For our final assignment, the multimedia essay, my class was assigned to create a visual argument and compose a proposal using rhetorical analysis. The goal for this essay, was to pick a topic that was controversial, it could’ve been similar to essay two or something completely different, and based off on the image, we would introduce and describe it using rhetorical analysis to demonstrate how our visual argument and the rhetorical choices we made are effective given our rhetorical situation. My visual argument was a picture, mainly targeted towards people around my age/the youth of our generation, displaying how one can get lost in love, and how detrimental it could be. As I wrote my essay and imagined the audience, it helped formulate and help me articulate mu stance throughout and in my writing. My essay, my poem, and the visual argument demonstrate this.

Original:

“Losing yourself in love”

Love. The thing that collectively as a society strives for. Love; being surrounded by that white picket fence waiting for your partner to come home, with a warm cooked meal waiting for them at the table. The end goal. The thing that’s glorified to everyone at every age; from movies like “High School the Musical” to tv shows like adventure time, from as young as we can remember relationships have been shown to us as something that we all need. Something that’s a necessity like breathing. This can and is very detrimental to impressionable young people. The poem “Red Sea” elaborates one of the most pressing issues in our society and enhances my argument, on how one can lose themselves in love. The first stanza talks about the feeling of being in love. The second one talks about how that feeling can destroy you and at the same time, even if it may hurt you, you need it to survive (which is presented also in the first line of stanza three). In stanza three, it discusses how seeing the other person smile, gives you all the more courage to face the pain. In stanza four, one of the many symbols I use throughout my poems is displayed: candy. The candy in this case represents Prozac, which is an anti-depresent; the person is on the verge of death due to their uncontrollable love. Showing how they lost themself to satisfy their partner, to bare the pain of the roses and regurgitate the one thing that was keeping them sane. Lastly stanza five, the quotes of the person actually talking display how far the person has gone/will go for the one they love; they got lost in the endless sea, drowning, in hopes their flower, the person they love, will thrive and bloom again. I will propose a visual argument to address this societal problem of the toxicity of how we love in this day in age. I hope to show that if published and directed toward the intended audience, this visual argument will be the start of conversations to lead to better habits when forming romantic relationships. 

The purpose of the visual argument I am proposing is to motivate people to find themselves outside of wanting to be loved romantically, that there is a world outside of relationships. It explicitly argues the idea that getting married, finding “the one”, is not what defines you as a person. This argument, I am anticipating that it would be presented in an art musume featuring upcoming artist. The audience will be mostly Gen-z filled; as it is featuring young artist it also displaying a message I feel many people of my generation can relate to. Gen-Z is one of the first generations to openly have conversations about our trauma especially with love/being loved, so I feel they’ll relate to the piece a lot more as its something they would be able to converse about.

In the picture, there is a dark blue background. There are some lighter shades of blue cascaded across the picture. In the center, there is a man and a woman. The man is represented in blue; there is one main male in the picture he is accompanied by two other versions of himself. The main one is speaking and says “Don’t think, just do it” while there’s another version of him who is smiling and another who looks as if he’s in distress. The two other men seem to have their lower halves shown in a ghost-like way; all of this is shown with each version of himself having his eyes shaded red.

Compared to the girl, she is represented by the color pink. Her expression is that of one in a daze. As she holds a knife towards her chest, specifically, her heart, she says “It’s all for you, I love you”. The woman and the man standing in the center of the picture, while the two versions of the man surround both sides of the girl.

The purpose of the element color is virtually important. The dark blue represents the dark atmosphere as the color blue in general represents sadness. It also extends from the poem as its states “My cherry blossom that got lost in the sea of roses”, the blue shade also represents a metaphoric ocean. The blue shade is also representing what a male is; in society blue is for boys and pink is for girls, so with taking this approach its easy to identify the sex of the two charaters and its easy for the viewer to associate certain roles to each sex. There is also the color red that represented in the males eyes, this is to display evil as red usually means a warning or danger. This comaprison shows that that there is some evil within the man as hhe gazes upon the girls frame.

Words are also a vital thing in this art piece. The purpose of the mans speech “Don’t think, just do it” goes to show the lack of empathy he has. It goes to show, that not matter the cost he’ll make sure to gain his satisfaction. In comparison, the girl states “Its all for you, I love you” this shows how far she will go for the man she loves. Like the poem, no matter the stakes at hand weather that be her life or losing a piee of her, the girl is ready, egar even to do what she must to satisfy her love.

Ultimately, many of us need to question if our relationships, platonic or romantic, our really in our favor. If what were doing, how were feeling, and what our partners are doing are really in our favor. The circulation of this art piece partnered with a poem will raise awareness and invite my target audience to start uncomfortable converstatios and change their mindsets. All we need is a little push.

Poem

Red Sea

That feeling that you get in your chest…

That fuzzy feeling, as if you were intoxicated

The one where butterflies irrupt from your stomach

And make you throw up rose

The thorns cut your insides

Having you bleed from the inside out

A pool of blood surrounds you

Envelops you

And drowns you

The need to breathe becomes a necessity

But you smile

Knowing the darkness ahead

You reach the floor as your body decomposes

Your eyes flutter shut

As candy spills pass your lips for the first time

“It’s all for you…

I love you”

My cherry blossom that got lost in the sea of roses

I’ll fall in this endless sea

If it means you’ll bloom once more

Image

Revised:

“Losing yourself in love”

Love. The thing that collectively as a society strives for. Love; being surrounded by that white picket fence waiting for your partner to come home, with a warm cooked meal waiting for them at the table. The end goal. The thing that’s glorified to everyone at every age; from movies like “High School the Musical” to tv shows like adventure time, from as young as we can remember relationships have been shown to us as something that we all need. Something that’s a necessity like breathing. This can and is very detrimental to impressionable young people. The poem “Red Sea” elaborates one of the most pressing issues in our society and enhances my argument, on how one can lose themselves in love. The first stanza talks about the feeling of being in love. The second one talks about how that feeling can destroy you and at the same time, even if it may hurt you, you need it to survive (which is presented also in the first line of stanza three). In stanza three, it discusses how seeing the other person smile, gives you all the more courage to face the pain. In stanza four, one of the many symbols I use throughout my poems is displayed: candy. The candy in this case represents Prozac, which is an antidepressant; the person is on the verge of death due to their uncontrollable love. Showing how they lost themself to satisfy their partner, to bare the pain of the roses, and regurgitate the one thing that was keeping them sane. Lastly stanza five, the quotes of the person actually talking display how far the person has gone/will go for the one they love; they got lost in the endless sea, drowning, in hopes their flower, the person they love, will thrive and bloom again. I will propose a visual argument to address this societal problem of the toxicity of how we love in this day in age. I hope to show that if published and directed toward the intended audience, this visual argument will be the start of conversations to lead to better habits when forming romantic relationships. 

The purpose of the visual argument I am proposing is to motivate people to find themselves outside of wanting to be loved romantically, that there is a world outside of relationships. It explicitly argues the idea that getting married, and finding “the one”, is not what defines you as a person. This argument, I am anticipating that it would be presented in an art museum featuring upcoming artists. The audience will be mostly Gen-Z filled; as it is featuring young artist it also displays a message I feel many people of my generation can relate to. Gen-Z is one of the first generations to openly have conversations about our trauma, especially with love/being loved, so I feel they’ll relate to the piece a lot more as it’s something they would be able to converse about.

In the picture, there is a dark blue background. There are some lighter shades of blue cascaded across the picture. In the center, there is a man and a woman. The man is represented in blue; there is one main male in the picture he is accompanied by two other versions of himself. The main one is speaking and says “Don’t think, just do it” while there’s another version of him who is smiling and another who looks as if he’s in distress. The two other men seem to have their lower halves shown in a ghost-like way; all of this is shown with each version of himself having his eyes shaded red to represent a ghost-like quality. The two men side to side from the main male holding the women represent two sides, similar to that of a coin. It displays his inner mind at work; one side of him is happy, elated at the fact that he’ll be getting what he wants. While the other side of him is in distress, conflicted of what will be the outcome of this situation.

The woman is represented by the color pink. Her expression is that of one in a daze. As she holds a knife towards her chest, specifically towards her heart, she says “It’s all for you, I love you”. The woman and the man standing in the center of the picture while the two versions of the man surround both sides of the girl.

The purpose of the element color is virtually important. The dark blue represents the dark atmosphere as the color blue in general represents sadness. It also extends from the poem as it states “My cherry blossom that got lost in the sea of roses”, the blue shade also represents a metaphoric ocean. The blue shade is also representing what a male is; in society blue is for boys and pink is for girls, so by taking this approach its easy to identify the sex of the two charaters and it’s easy for the viewer to associate certain roles to each sex. There is also the color red shown in the males eyes, this is to display evil as red usually means a warning or danger. This comparison shows that there is some evil within the man as he gazes upon the girl’s frame.

Words are also a vital thing in this art piece. The purpose of the man’s speech “Don’t think, just do it” goes to show the lack of empathy he has. It goes to show, that no matter the cost he’ll make sure to gain his satisfaction. In comparison, the girl states “It’s all for you, I love you” this shows how far she will go for the man she loves. Like the poem, no matter the stakes at hand whether that be her life or losing a piee of her, the girl is ready, egar even to do what she must to satisfy her love.

Ultimately, many of us need to question if our relationships, platonic or romantic, are really in our favor. If what we were doing, how were feeling, and what our partners are doing are really in our favor. The circulation of this art piece partnered with a poem will raise awareness and invite my target audience to start uncomfortable converstatios and change their mindsets. To have conversations about obsessing over a person and learning to set boundaries with eachother, to learn how to love yourself and to be ok with being alone, to really understand that relationships isn’t everything to life. All  we need is a little push.