Analysis Of Vincent Van Gogh 's The Starry Night Painting

In “Lovely Stones” by Christopher Hitchens, the author uses rhetorical devices such as parallelism, ethos, and pathos to convince the audience to help conserve and protect ancient Athens’ statues. One of the rhetorical devices the author used was parallelism, he used it to give the article flow and more of a rhythm to follow through. The second rhetorical device the author used was ethos in the article to intrigue the readers ethics and rightness. The last rhetorical device the author used was pathos, he used pathos to pique the interest of the audience with emotional context. These rhetorical devices were used strategically to convince the readers to help support the cause.

The life span of 37 years saw Vincent Willem van Gogh (Vincent) in creating beautiful works he dearly loved. Painting was an avenue, which allowed him to express his inner thoughts or vent his struggles. My decision to research on Vincent’s painting, Starry Night (1889) came with the inspiration from Don Mclean’s Song, Starry Starry Night where his lyrics spoke about Vincent’s life that further intrigued me in writing this paper.

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial more than forty years ago, Martin Luther King electrified America with his momentous "I Have a Dream" speech. This speech demanded racial justice towards the mistreated black community of America. The theme of the speech was that all humans were created equal and that this should be the case for the future of America. King's words proved to touch the hearts of millions of people and gave the nation a vocabulary to express what was happening to the black Americans. This did not happen by chance. Martin Luther King's speech was carefully constructed so it would have the most appropriate diction to propose his facts and ideas. His speech involved multiple different literary techniques which were very

By using allusion to historical leaders and documents, he reminds the audience of the past and strengthens his argument the time for change was long overdue. Repeating the phrases “I have a dream”, “Now is the time”, “Let freedom ring” and “Free at last”, King used anaphora and repetition to bring the speech to a great climax and leave the audience completely energized. King also used parallelism to unify the movement’s effort into one group of equal parts by urging the audience to “Go back to” Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, as well as “the slums and ghettos of our Northern cities”. He also used parallelism to send a message of unification to all parts of the country by repeating the phrase “Let freedom ring” combined with names of many of our country’s mountain ranges, just as in the song “America” by Samuel Francis Smith (My Country! ‘Tis of Thee). Perhaps it was King’s use of metaphors that made the speech draw in the audience. He described the circumstances of racism and inequality with phrases descriptive of slavery including “flames of withering injustice”, “chains of discrimination” which connected the audience to their past while inspiring them to change their future.

Near the end of Martin Luther King’s speech a gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted to Dr. King saying, “Tell them about the dream, Martin”. At this point Dr. King stopped reading the speech and expressed his inner feelings saying “I have a dream..”(Mlk, 4). He continued to tell the crowd of his dream for the Negros to be free and equal and that they would be able to live happily and do as they pleased. He had a dream that America would live out the meaning of the constitution stating “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”. He tells the crowd that at the end “We are free at last”. Dr. King’s choice of words and the tone in which he delivers his speech is enticing and pleasing to the crowd of America.

When I first saw Vincent van Gogh’s painting of The Starry Night, I was immediately drawn to the peaceful luminescent stars emanating outward like vibrant yellow halos into the captivating striking blue sky. I felt a sense of calm and tranquility as the bright orange moon shone intently over the serene village below. The sprawling mountain range, grassy hills and fields of wheat intensified this feeling as a soft wind swept through the countryside. Under the immense stars and vibrant night sky, the people of the village sleep soundly in their cottages. This painting exudes an overwhelming feeling of calmness and peace in my mind.

Rhetorical devices are elements embedded in a piece of work that allow the viewer to fully interpret and engage with the content presented. Rhetorical elements can be used universally through various mediums. In this essay I will be analyzing a photograph, specifically addressing the images logos, pathos, and Telos. The photograph frames your not so typical geriatric couple complete with skateboards and their flying birds. The caption of the photo is “This couple sticking it to the man”. This ironic photo packs a strong central message of living young wild and free. The unknown photographer develops the central message through the use of rhetorical deceives.

The I Have a Dream Speech is the most iconic speech that came from this era. King talked about how this condition they are in is shameful, something people should be embarrassed of. He referenced to the Emancipation Proclamation and the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal”. He also mentioned that it is not only all in the hands of black people, but white as well. There was a sense of unity in this speech (I Have a Dream).

In the world of rhetoric, the artifact itself is probably the single most important piece to the puzzle when applying any kind of rhetorical critique. On top of that, the rhetorical theory you're applying and the lens in which you view this artifact, play an equally important role. They set up the foundation of criticism.

On August 28th, 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr stood on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. He spoke passionately for 17 minutes on his views about human equality for African Americans at one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in history. King played a major role in ending the segregation for African Americans. His rhetorical language left an impact on America. Through his use of appeals like ethos, logos, pathos, and other rhetorical techniques. He influenced Americans to believe in the notion that all men are created equal.

He questions the audience about society and what they have done for their community. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality; we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities; we cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one; we can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity,” (King). King knows how to bring the people into the speech to involve every single person standing before him and make them feel like they are apart of the speech. He mentions what has been taken away from them which creates anger within the crowd. King’s ability to appeal to the audience through emotion affected society for decades after and changed the sense of pride the African Americans had.

This artifact caught my eye because it gave two sides of a concept from this week reading “The End’s of Rhetoric: Aesthetic, Political, Epistemic.” In this reading Ceccarelli talks about how contemporary rhetoricians use a lot of aesthetic rhetoric. This type of rhetoric is

Dr. King’s speech includes parts from President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Dr. King formulates his argument by including the Gettysburg Address. He states “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” He says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”  By incorporating this he provides evidence that what the Civil Rights Movement is fighting for, is already written in the Constitution. Dr. King recognizes there have been 100 years between Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and his own speech, and African Americans are still not free. He states, “whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree is a great

King inspires those who support equal rights for all “ to rise up from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial injustice”.and stand up for what they believe. He insists that people who believe in the cause to speak up and join together as one voice, to demand equal rights that they deserve. In addition King uses Light and Dark imagery to make a statement on how people have been waiting a long time to receive equality and the same freedom as everyone else. He does this by discussing the Emancipation Proclamation, and how “ It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

In King’s speech he orders to end racism, discrimination, and prejudice in any and all forms and calls for racial equality. He wants these things because ultimately Adams and our founding fathers stated that all people should be treated equal. Minorities were ultimately in the United States “in the hope of obtaining land and gaining religious and other freedoms” (How the American Dream Has Changed 1). However, King recognizes that one hundred years later African American race is still not free and there is still conflict. King’s tone and word choice combined are clearly used to develop the theme. He uses powerful and strong words to get his message across. His words jump out as if he is speaking right in front of you. For example, King starts out the speech very enthusiastic and emotional by saying, “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation” (King 290). The time period is also a huge factor in developing the theme of the American Dream for King’s speech. It was written during a time period when discrimination and racial separation was a heated and complicated