ENGL 418
1-13-15
Kendal Gast
I defined rhetoric as the exchange
and interaction of persuasive ideas.
After searching for different definitions and hearing what others in
class said, I hadn’t realized how close I was to the correct definition. Truthfully I didn’t know (or didn’t think I
knew) what the definition was and thought something from the previous
rhetorical analysis class would help.
Hearing the one individual’s definition of “everything” was unique and
insightful. He was right in thinking
that everything around us is jockeying for our attention and approval. This is something I find rather annoying
about humans. People want to justify
themselves in how they dress, talk, act, or think, but it’s not necessary. I think always trying to justify oneself
takes away from an individual’s agency and splatters it all over the rest us;
nobody is happy in end. The individual
has nothing left to appreciate of themselves and everyone else just gets pieces
– shitty ones and those that smell like vanilla candles.
An example
when I used rhetoric: a good friend of
mine was having difficulty sorting through his thoughts and struggling with
anger that would often consume him for minutes throughout the day. I suggested he write. Write in a journal, write in some sort of
structured form, anything. He was
skeptical at the idea initially, but now regularly composes poems, verse, and
prose much more skillfully than me.
An American
Indian class that I took a year ago was one example of rhetoric having an
effect on myself. I knew Native
Americans had a rich and unique tradition of oral narrative, but I had no clue
they believed everyone was living out one of four stories in life. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what the
stories were. (Awful, I know, and I gave
away the notebook containing all those awesome notes).
Another
class that I’ve taken, a philosophy class, changed the way I view
morality. While this isn’t a fully
constructed or thought out position/idea, I nevertheless default to this when
trying to explain bad behavior to someone:
it doesn’t matter what someone’s been “taught” or raised to be. It doesn’t matter if someone thinks a certain
act is morally wrong. In the end, we all
decide for ourselves what is morally “right” or “wrong”. For the individuals that choose to murder
humans with a gun, they don’t think what they’re doing is wrong. For the victims, it’s clearly wrong.
A little
about myself: I’m a junior in English
but graduating in May. Although I get
asked what my next steps after school look like all the time, the answer
remains the same: I don’t have a clue
besides posessing a raging desire to eradicate the debt I’ve accrued over the
past three years. Besides that, I’d love
to travel overseas and teach English.
China, South America, Africa, it all sounds amazing.
Because
college has shoved an ungodly wide amount of literature down my throat, picking
out a favorite author or book is impossible.
However, my two current favorite titles are Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and Life at These Speeds by Jeremy Jackson. (He happens to be an excellent author who
went to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the UofI). I love swimming, biking, and running,
although running takes up way more time than the other two. Food is a sincere addiction of mine and I
don’t care; consequently I abhor picky eaters and those that can’t finish the
food they take. Rather than having
another helping of a main dish, I’ll always ask for dessert.
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