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Super Size Me Rhetorical Analysis

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Super Size Me Rhetorical Analysis
Supersize Me Rhetorical Analysis
Are fast food restaurant chains to blame for America being the fattest nation in the world? Morgan Spurlock tackles this question in his award-winning documentary, Supersize Me. Spurlock went on a “McJourney” where, for thirty consecutive days, he could only eat food that came from McDonald’s. He went on this fast food binge to analyze the effects it would have on the human body. In his documentary, Spurlock efficiently uses ethos, pathos, and logos to display America’s obesity crisis. Spurlock uses many credible sources in his documentary- himself being one of them. Since the audience follows him throughout his experiment and sees the results that he had from eating so much McDonald’s, they most likely built some sort of connection with him. Spurlock also added to his argument by consulting with four different experts consistently during his venture. He had a nutritionist, Bridget Bennett, a general practitioner, Dr. Daryl Isaacs, a gastroenterologist, Dr. Lisa Ganjhu, and a cardiologist, Dr. Steven Siegel. In addition, the fact that the viewer actually hears the doctors talk about Spurlock’s conditions and sees him in the professional places aids his argument. It also makes the documentary more reliable. Spurlock uses pathos in different ways very effectively in his documentary. For instance, he evokes pity on the audience when Bruce Howlett, the man getting the gastro bypass surgery, gave his testimony while lying in a hospital bed. The person watching inevitably feels a bit of sympathy for what Howlett has to endure. Spurlock also shows footage of obese people in public with their faces blurred. This conveys that obese people appear everywhere, and some of them may be ashamed to associate their face with their body. Once again, the audience may feel a little sorry for the overweight people causing the viewer to lean toward Spurlock’s argument even more. Spurlock not only demonstrates pathos by making his audience feel

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