The Impossible Climb: A Rhetorical Criticism

The Impossible Climb Made Possible:
A Rhetorical Criticism
Northern Arizona University CST 300W

The Impossible Climb Made Possible:
A Rhetorical Criticism Climbing is a challenging, unrelenting, and high-risk sport. Being a climber myself, I know the challenges and constant battle one has to push oneself further and further. Climbing itself has a long rich history. At the heart of the sport has long been the historic national park, Yosemite Valley. Yosemite Valley has seen centuries of climbing starting back in the 19th century. The valley is surrounded by large walls upon which have glorious views. These walls have attracted many climbers to them. These walls hold many historic climbs in their bones and have seen numerous
I will discuss characters, events, and theme which I will later use in the application of this method in order to rhetorically critique the artifact. According to Walter Fisher (1987), “Narratives are fundamental to communication and provide structure for human experience and influence people to share common explanations and understandings” (p. 58). Any artifact can be used with this method that has at lest two events and/or as a timeline of events. Sonja Foss (2009) explains the steps as, “Identifying the objective of the narrative; and identifying the features of the narrative to discover how they accomplish the objective…” and says sometimes a third step is necessary; “assessing or evaluating the narrative according to the particular objective”(p. 310). There are many different objectives that frequently illustrate narratives. The goal could be to encourage action, to comfort, to teach, to clarify thinking, etc. (Foss, 2009). The next step involves determining the components of the narrative that develop the objective of the narrative. These descriptions or components that support the narrative are the characters, events, and theme that I will discuss in regards to the artifact. Characters in the narrative are just like the characters in a movie or book. Characters can be human and nonhuman or inanimate phenomena (Foss, 2009). Characters can contrast each other in many ways, such as a protagonist and antagonist. Events can be broken up into major and minor events such as plotlines, happenings, etc. (Foss, 2009). Foss explains (2009) that major events “suggest critical points in the narrative” and “force movement in particular directions”(p. 313). Minor events are used in conjunction with major events to help support them. Foss writes (2009), “Their function is to fill out, elaborate, and complete…”(p. 313). Foss also explains that although helpful, minor events are not essential to the narrative and could