Art for Individual And Social Changes - Essay Example

Her exhibit showcased portraits from each of these women. They allowed themselves to be vulnerable, so that they can share their experiences and lessons with the world. The main argument of the article is that art can be used to promote individual and social changes through accepting one’s vulnerabilities, while having hope in life’s possibilities. This paper analyzes the rhetorical strategies used to assert this primary argument, specifically repetition, emotional appeals, and anecdotes, which are effective in illustrating the transformational power of homelessness, and using art to be released from its financial and psychological trauma.

Before this paper proceeds to analyzing the rhetorical strategies of this article, the premises of the article will be examined first. The stated premises are: art provides deeper self-understanding; art presents universal meanings that people from different backgrounds can relate to; and more artists should engage in activist art, in order for them to address contemporary social and political issues using their talents. The implicit premises are: 1) art is the language of the human soul and 2) even those in the margins have a capacity for making art and making sense out of art.

In essence, even the poor have art in their hearts. These premises are relayed to the rhetorical strategies used in the article. . ough” and “poor” are repeated twice in this statement, as well as the word “African American.” This statement effectively shows that minority groups have rougher lives than the white population, because there are fewer economic and social opportunities for them. Because of these rough lives, they can also easily slide back to poverty, even when they have escaped it earlier in life.

For instance, many of these women in the article, when they lost their jobs, husbands, or homes, declined from middle class status to lower class. The older they get, the more vulnerable they are, because society views the old as dispensable beings. As a result, an old African American woman is exposed to the greatest risk of being homeless and poor. This article also made successful employment of emotional appeals, without sounding naive or sentimental, and instead, they underscore the universal feelings, dreams, and fears of people, whatever their race, age, gender, and social class might be.

Fulmer discloses how these women’s art will also emotionally affect her: “The act of creating the artwork meant permitting myself to feeling vulnerable to their experiences that may hurt, twist, turn, and otherwise impact my own personal psyche.” She is saying that when these women become vulnerable, she becomes vulnerable too. They open their hearts, which opens hers in the process. When they go back to the past and remember their pain and suffering, Fulmer cannot help but identify with them, not because she has been homeless before, but because at different points in their lives, people also experience the same hopelessness and loneliness that homeless people feel.

In addition, Fulmer also reflects on her writing, which helps her cope with the emotional engagement she feels with this