American Dream Source (Really Late)

This is an interesting video interview with Ron Reagan, Ronald Reagan's son, about how the American Dream is an overused cliche:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12903190

54th Regiment

The Robert Gould Shaw and 54th regiment memorial is located across from the Massachusetts statehouse. It serves to commemorate the first African Americans to fight in the civil war newly allowed by the Emancipation Proclamation. African Americans were allowed to volunteer, and the whole regiment served under the memorial's focal point, Robert Gould Shaw. This memorial is made of high-relief bronze and unveiled in 1897. The physical representation is that of the regiment marching south, along Beacon street.

Vendome Firefighters Memorial

This memorial was erected in memory of the nine firefighters who lost their lives attempting to stop the fire in the Vendome Hotel. On Father's Day, June 17, 1972, a tremendous fire erupted just a few steps away from where the memorial is today; although the firefighters stopped the flames, the Vendome collapsed with Firefighters inside due to a combination of fire damage and faulty construction. The black stone memorial points to the location of the fire and has a timeline of the event inscribed upon it. The stone bench nearby allows people to sit down and observe both the timeline and the site of the fire.

Anne Hutchinson Memorial

Anne Hutchinson was banished from Boston in the first decade of settlement because her religious views were different from those of the ruling ministers. She believed that both men and women could receive grace only from God and accused the ministers of preaching that “good works” signified holiness. She attracted women to prayer meetings she held in her home in part because her beliefs put women’s souls on an equal footing with men’s souls. She was banished in 1638 for heresy and killed in New York in 1643 by Siwanoy Native Americans. This statue was sculpted by Cyrus E. Dallin and depicts Hutchinson and her daughter Susanna.

The Boston Women's Memorial

Dedicated on October 25, 2003, the Boston Women's Memorial features three important contributors to Boston's history - Abigail Adams (President John Adam's wife), Lucy Stone (first woman to earn a college degree), and Phillis Wheatley (first published African-American poet). These three women, living in the 18th and 19th centuries, were committed to social change and women's rights. They are commemorated today for their writing and their impact on society. The memorial depicts their bronze statues in stages of "coming down off their pedestals" (as women have, symbolically) in order to use the pedestals as work surfaces.
Artist: Meredith Gang Bergmann

The Irish Famine Memorial

The Irish Famine Memorial was erected in downtown Boston, along the city's Freedom Trail, on June 28, 1998. It's purpose was to mark the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine.
The memorial is made up of two statues - one depicting a family that is famished, poverty-stricken, and desperate, and a second depicting the same family, hopeful and determined. The intention is to picture the family leaving a starving Ireland and arriving in the thriving city of Boston. Around these two statues are eight plaques, each giving a small amount of historical insight.

The New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston

The New England Holocaust Memorial begins at the head of a paved trail between two facing, granite monoliths. Between the two monoliths is a buried time capsule preserving the names of perished family members and loved ones submitted by New Englanders. The memorial is specifically defined by six large glass towers. Each of the towers represents one of six death camps in the Holocaust. The towers are composed of glass plates inscribed upon which are millions of white registration numbers used by the Nazis and representing the lives lost in each of the death camps. Inside each tower is a quote from a survivor about life either before, within, or following their experience in the death camps. A path runs between each of the towers and through them. Lining the path and inscribed in granite are informative quotes about what happened throughout the Holocaust. While walking through each of the six towers you realize that you are standing on metal grates, from which rise heated steam, "like human breath as it passes through the glass chimneys to heaven," said the designer Stanley Saitowitz. If you were to get down on your hands and knees, which most visitors do not do, you would notice that beneath the grates lies a pit of sharp, jagged rocks, lit by searching lights and by one solid light. At the end of the walk rests a single granite monolith baring the famous quote,

"They came first for the Communists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up." -Martin Nieomeller 

Monuments and Memorials

Time to start thinking about what monument/memorial you are going to research. Here's a list of some of the ones we plan to see in Boston. You should each choose one and post a little background on it -- with a photo if possible.

1. Anne Hutchinson – State House

2. 54^th Regiment – State House

3. The Holocaust Memorial – Faneuil Hall

4. Irish Famine Memorial - near Old City Hall

5. Women's Memorial - Commonwealth Mall

6. Vendome Firefighters Memorial - Commonwealth Mall

Anadiplosis

The repetition of a word or phrase from the end of a line or sentence in the beginning of the following line or sentence.

“My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.”

Syllepsis

A kind of ellipsis in which one word (usually a verb) is used in two contexts within the same statement. Many say "syllepsis" is interchangeable with the term "zeugma."

"You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit." 

Metonymy

Metonymy is the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it, such as describing someone's clothing to characterize the individual.


For example: "suits" instead of "businessmen" 


"The pen is mightier than the sword," -Edward Bulwer Lytton (The pen stands for the written word.)

Your Visual Rhetoric Power Point Presentation

For Monday, you should find a print ad, a political cartoon, and a commercial and put together a slide show that analyzes these three products. State the "claim" or argument that each piece is making, and then break down the various elements of the piece, telling us how the ad, cartoon, or commercial accomplishes its purpose. Use the checklists in the handout to guide you. Mention any rhetorical strategies used.

Please email your PPT to me, so that I will have a copy and you can use my laptop for your presentation.

Rhetoric Term: Antimeria

Also known as Anthimeria, this term consists of using one part of speech as another. Typical use involves using a noun as a verb.


"The thunder would not peace at my bidding". (Shakespeare, King Lear, IV, vi.)

Chiasmus

(Sorry I didn't post this yesterday.)


Definition: A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.


Example: "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget." - Cormac McCarthy

Speeches to analyze

This is a great speech website with analysis to boot.

Sententia

Quoting a maxim or wise saying to apply a general truth to the situation; concluding or summing up by offering a statement of general wisdom.

Example:

But, of course, to understand all is to forgive all.

Erotema

Erotema - A question that is asked without expecting an answer because the answer is strongly implied; a rhetorical question.

I.E. - “How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience? And for how long will that madness of yours mock us? To what end will your unbridled audacity hurl itself?”
-Cicero

Asyndeton

Sorry this is a bit late, everyone!

Asyndeton:
The omission of conjunctions between clauses, often resulting in a hurried rhythm or vehement effect.


"Veni, vidi, vici!" - Julius Caesar