Friday, February 22, 2008

Research Topic

Claim: Spanglish, a multicultural movie, is rhetorical.

Reason: Because it seeks to persuade its viewers of the struggle in class, race, success, parenting, ambition, pride, and disappointment between two women, Deborah Clasky, a laid off Los Angeles wife, and Flor, the Mexican single mom she hires to be her housekeeper. It compares the way Mexican culture is protrayed in the media's eyes, as well as the American culture.

Warrant: The viewer's prospective of Mexican and American culture is altered when the media twists the reality of Mexican and American culture, making it rhetorical.

Definition: Rhetoric is an epistemic art (creates knowledge) that forges a reality for an audience by a persuasive and informed rhetor, who wants to incite action or further discourse in order to alter perceptions of change.

I had not really thought about rhetoric or knew what is was or ment until last semester when I took English with Mrs. Ramirez, where she introduced me to rhetoric and what it represented. I am amazed as to how many things in life that we encounter or hear is rhetorical. I chose the movie "Spanglish" as my research topic because I feel that it represents many rhetorical observations. It depicts the way Mexican/Latino culture is viewed in society as well as the traditional American culture, and all of life's struggles.

1 comment:

Cristina Devereaux Ramírez, Ph.D said...

This topic is good to an extent. Will you be able to show through research that there has been a change in people's perceptions because of the movie? The fact that you have to be able to show through research if there has been a change is the clincher with this research paper. What other show, movie, or any other presentation do you think has changed people's perceptions of Mex. American's?

Mrs. R