longer wanted Joel in her memory, because of the pain their relationship had caused her, so the procedure worked out positively. This is the way the film wanted the audience to see the process in a positive light. When Joel went to get his memory erased, he realized that a couple of bad memories did not weigh out the good ones, so he began struggling to grasp onto at least a couple good memories of Clementine during the procedure. The film wants the audience to question, is it really worth it to get this procedure done? Looking back on memories makes a person who they are, and builds the hearts and character of humans. When Joel and Clementine are reunited in the movie, even after having their memories erased, it suggests that love and fate conquers all, even if you cannot remember that person. In this life we are just supposed to know people, because those people are part of the ingredients that makes us who we are.

Delving a little further into this ideology of memory, the movie suggests this ideology through a romantic stance. Even though this procedure to erase memories, is fake, the movie uses this to provide knowledge about real realtionships and romance that we experiance in life.The movie represents romance and love not only through the good times, but through the bad. It does not portray the fairytale feeling. Even though the movies events seem out there the situations they encounter as a couple are realistic. The film makes you take a step back from that “love is perfect” feeling that movies usually give. It suggests that relationships are never perfect, whether they work out in the end or not. The movie suggests that taking away those bad memories can backfire, because then you would no longer have the good memories that you enjoyed so much. The film shows they both made mistakes in their relationship, and even though it didn’t work out, taking away the memories, will prevent them from looking back and building on what they learned from each other. The beginning/end of the movie where they meet again after having the procedure, suggests that these memories were supposed to happy, and everything happens for a reason, because they end up meeting again. The movie suggests that the audience should not forget good or bad times that may have occurred, but to further grow from the experiences. Joel felt emptiness, because this important portion of his life had just disappeared.

Three Artifacts

One artifact I can analyze using ideological criticism is the commercial about pro-life that is going to be aired durig the superbowl. Tim Tebow plays for the Florida, Gators and is airing his ad against pro choice during the super bowl, rather than airing an all male dating site, Mancrunch.com. This commerical advertising controversy can be looked at through several views of ideological criticism such as the ideology of pro life and abortion, and the ideology of gay rights. http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/NATL-CBS-Rejects-Gay-Dating-Sites-Super-Bowl-Ad-83144577.html I am a communications major so different advertisings are a good artifact to analyze.


Another artifact that I could analyze is some of the different Haiti relief efforts. Some companies and programs really care about the relief in Haiti, but others could be doing it strictly for good Public relations. Public relations is another part of the communication field that is very important, and it would be very interesting to see analyze these different reliefs. Other artifacts related to this to analyze would be artifacts in magazines about different stars and companies and how their public relations are effecting them.


The last artifact that would be interesting to analyze would be fear in loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson. I think this artifact would be fun to analyze using ideological criticism because it challenges the ideology of the American Dream. It also has a lot of metaphors and symbolism. It would be fascinating to look at the aspect of gonzo journalism, by hunter S. Thompson through ideological criticism.

Neo-Aristotelian Criticism

According to the textbook neoAristotelianism was the approach of using the canons of rhetoric as the "units of analysis." In the communication field, this was the first technique used for rhetorical criticism.

The Three steps in analyzing the artifact are: Reconstructing the context in which the artifact originally occurred, the five canons applied to the artifact, and evaluating the effect the artifact has made on the audience. When reconstructing the context the critic must look at the rhetor and the background of the rhetor. They must also look for the occasion of the rhetoric, therefore what influenced the rhetor to choose this particular topic and determine why they took they approach that they took. While reconstructing the context you must also look at the audience. The rhetor creates the rhetoric to target specific individuals or groups.

The next step in analyzing the artifact is applying the canons. The five canons are invention, organization, style, memory, and delivery. In the invention the rhetor must present the ideas through Logos, ethos, and pathos. The organization is the structure of the rhetoric, and how it is going to be put together. Some portions of the rhetoric have greater weight and value and must be places accordingly. The canon of style deals with the language used by the rhetor. Figures of speech, images and ect. Delivery is how the speaker presents and communicates the rhetoric; Postures, movements, gestures, and of course, eye contact. The final canon is memory. Memorization of the speech is sometimes useful and important.

Finally, when analyzing the artifcant you must "assess the effects." It is important to view the results and influence of the rhetor on the audience. The results will depend on the rhetors intentions and goals, so these must be kept in mind when evaluating the results. The rhetor may have initial and long term effects on the audience.

Ideological Criticism

An Ideology is a group of ideas that reflect different goals and social needs of a particular group or culture. In an ideological analysis the critic will look past the surface to find the beliefs, values, and assumptions that the artifact is trying to imply. According to the book Rhetorical Criticism by Sonja K. Foss, “an ideology is pattern of beliefs that determines a group’s interpretations of some aspects of the world.” These beliefs are reflected upon a particular group’s social, economical, and political interests. It is a framework of thoughts and ideas that people use to define a certain aspect in the world, or the world itself. Evaluative beliefs are the primary components of an ideology. These are beliefs which can have different views, opinions, or judgments. Several Ideologies, or patterns of belief, can be present in any culture and can be in rhetorical artifacts. Some beliefs, even if people have opposing views, are dominant and this certain view becomes the correct belief, this is called hegemony. Hegemony is an important characteristic of Ideology.

Introductory Blog

Hello, My name is Chloe Hausler. I have just recently declared my major to be Communications. I have no yet picked an emphasis within the major, because I am not quite sure what I want to do with it yet. I was hoping to one day get into radio, but that is not the easiest field to enter into, and I am not so sure how good the money is. I have created this blog for my Rhetorical Criticism class and this particular post to introduce myself to those of you who do not know me. I have never really blogged like this before so this is a new type of assignment, and I am interested in how the results will turn out. I am your typical college student, there is nothing too complicated about me. I am 20 years old and I work at the monarch Sports Grille while going to school full time. I love to run and excercise, and have any type of fun with my friends. I have two wonderful sisters, who I spend as much time with as I can. What I want to get out of this class is to learn more about rhetorical criticism and to come to a full understanding of how it works.