Dirty (Laundry) Tactics: Plain Style in Advertising “Blogs”

“Tough but True Laundry Tactics” is a plain style article that remains transparent despite its attempts to hide its motives. The author of this article seems to know a lot about doing laundry in other countries, use many concrete examples of how people in other countries or situations do (or do not) clean their clothes. Before reading the article, I thought it was about how to remove certain types of stains or how to combine loads. The article actually informs the readers about how people in other countries/circumstances do (or don’t do) laundry and then proceeds to advertise their product. The blog style of the article seems to establish authority on the topic of laundry and spike interest in Tide products as a blog style advertisement.

The article establishes authority on the topic in several ways. With a high readability score and an average grade level of 9, this piece is easy to read even though it delivers some interesting information on laundry practices in other countries. Evident in this piece is the lower levels of formality. The article is written in 2^nd person, and the author uses several contractions. Talking about how astronauts and laundry, the author says, “Hopefully, they don’t make their moms do the washing!” (Tide.com). There is a cliché right away in the first paragraph when the author writes, “If you’re among the fortunate few who can simply toss a load into a washer, count yourself lucky” (Tide.com). The use of parallelism as a rhetorical device is found in the introduction as an attention grabber- “How do astronauts keep their clothing clean in space? Where do hikers on the Appalachian Trail wash their sweaty gear? How about sailors? ” (Tide.com). Parallelism is used in the article to help strengthen the connection the author makes between astronauts and college freshmen when she says, “They take the same approach as many college freshmen: They wear their clothing as long as they can bear it, then pack up their dirty laundry and bring it home with them” (Tide.com). These elements combine to make the article engaging and hold the reader’s interest to the end where it offers a shameless plug for the use of Tide products.

As an informational article about laundry, the writer spikes interest in Tide products by presenting the website as a blog and presenting interesting information about laundry in other countries. The page where the article is published looks like it is a blog but when you look at the URL, you notice it is actual a Tide webpage. They want people to purchase their product, buy Tide to Go Stain Erasers or Tide Travel Sink Packets-the product names are hyperlinks to a Tide website (one that no longer looks like a blog) where you can purchase the tide to go erasers. Tide is sneaky about the fact that the page is controlled by their company. The site itself is titled Fabric Care Solutions. Other than the URL, there are no hints until the very bottom of the page where their logo is displayed.

The article is aimed at people accustom to doing their laundry in a washing machine who will be traveling to other countries such as Africa and India as are mentioned in the article. It is also aimed at people who are planning a backpacking excursion in another country or planning on staying in hostels rather than at expensive hotels. The article offers an alternative to doing laundry the traditionally American way when it isn’t possible by using Tide products because the end goal is for the reader to purchase Tide products. The concluding statement of the article reads “if you’ll be traveling to a locale where you suspect that washing machines are in short supply, do yourself a favor: Pack Tide® to Go Stain Erasers. That way you can tackle any noticeable spills and smudges—and mask the fact that you’re wearing not-so-fresh clothes.”

Some may say that Tide is not intending people to find this site and by interested in purchasing Tide products just from reading it. This cannot be true, however, as the title itself is misleading. “Tough but True Laundry Tactics” can be assumed to be an article about different ways to handle a tough clothing job such as one with stains. The article is actually about how people in other countries do their laundry. The article also lures in the unsuspecting person looking for tricks to doing laundry with the ambiguous title. Tide could claim that the article was formatted as a blog to reach a wider audience and to simply educate people on how others in other countries do laundry, with the end goal being education and a side bonus if someone happened to be traveling in the near future, followed the hyperlink, and bought their product. This could be true except from a business perspective, Tide is a company out to make money, not to help people out of the goodness of their hearts and hiring someone to manage and write articles for a blog website under their name costs money. Unless the project had potential to make Tide a lot of money, they would not waste their resources on it.

Despite the hidden aspect of Tide running the site, the use of plain language helps the goal of the article become transparent by the end of the article. The article initially established credibility by acting like a blog written by a regular person without an agenda just looking to share some easy tips on laundry and promoting Tide. After discovering that the site was run by Tide and the reader realizes the article is a persuasive advertisement disguised as a blog, the reader may feel tricked and not want to buy Tide products. On the other hand, the reader may not care that a blog format was used because these days everyone has and reads blogs. Despite being written in plain language, the article was still able to hide the motive inside itself. This suggests that similar texts, though believed to be plain and direct, still can have hidden meanings and hidden agendas. It may seem that the goal is for the reader to think they want to purchase these Tide products and for them to think they came about that conclusion on their own, uninfluenced by an advertisement but rather guided by the blog article into making their own decisions. This brings up a question about the advertising methods being implemented today. How effective are blog style articles such as these? Are they effective because they lead the consumer to their own conclusion? The idea is similar to the old adage “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”.  

 ~B.N.

Works Cited

“Tough but True Laundry Tactics”. Tide.  Proctor&Gamble, 2013. Web. 16 October 2013. <http://www.tide.com/en-US/fabriccaresolutions/article/Tough-but-True-Laundry-Tactics.jspx>

Creative Style and Pathos in “The Notebook”

The movie The Notebook, released in 2004 is based on The Notebook written by Nicholas Sparks. The use of pathos is what draws the audience members to the characters and helps them feel empathetic towards the characters and is used in every film is some way. The screenwriter uses elements of the creative style to establish pathos that both draws audience members in and to helps create a connection to the characters.

The production company needs to make back the money spent making the movie so the movie needs to be of interest to a vast number of people so the pathos of the piece should be appealing and interesting to the majority of potential movie goers. Screenwriter Jeremy Leven’s contribution to the movie version of The Notebook was to stay true to the elements of love and faith as they are illustrated in Sparks’ novel. “[New Line] didn't approach Leven as an unknown quantity. “My novels,” says Leven (and “a lot of my screenplays,” he's quick to add), “basically deal with love and faith, and religion.” So he assumes, when asked by a studio to write for them, that “love and faith is what the studio is after, not something else” (HollywoodJesus). The screenwriter of the film is as much responsible for the construction of pathos as the director. Where the director creates pathos on the screen the, screenwriter creates pathos on the page. Inspired by real people and tweaked by the screenwriter to be more universal, the Notebook was intended to portray a “a rare and beautiful relationship, one that withstood the test of time and circumstance” (Sparks).

The first lines of the movie, a voice-over of Noah narrating, provide a little exposition to set the stage as the movie goer enters into in the story. “[The first scene of a movie] throws us into its world, introduces us it to its characters and establishes its tone” (Mecca). An emotional connection is created with the narrator, Noah, in The Notebook. It draws the viewer into the storyline of the movie. The movie is not about anyone particularly special, just an everyday person that could be anyone in the audience. The initial repetition of the word ‘common’ is important because the use of a diacope helps indicate that the fact that the characters are common is important. The use of parallelism “common man”, “common thoughts”, “common life” serves to enhance the commonality of the narrator as perceived by the viewer (The Notebook).

The idea that this story is about a common person is important to frame a connection to the audience, the majority of who consider themselves common as well. The movie follows this “common” character through his journey to be with the woman he loves and then his mission to help the woman in the nursing home remember that she is the woman in the story he is reading to her which he believes will bring her out of a state of dementia and bring her back to him, even for a few moments. The commonality lets the audience members who do not have experience with dementia connect more fully to the characters and lets the audience members who do have experience with dementia relate at a deeper level of understanding and empathy. The author, Nicholas Sparks speaks to the success of The Notebook saying, “the story touched people in a deeply personal way. It seems that nearly everyone I spoke with about the novel knew a “Noah and Allie” in their own life” (Sparks).

The simple poetic lines also serve to capture complexity of experiences. Noah says, “I've succeeded as gloriously as anyone who ever lived. I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and for me that has always been enough” (The Notebook). The introduction shows how the characters are just common, everyday people, while at the same time it shows how wonderfully simplistic it can sound with how complex it truly is. As Noah says, he has “succeeded as gloriously as anyone who ever lived” (The Notebook). This simile is both profound and reductive at once. A “common” man has “succeeded as gloriously as anyone who ever lived”, a task not every “common” person can so easily declare. The commonality of the story prevents the alienation of audience members who may not have first-hand experience with dementia and keep them emotionally invested to the characters and the plot development.

Not only do the opening lines speak to anyone who has “no monuments dedicated” to them, it also calls to those who have loved with all they had, “heart and soul”, and draws them into the story of someone who could just as easily have been them (The Notebook). The lines serve to both capture the complexity of everyday life and to build a connection to Noah, the narrator and the other characters in the movie. The use of pathos is important in the establishment of a connection between the characters and the audience members. The creative style helps make the piece poetic and flow in a romantic way that adds to the emotional and romantic elements of the movie.

Elements of the creative style to establish pathos in The Notebook that draws audience members in and helps create a connection to the characters. This is done in different ways in every movie. Those producing movies want the audience members to care about the characters and what happens to them. They help to establish this emotional connection from the start with pathos. This investment in the characters is used to create a dynamic and (hopefully) unforgettable experience for the audience members.

~B.N.

Works Cited

“Film Review: The Notebook”. HollywoodJesus. 25 June 2004. Web. http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/notebook.htm

Mecca, Dan. “The 25 Most Memorable Opening Scenes in Film”. TheFilmStage. 3 Sept. 2010. Web. http://thefilmstage.com/features/the-25-most-memorable-opening-scenes-in-film/

Sparks, Nicholas. “Inspiration for The Notebook”. Nicholas Sparks: Stories. Willow Holdings, Inc. Web. http://nicholassparks.com/stories/the-notebook/

The Notebook. Dir. Nick Cassavetes, New Line Cinema. 2004. Film.

A Creative Company with a Creative Style

             For my creative style critique, I have chosen to look at a review of the Apple iPhone 5s. The review can be read in full at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/iphone-5s-reviews_n_3947307.html. The title of the article is “iPhone 5s Reviews Point Out The Good, The Bad – But Mostly The Good”. What’s interesting to look at in this review are the many rhetorical devices implemented throughout the article put in place to subconsciously sway the reader into siding with the iPhone. Even in the title the reader is being set up towards a certain preference or intended reading. While the “bad” aspects of the phone seem like they may be included, in reality they are just pushed aside to make way for the good. By acting like there are two sides to the story, the reader is influenced to believe that they are making the decision that the iPhone is superior on their own. Many examples of subtle influences are prevalent throughout the article, and it is interesting to examine the ulterior motives the company has other than just explaining a couple of features.

            The iPhone itself is a creative text. It is designed in certain ways so that it can influence consumer interest without making changes to its fundamentals. Most new iPhones don’t stray far from the overall functionality or design of their predecessors. Apple has created a product that is dependent on cutting edge technology, as well as aesthetic appeals, and over time consumers have begun to trust the brand due to the proven reliability of the products. So when Apple announces a new product such as the iPhone 5s and focuses on a couple of minor new features such as gold being a color option, and a fingerprint scanner lock button, the consumer desire to have that new product is immediately triggered due to the fact that a reliable piece of technology just got a little bit better. But is the new phone actually better than its predecessor? Most practical people would say that a couple minor features are not worth the hundreds of dollars it costs for a new phone. However, in contemporary society where aesthetics are half of the battle so to speak, it can be argued that many iPhone users will desire the new phone.

            Gold being a new color option is a great example of how aesthetics can win over an audience. For the entire life of the iPhone, there has never been any other option beside white or black. In fact, in the earlier models of the iPhone, black was the only option one could choose. By simply introducing a new color, many people began to get excited. There is another reason however as to why adding gold as a new color increased desire.

Power is a very desirable trait for some people. In fact, I think that Apple would say that their products appeal to people of a certain status. Keeping that idea in mind, I believe that Apple incorporated gold as a new color in order to rhetorically persuade their audience to see the phone as a power symbol. This is an interesting idea to think about due to the fact that such a miniscule feature such as a new color can influence an audience just because of the status that the product gives off. Apple takes advantage of society’s desire to have the “coolest” technology available, and in return is able to deploy marketing strategies that do not focus on the functionality of the phone. This sort of marketing and advertisement is extremely creative, and deviates far from the norm so to speak when we look at other companies who advertise their products based on how they function and what they can do, not what they look like.

By implementing the creative style into advertising for the iPhone 5s, Apple is able to rhetorically persuade their audience and deliver a product with an exceedingly high approval and desire rate before it is even released. Taking full advantage of what the creative style has to offer and focusing on what the people will be surprised and excited by, Apple is able to turn a slightly newer version of an outdated product into something that is completely rejuvenated and hyped, and I think that is pretty amazing.

 

M. Walters



Rhetoric to Recruit Radicals: Tropes and Schemes in Fight Club monologues

Rhetoric to Recruit Radicals: Tropes and Schemes in Fight Club monologues

            Everyone knows the first two rules of fight club. “You do not talk about fight club.” The film based on a book of the same name is highly quotable, which likely has something to do with its place as a widely recognizable film and cult classic. But surely this can’t be the only reason that the film from 1999 based on a book from 1996 remains a cultural staple in 2013. Beyond quoteability there are forces at work in this film that make it a cult classic, and keep it alive in today’s rapidly changing culture of flashes and fads.

            Tyler Durden, an anarchist revolutionary played by Brad Pitt, is introduced and dramatically changes the life of the unnamed insomniac main character of the film played by Edward Norton.  This reckless character is enthralling in his opposition to the capitalist lifestyle that the narrator and much of the films audience have accepted. This exciting agent of chaos makes the film the staple that it is. Throughout the film he has several monologues and lines that challenge the lives we live and present an intriguingly different ideology.

                He suggests at one point of the film, “You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f---ing khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.” These claims juxtapose contrastingly with the narrators consumerist life. Before meeting Tyler the narrator has an inner monologue about the comfort of buying furniture, the comfort in knowing that when you bought a sofa, at least that was one problem in your life solved. Consumerism at its finest.

            In, perhaps, Tyler Durden’s most famous monologue from both the film and book, he delivers the rules of fight club. This creatively written delivery has many aspects of plain style writing, as would be expected from a set of rules. They are made more memorable, however, by a distinct set of schemes which revolve mainly around the word ‘fight.’ If we look at rules three through seven, which are as follows: “Third rule of Fight Club: if someone yells 'stop!', goes limp, or taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule: one fight at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: no shirts, no shoes. Seventh rule: fights will go on as long as they have to,” we see epistrophe in rules three and four as fight is used at the end of both these rules. We also see anaphora as rules five and seven reiterate “fight” at their beginnings. There is also a parallelism throughout these rules that aids in memorization for both film watchers and the members of Fight Club.

            The second monologue that I chose is a sort of call to action that Tyler makes, again in front of fight club. Although this second monologue uses parallelism its tropes are what make it notable. In this speech Tyler uses hyperbole when he calls the members of fight club “strongest and smartest men who've ever lived.” This is used in the intro and perhaps a method to flatter his audience. He uses auxesis calling the men “slaves with white collars.” This makes their station in life seen much worse than it is. This is likely to rile them up so that they will act on his agenda. Finally Tyler alludes to the “Great Depression” of “our” lives and out “Great War” a spiritual war. These allusions have a similar effect to the auxesis.

            By the end of the film there is a desire in the reader to to take on Corporate America a desire to disregard social norms and start fights with our friends. The audience wants to know what it feels like to be as alive as Tyler seems. Here lies the success of the movie. There is an intense reliability, made more impressive by the fact that we, the audience, are relating to a character who is extremely radical in his defiance of the common American ideology. This all speaks to the intensity and mastery of rhetorical devices. 

Spencer A. 

It’s the Difference of Night and Day

          Creative style is used to make a sensible flow throughout a piece of writing. There are so many different rhetorical devices that can be used to do this in an effective way. The First Night by Billy Collins uses multiple of these devices to link together his thoughts. The poem makes an attempt at trying to understand death. Dying is such a dark and twisted topic to dive deeper into through this interesting portal. Collins goes down a path of wonderment trying to find answers to many questions. What is death? What happens after death? Who is most impacted by death? The poem opens up all of these questions and leaves them open to interpretation by the reader. The poem ends by telling readers everywhere to enjoy life while it lasts.

According to poetryfoundation.org, Billy Collins is known for his witty poems that bring about new conversations on topics. Collins tries to understand ideas from different angles and find new ways of thinking and coping. He uses this analysis style in his poetry to keep his readers engaged and thinking throughout his works. Collins tries to write his poems to the person that he imagines he is talking to in the room. He is very careful in the beginning of the poem to try and establish a friendly relationship with the reader. This text is written to involve the writer and reader. The writer is looking to motivate the reader to become consumed with thoughts about death, dying, and those that the reader has lost. From that point, he attempts to create a logical path of thinking from a simple idea of the dead to understanding that the living should be happy with what they have been given in life.

The poem begins with a quote by Juan Ramón Jiménez, another poet. “The worst thing about death must be the first night.” Jiménez sets the tone for the poem with the first question being asked. Jiménez wrote this quotation in a poem that he published while struggling with his father many years after the lost. The author lost his father at the age of eighteen and was left to fend for himself. The pain of this loss was with him throughout his life, but it subsided some in later years. Now we ask, is it the worst night for the deceased or the loved ones left behind? With this question already in mind, the audience is thinking about death and the experiences they have had with it, as they entered into the poem.

Collins uses his classic writing style in this poem like many others to come before and after it. With the help of many devices, he creates a good flow for his reader to follow. Rhetorical devices can be effective when used in a proper way. When looking at a creative style piece of writing, it can be called effective if all of the points are made clear and understandable. Ideas are made clear with a good flow that connects all of the parts together. Some of the devices used are analogy, personification, allusion, and exemplum.

The analogy in the poem is comparing life to death. The title starts this analogy: three words that can mean two things. Is Collins trying to speak on the first night of life or death? Another analogy in the poem dealing with the stages of life is using the word “death” as if it was its own person or being: “will the dead gather to watch them rise and set”.  This is also an example of personification. Do the dead really watch the sun? Do the have day and night? Personification is giving human like qualities to objects that are not humans. This raises the question of are the dead still humans? There are an extraordinary number of questions that are raised from reading this poem.

An allusion is a passive, indirect reference to something in order to bring it to a reader’s mind without explicitly mentioning the thing: such as hell. Collins writes, “then repair, each soul alone, to some ghastly equivalent of a bed.” This excerpt is taken from a stanza evaluating the first night of death for the deceased. Collins is stating his opinion that on the first night of death that the deceased all spend this night in hell; however, this is not said directly stated. This could be for many reasons. Collins may want to leave it open to different interpretations. For example the stanza could be saying that the first night is like hell in the sense that the deceased is miserable since he had to leave his loved ones.

The last of the rhetorical devices used by Collins is exemplum. Simplistically, exemplum is an example. The example made in The First Night is that the living will never be able to understand about death. Collins has a continuous obstacle with understanding death and the unknown of it. Like everyone else who has ever lived, he wants to understand after we go six feet under the ground. Collins writes, “how can I describe a sun that will shine after death?” Something as simply as the sun raises several questions about what is to come with the inevitable. Will there still be sun, light, warmth after death? Exemplum is correctly used to get the reader to examine the differences between life and death.

This poem by Billy Collins uses rhetorical devices in the creative style well. Collins uses many rhetorical devices that establish a movement through the lines to help create unconscious thoughts for the reader. In the beginning of the poem it is not in the readers’ mind to think about what happens after death, but by the end of the poem, Collins has everyone grateful for the things that we get to enjoy while we are alive. The creative style does this by passively moving from one thought to the next and having them connect in a way that a reader doesn’t notice a change in ideas from stanza to stanza. This is a poem that will forever keeping people thinking and questioning death.

E. West

One Inch Tall

“If you were only one inch tall, you’d ride a worm to school…” From the beginning of One Inch Tall, by Shel Silverstein, it’s simple to understand that this method of writing is not formal or official. Silverstein does not require an academic background to comprehend his composition. Instead, he utilizes the creative style to capture his audience’s attention, drawing his readers into a world of literary genius. And what’s even more impressive about Silverstein’s vision – he’s writing for children.

            One Inch Tall, though it may comprise a tiny three stanzas of poetry, packs a powerful punch behind its short phrases. Rhetorical elements such as amplification, parallelism, and alliteration draw out the meaning of the poem into a finely-crafted blend of whimsy and rhetorical exhibition. One may argue that Silverstein’s poem is simply that, a poem. However, as the poem’s structure is broken apart and analyzed, it becomes evident that Silverstein cleverly wove an English lesson into the piece.

Examining the readability score for One Inch Tall reveals that Silverstein was definitely writing for kids. The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease sits predictably high, at 91.7 points. Also unsurprisingly accurate is the average grade level of 5.6, at which point children could easily understand the content of the poem. The sentences are short, with an average of only nineteen words per sentence and 3.7 characters per word. With short sentences and simplistic word choice, elementary-aged kids can read and comprehend One Inch Tall without too much hassle. Silverstein purposely uses short words to appeal to his young audience, and proves himself a master of crafting poetry that children would find interesting.

            To begin revealing Silverstein’s motives for writing One Inch Tall, his background and that of his audience must be examined. Shel Silverstein, who unfortunately passed away in 1999, generated an incredible legacy as a children’s author, singer-songwriter, poet, and cartoonist. Some of his most notable achievements include such gems as The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends, along with the Johnny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue.” Silverstein discovered his love for writing as a child and fostered that creativity into an illustrious career. As for his audience, Silverstein did not initially focus on children’s literature. He actually worked for Playboy magazine for a while, writing a series of articles about his travels. Later, he decided to start writing for children, which ended up spawning his greatest successes and establishing him as a cherished author.

            One Inch Tall originally appeared in Silverstein’s poetry collection Where the Sidewalk Ends along with many other children’s poems. Each of these poems appeals broadly to kids, with silly titles like The Crocodile’s Toothache and Peanut Butter Sandwich. Young readers, mostly early elementary-aged, find the poems hilarious because of their ridiculous content. Silverstein’s poetry is not meant to inspire deep conversation or make children think too hard in search of the poem’s meaning. Much of this poetry is read in schools, where teachers use it to demonstrate rhyme schemes or basic poem structure. The presentation of Silverstein’s poetry in schools introduces an additional factor to the activity system surrounding One Inch Tall, specifically the teachers working with the children. A teacher’s motive is to instruct and guide students, and for elementary-aged youths, this means helping children develop their understanding of the English language. Basic poetry has been examined in schools for decades as a tool to explore important literary elements, and choosing fun poems makes this educational requirement more bearable for children with fleeting attention spans.

            The fact that Silverstein’s poetry, including One Inch Tall, has been used extensively in schools lends itself to an interesting hypothesis. What if Silverstein knowingly inserted specific rhetorical elements in an effort to teach youngsters under the radar? This postulation garners support when Silverstein’s writing is scrutinized more in depth. Entertaining young readers while slipping in important literary lessons seems brilliant, perhaps something only a celebrated, qualified writer could dare to do.

            Parallelism as a rhetorical strategy plays a huge role in One Inch Tall. This is an example of scheme in the poem, specifically in the area of sequencing ideas. Over and over, Silverstein introduces similar sentence structure, which adds backbone and rhythm to the poem. For example, Silverstein uses the contraction “you’d” multiple times throughout One Inch Tall. Two standout lines read “you’d ride a worm to school” and “you’d walk beneath a door.” Both phrases are sure to inspire laughter in a young audience. Riding a worm and walking under a door provide just enough absurdity to capture children’s attention while still employing a significant rhetorical element. By concealing learning through joking poems, Silverstein masterfully weaves literary lessons into something more than the mundane school lecture.

            Amplification also appears in One Inch Tall consistently, with the main theme of the poem summed up in a single phrase: “if you were one inch tall.” This phrase then continues on to describe various activities that would occur if someone happened to be only one inch tall. The act of repeating this key idea makes it clear that this is the ultimate topic of the poem by using the scheme of elaborating ideas. Thankfully, this phrase is not left by itself repetitively, or the poem would be a boring reiteration of “if you were one inch tall.” Instead, the idea is elucidated more each time, amplifying its effect on the reader. Children especially would enjoy this part of the poem, because it is simple to remember and repeated enough to stick in their minds. For example, if this poem were being read aloud in a classroom, one might picture the teacher reading a phrase and then cuing the students to repeat “if you were one inch tall.” Amplification works to draw attention to the most important theme of a poem, which is evident through this simple phrase.

            Silverstein proves his expertise at crafting lines full of alliteration. Phrases such as “crumb of cake” and “feet in fright” make the poem more fun to read, and highlight the creative element of rhythm. Many of Silverstein’s poems are laden with alliteration, which is common to use when writing for children. The sound of a repeated consonant at the beginning of a word gives voice to the piece. More importantly, alliteration works to capture the reader’s interest in catchy, usually short, idea expressions. This scheme, specifically of using repeating sounds, transforms mediocre writing into something creative and vocal. If Silverstein decided to write “small piece of cake” instead of “crumb of cake,” the poem would have a completely different voice.

            Each rhetorical strategy, parallelism, amplification, and alliteration, accomplishes something unique in Silverstein’s poem One Inch Tall. Though Silverstein writes for children, he cleverly slips in important literary lessons about using these strategies to improve and enhance one’s writing. The creative style relies on these schemes to bring certain elements of voice and flair into writing, though it chooses not to follow conventional rules. Through poetry like One Inch Tall, Silverstein demonstrates that rhetoric can be made approachable and fun for readers of all ages, contributing to the idea that perhaps English does not have to be a dreaded subject for students. Wouldn’t you rather ride a worm to school instead of a boring bus?

By D.M. Cook

The Only One Less Sure than Polonius...is Everyone Else

Perhaps Shakespeare's most famous play, Hamlet has been the center of critical debate ever since its creation. As noted Shakespeare scholar Michael Neill states in his article “Hamlet: A Modern Perspective,” part of what makes Hamlet important is its ability to support wildly different readings, readings which have changed as cultural context has changed. He points out that as schools of literary criticism have changed over the ages, different readings of Hamlet emerge. Most often, this debate centers on what should be considered the 'facts' of the play, most notably, the nature of Hamlet's madness (Neill 320-321). In my own personal experience, I have seen how wildly different people's opinions on Hamlet's madness can be, as my own personal interpretation varied significantly compared to almost every other peer in my undergraduate Shakespeare class. This leads us to question what it is about the nature of Hamlet that creates these wildly different readings, and it can be argued that the answer to this question can be found in the very language of the play.

            Studying the specific figurative language used in the play allows us to see a possible answer for the ambiguity that surrounds Hamlet. The creative style of writing, which can be used to define most fiction writing, including plays and stories, often employs various schemes and tropes that help shape the meaning of the text involved. While tropes focus on creating a variation of meaning for a specific word or phrase, schemes focus on creating variations of standard word orders. Despite their differences, both of these techniques work in ways that help shape meaning in language. Their intention is to create layers of meaning within language, where meaning is dependent on your personal interpretations of how these tropes and schemes interact. Focusing on a speech made by Polonius in Act II, where he claims that Hamlet is mad, we can see how creative variations on language create a sense of ambiguity that leads to arguments over true meaning.

            Literary critics often appear to be wasting their time in attempting to decode exact meaning from certain texts, as many would argue there is no true meaning. However, it could be argued that the goal of literary criticism is to bring to light facts and ideas about human nature that are revealed by literature. This is a main reason that debate continues to be centered on Hamlet and its main character, because understanding Hamlet’s relationship with his mind could help us understand our own views in life. If the main character, who at the outset of the play feels very truly the depth of the human experience, has truly lost his mind, perhaps it is a warning that over-thinking life’s philosophical questions can cost you dearly. And if he hasn’t lost his mind, how can we explain the deep detachment that Hamlet feels to the world in the end of the play? Understanding Hamlet can shed light onto how we as humans deal with the realities and unanswerable questions of everyday life.

            This quest for insight into a personal, difficult topic explains why the ambiguity created by the creative style is important to study in Polonius’ speech, as well as throughout the entire play. If this debate is centered on philosophical, potentially unknowable concepts, then the language used by those involved must aim to invoke inquiry into the topics. A simple re-phrasing of a direct accusation takes what is plain fact and subjects it to questioning and examination. Furthermore, an understanding on such topics could never be agreed upon by all people, which also shows the need for any discussion on the topic to hold an ambiguous aspect. In allowing us to construct our own interpretation of one fictional character, we are given the tools to begin relating these ideas back to our understandings of ourselves.

            In his speech, Polonius uses a large number of tropes and schemes, many of which are very common in Shakespeare's writing, who is renowned for his ability to employ styles in his writing that many others cannot compare to. In this passage, however, the way he employs three specific techniques serve to create the ambiguity that is present throughout Hamlet. He employs two tropes, metanoia and apophasis, and one scheme, hyperbaton, in key moments of the passage, to create that effect. Apophasis refers to stating an idea only for the purpose of denying it, while metanoia is the technique of stating an idea, and then restating it in hopes of presenting it in a clearer manner. Hyperbaton is a scheme which refers to usage on non-typical word order in sentence structures. Studying the lines below, we see these techniques being employed at the moments where Polonius is declaring Hamlet as mad.

I will be brief: your noble son is mad:

Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,                      100

What is't but to be nothing else but mad?

But let that go.

[.....]

Madam, I swear I use no art at all.                 

That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;                      105

And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure;

But farewell it, for I will use no art.

Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains

That we find out the cause of this effect,                       

Or rather say, the cause of this defect,                            110

For this effect defective comes by cause:

Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend

           

Both instances in which Polonius is making an accusation that Hamlet is mad, he varies his sentence structure through hyperbaton. Instead of following a standard subject-verb-object construction, Polonius places the object first in each case. Instead of reading 'I call it madness,' he states “Mad call I it.” While the two seem to be sending a similar message, by placing the object first, Polonius is taking away the aspect of accusation. With this construction, we no longer have the subject directly accusing Hamlet of madness, it is just implied. In the second instance, Polonius states “Mad let us grant him,” rather than 'Let us grant him mad'. Again, the object has been shifted to the beginning of the phrase, which separates the subject and verb, making it an indirect accusation. This creates a sense of Polonius being hesitant to directly implicate Hamlet as mad, which would have an influence on the audience. If the character who is making the claim is uncertain, that's more than reason enough for an audience to begin doubting the claim as well.

            The tropes used by Polonius also give the audience ways to begin doubting the validity of his claims. Polonius uses metanoia when he states “or rather say,” as well as “Mad call I it; for, to define true madness.”  Polonius is searching for better ways to state his ideas, as if he is not sure whether what he is saying is actually correct or not. This constant re-clarification of his ideas shows Polonius’ uncertainty regarding Hamlet’s madness. Due to this, the audience would begin to doubt whether they actually believe Polonius' claims or not; consequently, the audience would begin to form their own opinions. This idea is further supported by Polonius' use of apophasis in lines immediately after he claims that Hamlet is crazy.

            Apophasis is a technique of bringing up a subject just to deny its existence. In both sections given above, we hear Polonius asking the listener to forget what he had just stated. First, after implicating that Hamlet is mad, he instructs us: “but let that go,” and second, after again discussing Hamlet’s madness, he says: “but farewell it.” If the audience hadn’t already been given enough reason to begin to doubt Polonius, here he is using apophasis to directly ask the listener of his speech to disregard what he is stating. All of this uncertainty created by Polonius means that it is up to the reader to determine their own interpretations.

Is Hamlet crazy or not? Polonius can’t seem to decide, and because of this, it has driven scholars mad for years trying to decide whether his madness is real, imagined, or a cross between the two. The specific ways creative style is being used in the speech shows how easily a few ambiguous phrases can create a sense of uncertainty. This uncertainty is key due to the nature of the idea in question, because whether or not you consider Hamlet as crazy has implications on the ways you interpret your own thoughts in regards to some of the deeper philosophical questions at play in Hamlet. Has the exploration of what comes after death, of what constitutes revenge, and of the purpose of life damaged Hamlet’s mind to the point that it is no longer logical? Or is it all a ploy that he does not have time to retract before the end of the play? Depending on your answer, your personal exploration of these issues will take on different dimensions, and you have to consider whether an answer is possible, or if it is fruitless philosophical searching that will leave you dying without an answer. Due to this, there is no end in sight for the discussion of Hamlet, and there is no hope for a definitive reading on the true nature of Hamlet’s madness. So, just how crazy is Hamlet? 

Written By: Brandon N.