Preview

Rhetorical Analysis of Alice Walker's "Am I Blue"

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
441 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Rhetorical Analysis of Alice Walker's "Am I Blue"
Rhetorical Analysis of Alice Walker's "Am I blue"
In the essay, “Am I Blue?” by Alice Walker, Walker discusses the emotions that animals have and the similarities that those emotions have to human emotions. In this way, Walker is comparing her emotions, as a human, to the emotions of a horse (Blue). Walker uses imagery to portray this comparison.
When speaking of the horse, Walker uses phrasing that illuminates the human characteristics of Blue. Walker claims that “Blue was lonely. Blue was horribly lonely and bored”, which are emotions that one would expect only a human to have. One of the arguments Walker makes throughout the piece is that man only associates emotion as capable for humans, because as a society, we consider the ability to feel emotions is restricted to only humans. Furthermore, our society, or at least the society of the slavery period, believes that human emotions are restricted to those that are white, basically those who are human in the eyes of the dominant white male. Therefore, as Walker points out, the Indians and the slaves are “’like animals’”, so they are not capable of having such emotions. When in reality, the ‘animals’ that are discussed in this piece are most likely more capable of displaying these emotions than the dominant white male is.
Walker shows the transition of Blue’s emotions as paralleled to the transitions of human emotions through the finding of love and a companion. When the family gets a brown horse for Blue to mate with, Blue becomes attached to this horse, as he shows his feelings of happiness and “this is itness” through the expression in his eyes.
However, Blue becomes sad and disconnected from his happiness when they take the brown horse away. The feelings of sadness and disappointment are not only portrayed through Blue’s expression in his eyes, but also through his actions as “He managed to half-crunch one[apple]. The rest he let fall to the ground.” The disappointment and “hatred” seen in Blue’s eyes

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Finally, the quintessential rhetorical strategy used in this work, is the appeal to fear it leaves amongst the audience. To illustrate, Brown ends his lyrical video by way of acknowledging fear in present student’s lives. Specifically, by declaring dangers and strain that may seemingly be consequences of errors made previously, Brown appeals to the passions which his audience holds, such as “…so like a typical citizen now I don’t know what I’m voting on”. Moreover, tossing around expressions and opinions that produce the feeling of uselessness and mistrust in the modern day school system can result in distress. Additionally, relying on a tone that is both unnerving and brutally straightforward, he influences in what manner one may consider…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Intense imagery, contrasts, comparisons, and parallelism are used in conveying the complexity of her feelings toward nature. She ties in the similarities between the terror-striking reaction to the great horned owl and the heart-striking happiness of a field of roses.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In "How it Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora N. Hurston, Zora had realized she had become "colored" when she was sent to school in Jacksonville at age thirteen where she was known as the little colored girl. Nevertheless, Zora describes in extraordinary detail how she is not ashamed of being colored. Therefore, Zora utiliezes self respect and selt commitment as her overall tone. thus, she sets her tone by describing her writing with fascinating phraseology and representation; it's as if her readers were experiencing her journey. "I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red, and yellow." This descriptive phrase is especially strong; Hurston describes herself to a brown bag…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) delivers the student address at Harvard Law School’s 2004 graduation ceremony in the movie Legally Blond. In the film Elle is a misguided student who gets accepted into law school upon false pretenses, merely to get back with her ex-boyfriend. He broke up with her because she was not suitable to be a future Senators wife, he claimed she lacked intelligence and only had her looks to depend on. Everyone’s doubt pushed her to stay determined, confident, and come to the conclusion that she does not need a man to justify her life. She also realizes that passion fuels the ability to become successful. This speech is very effective because of the rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos used throughout.…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Essay of Invisible Man

    • 1090 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “The Blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of brutal experience alive in one’s aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy, but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism.”…

    • 1090 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The narrator in The Color of Water changes back and forth throughout the novel between the point of views of Ruth and her son James McBride. This writing style that he uses helps you better understand how Ruth grew up and how she was raised compared to how she raised James. They also dealt with a lot of the same personal issues. They both grew up in completely different times and places but they both still were confronted with a lot of the same daily struggles. Some of the struggles they went through were issues such as race, sense of identity, religion, family, grief, and secrets. We’re going to analyze parallels and contradictions between their lives and provide examples and quotes.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the piece of literature,” How it feels to Be Colored Me”, by Zora Neale Hurston, uses diction, detail, and syntax to express her individuality. Instead of talking about her racial inequality, she expresses her uniqueness as a pro. At the time most essays written by African-Americans, tend to complain about their racial inequality instead embracing it. The entire tone of the piece is set by the opening sentence, where she states she is different by using the word “only.”…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    2. What function does the color blue serve in this story? Where in the story does it appear?…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The short story, “Enigma”, by David Huebert is a tale about a woman her who is dealing with the loss of her cherished horse and the meaningful relationship they had. The woman shares her mourning by narrating significant memories from her past that communicate her emotions, the weight of her loss, and imagery she associates with the passing. She emphasizes her devotion to animals, and to her horse specifically.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Bluest Eye is a complex novel written by Toni Morrison, an African American literary theorist. Morrison evokes a society still plagued by the premise of slavery and the exposes this mode of white inferiority through The Bluest Eye. “Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe”, Morrison endows these last couple of sentences with a lyrical quality that makes the readers truly understand the depth of Cholly’s character and the “freeness” he experiences. Morrison initially introduces Cholly Breedlove as the antagonist, a drunk and very abusive father; any man who would beat his wife, set his house on fire and rape his daughter couldn’t…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Walker conveys emotion with the narrator’s relationship to her daughters. Walker uses the contrasting daughter’s attitude and feelings; to express this, like how Maggie makes her feel. “When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head…Just like when I’m in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout.” (Walker 10-11) Walker connects to her audience by showing that feelings can be beyond description spiritual even. Mama has a deep, rich personality, and although she has not lived an easy life, the rough life she has lived has turned her into a strong woman.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    whites is animalistic and inhumane. On the other hand, the animal imagery in the story…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    At some point or another, we all lose our innocence. In the story “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, there is an excellent example of this. In the last line of this story, Alice walker states “and the summer was over.” This quote means that the little girl in the story has lost her innocence, or “the summer.”…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    behavior, and act like slaves from birth. As explained in the Narrative, “the larger parts of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs.” (Douglass 17) The comparison compels the reader to compare the development of the slaves to that of an animal; detached and dispassionate. Douglass depicts another tormenting effect on the slaves as they had “no more voice in that decision than the brutes among whom we were ranked.” (Douglass 49) This treatment of slaves as property or domestic animals concerns Douglass and epitomizes, yet again a…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The speech titled “A Whisper of AIDS” was given by Mary Fisher on August 19th, 1992 in Houston Texas at the 1992 Republican National Convention Address. Mary Fisher is an American political activist, author, artist and daughter of a wealthy and powerful republican, Max Fisher. Mary Fisher has become an advocate on AIDS prevention and education after she contracted the disease from her second husband. In the speech “A Whisper of Aids”, Mary Fisher uses the rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos to express her opinions about how AIDS is not something to be ashamed of.…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays