TOW #13 - Open

In Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open, Agassi shares his immense amount of experiences with tennis. Agassi, a professional tennis player, expresses to the audience the difficult times tennis created throughout his life and the challenges he had to overcome in order to succeed in his life. In chronological order, Agassi shares with his audience how his father pushed him as a tennis player and made him practice on the tennis court, even when he did not want to play tennis. Even though Agassi grew up to be an iconic tennis player, he expresses how his relationship with tennis was not always positive. Agassi struggled with finding his passion for the sport even with his father’s encouragement. When Agassi became a professional tennis player, he worked tremendously hard to achieve the best ranking for men’s singles. Even when he grew older and struggled with many physical injuries, he upheld the number one ranking. In this autobiography by Andre Agassi, he utilizes a direct tone, and appeals to pathos in order to express the struggles with becoming a dedicated, professional tennis player.

Andre Agassi’s direct tone in his autobiography makes it clear how emotionally and physically tiring tennis created for a person. He wants his audience to understand that even though he persevered through many obstacles, such as despising the sport, he was able to become a very successful tennis player. By using this direct tone, Agassi is able to clearly display his purpose for writing this autobiography and express to his audience that no matter how difficult a task is there is always a direction someone can be able to take to attain their goals. He also appeals to pathos to allow the audience to connect with Agassi’s story. There are many people who experience the emotions Agassi felt during his tennis career, and Agassi wanted to share with his audience that they can achieve anything they want to complete in their lives.

In the autobiography, Open by Andre Agassi, his direct tone, and pathos is utilized in order to convey the struggles with playing tennis had on him as a person. He expressed to his audience that even though there are many difficult times while trying to achieve something, there will always be a way to fulfill the dream that wants to be acquired. 

TOW #12 - Trump Political Cartoon

Throughout the entire 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump appealed to his audience by saying an immense amount of ideas that he admitted after winning the election that he would not officially change in America. In this political cartoon by Joel Pett, an American Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, Trump is expressed to be confused about people who actually believed he meant what he said throughout this election. In this cartoon Trump says, “things that I say…or that get said…by me…they’re just things!” This cartoon reveals how Trump’s words impacted America’s decision for presidency. Trump had promised his supporters many irrational ideas such as, imprisoning Hillary Clinton. He also provided America with over-exaggerated facts that were provided in order to convince many of the citizens to vote for him during the presidential election. The author’s purpose in this political cartoon is to reveal all of Trump’s lies to the American public in order to win the 2016 presidential election. The intended audience of this cartoon is the American citizens because the author is able to show through body positions of Trump and the words in each text that Trump should not have been trusted. The American citizens who supported him should have researched more of the facts but instead were drawn in by Trump’s appeal to pathos. The rhetorical devices used in this political cartoon are parody and a simplistic tone to express to the audience the author’s purpose. The author is making fun of Trump and representing him as a clueless man who is unaware of how his words affect the world. The author makes fun of how Trump promised his supporters many changes that, once elected, it became obvious he was never going to actually make the changes he promised to the American public. The simple tone throughout this p

olitical cartoon displays the author’s views on Trump as he addresses Trump’s oblivious views on what changes are necessary for America. I believe that Pett achieved his purpose because he clearly displays the impact Trump’s words had on people in America and how after he won the presidential election, he revealed that he exaggerated a lot of changes he stated during the election.

TOW #11 - Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln

Separation occurred throughout America as the Civil War started. Even though the first inaugural address was created to prevent the civil war, there were many unfortunate occurrences that made it tremendously difficult for this address to make an impact on the civil war in America from not arising. In the Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln uses repetition and anaphora in order to employ to his audience that he is going to reunify the nation after the tragedy that occurred from the American civil war.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16^th president of the United States, addressed the American public to inform them that he would reunify America. Lincoln uses repetition to unify his audience who have all experienced the tragic civil war. In his address to the American public, he states “all dreaded it, all sought to avert it” (Lincoln). By repeating the word all, Lincoln expresses to his audience, who were the American citizens, that every person experienced the effects the civil war had on America. Lincoln wanted his audience to realize that the civil war left an impact on every American citizen.

By using anaphora in this inaugural address, Lincoln is able to convey he was dedicated to reunifying America after the civil war occurred. In Lincoln’s speech, he says “to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations” (Lincoln). He wants his audience to be confident that his speech will successfully end the American civil war and reunify the American citizens. Lincoln also uses this speech to convey to his audience the importance of reunifying America is to the country and to himself and ending the civil war will be very important in making America a stronger country.

In the Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln, repetition and anaphora are used to reveal to his audience his plans to reunify the United States of America after the terrible civil war occurred. Lincoln wanted to assure that the American public recognized that there was going to be positive change in America opposed to the negative change that had occurred due to the civil war.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln2.asp