Rhetorical Essay
NV Example
Professor West
English Composition 1
1 November
“The Will to Succeed is Always Welcome Here”
The 84 Lumber Company produced a commercial for the 2017 Super Bowl. During the commercial it shows what is like to travel from a Hispanic country to the United States as an immigrant. The commercial from the 84 Lumber Company uses a mixture of ethos, symbolism, and pathos to display awareness that America’s doors are always open to anyone in the world if they want to succeed and eliminate President Trump’s theory of building a wall will stop immigrants from coming into the United States of America.
In this commercial produced by the 84 Lumber Company, it is displaying the raw reality of what immigrants face when coming to America, the land of hope and freedom. A Hispanic daughter and her mother set foot on a long treacherous journey to America. They are faced with brute cold nights, hot summer days, and traveling through various cities and deserts. While walking through the different environments the daughter picks up numerous items and starts to sew them together day by day. On the other hand it changes focus on American workers putting up a concrete wall at the border. Once the Hispanic woman and her daughter get to this wall they are all faced with shock and dismay of seeing a tall concrete wall. However, the mother spots a light around the wall which leads to a door were everyone is welcome into America.
The producer in this commercial used human rights, that everyone on this Earth has, as a rhetorical device for ethos. Human rights are the basic rights under the Constitution of the United States that grants all people in the United States certain freedoms and protections under U.S. law. This is regardless of whether or not someone is a citizen or noncitizen, documented or undocumented. Even though there is a wall built at the border of the United States this does not deter the family because everyone is welcome in America regardless of what the President thinks.
The American flag presents many things such as hope, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. In this commercial the producer uses the wooden door in the cement wall and the American flag made of collected items by the daughter as rhetorical devices for symbolism. Symbolism is where an object, person, or situation has another meaning other than its literal meaning. The wooden door in the cement wall represents the chance of opportunity in America and the chance to change life for the better. The American flag is the symbol for hope, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. The reason why is because America is the only country in the world where you come into the country as an immigrant and have the same basic rights as an American rather than other countries. This means that you can get a job, build a family, and have a fresh start all over again.
Lastly, the producer used mixed feelings such as being angry, sad, happy, fearful, and surprised to develop pathos as the last rhetorical device. Going through the commercial the feelings of being angry, sad, and fearful come into play. We have a daughter and mother going on foot during most of the journey which makes the audience fearful to see what might happen to them. The sense of being sad and mad is felt because at the end of the journey the two come to a huge cement wall and the mother and daughter become very depressed and on the verge to cry. This also is upsetting to see since the two came so far away and they face a huge obstacle that they may not be able to concur. But in the end happiness overwhelms the feelings of being sad and angry when they see a light around the corner of the wall and there is the door to America.
In essence, this commercial produced by the 84 Lumber Company “The Entire Journey”, has proven that it is very affective on the audience and that the specific message is very clear. Ethos shows us that we are all the same on this Earth, whether we are man or woman, black or white, immigrants or not, it does not matter. We all have the same basic human rights. Symbolism showed its true colors by representing a common object such a door to mean more than what it is. It represents the journeys to new and better lives. The American flag is not just a flag. It symbolizes the hopes and freedoms to anyone and everyone welcomed to America. Pathos shows the raw emotion of what the human body can feel. The mixed feelings in the commercial means that it has a huge effect to change the way the audience feels and thinks.