Speech, Visuals, and Rhetoric

After reading through Unit 1 of Metaphors, Language, and the symbolism of visuals course section, it emphasized the importance of expressive emotive verbal communication, visuals, with the help of connotation and detonation. For instance, a figure of speech holds “intentional deviation” from ordinary language to create a rhetorical effect. In the same vein, there are many forms of Western rhetoric that are divided into two prominent categories: schemes and tropes. Schemes form or shape ordinary words while tropes change their meaning. A great example of the usage of figure of speech is in Disney movies; many of these generally children’s films use simile, hyperbole, metaphor, and alliteration fo emphasize and and exaggerate ideas. For instance, in Ratatoullie the line ”my hope is a banquet” is a metaphor while in Pocahontas the use of personification is seen as ”mistry mountains sing and beckon.” While we may not realize, the usage of figures of speech brings to life our words and phrases and create intention. Within the realm of novels, figurative language allows for the author to paint a picture and visualization with their words, and develop their own imagineable universe. I recently finished reading Sylvia Plath’s ”The Bell Jar” which in itself is a metaphor for feelings of confinement, self-doubt, dejection, and depression. For the main character, the bell jar symbolzes madness, a fishbowl of entrapement that causes her entire world to crumble. In this sense, Plath uses figure of speech for readers to grasp the tone and theme of book, it depicts one woman’s struggle with mental health and how feelings of hopelessness and pain can destroy one’s life from the inside out.

Furthermore, the system of classical rhetoric is divided into five phases of: Inventio the discovery of ideas/arguments, Disposito the arrangement of ideas/arguments, Elocutio a form of expressing ideas/arguments, Memoria the memorization of speech, and Pronunciatio the delivery of speech. The articles delve into the various classifications of figures of speech such as antithesis, irony, metaphor, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, periphrasi, puns, amplification, and hyperbole. To add on, I recently watched Bo Burnham’s comedy musical special ”Inside” which in its entirety symboilizes the toxic world of internet culture, mental illness, and meta-commentary on the role of white men in our current society. As you can see, the song from the comedy special lists events or objects that create a sense of a warped simulation and create that feeling of utter doom and chaos in our future.

The usage of symbolic and expressive rhetoric can be seen in the films we watch, books we read, and the world that we interact with on a daily basis. Figures of speech lay the foundation for expression and emotive works of art that are made to move, shape, and affect us as social beings.