Rhetorical Analysis and Values - Essay Example

?. College Rhetorical Analysis and Values Before leaving home for college at Rutgers, Ravi a nineteen year old boy searched through the internet for information regarding his roommate to be. Using twitter and face book social sites, he was able to get information that made him believe that his roommate was gay. After learning this, he posted in his wall that his new roommate was gay. Clementi on the other hand was able to come across this post and since then the two rarely talked to each other when they met. Before the death of Clementi, he asked Ravi to allow him use their room for a personal meeting with a male friend and Ravi concerned about the safety of his computer convinced Clementi to allow him leave the webcam on. However in another room, Molly Ravi’s friend and Ravi were watching the proceedings in the room. They watched as the two kissed and later took off their shirts with their pants still on. With this footage, the two posted the video on the internet and the next day, most people were able to view it. This made Clementi to commit suicide the next day blaming it all on his roommate. This raised a major international concern on cyber bullying and how the LGBT. The story of Clementi’ death reached his parents who later in an interview gave a clear revelation of how hard it had been for them to come to terms with this information that their child was gay. His mother in particular was very sad after learning that Clementi had died knowing that she had disowned her. This story contains instances of societal injustices that are critically discussed in this paper and how they affected clement. The interview of Clementi’s parents with the media can be used through rhetorical analysis to bring out the values of this community. I am claiming that women and men react differently when faced with a challenge. The reason I am claiming this is because of the soon after revealing to his parents that he was gay, Clementi’s father accepted the fact and took time to discuss with his son a few matters pertaining to his sexuality. Their younger son too did not show any signs of disregard for clementi’s sexuality but instead was silent on the matter. However, after the death of his brother, he too came clear that he was gay. Clementi’s mother reacted in a way that suggested to clement that she had completely rejected him as a son. This is a clear depiction of pathos in the essay. In a later interview with the mother after the death of their child, she insists that it was a difficult for her to accept that her son had been hiding things from her for a long time and that her church members would not be happy with this revelation since homosexuality is a sin. This revelation clearly brings out the opposition between man verses woman. Clementi’s father even after knowing that their son was gay accepted this fact as a man while his mother had difficulty accepting this yet they had raised the boy together. Their different actions show that to some degree, men are more understanding as compared to women. This is one of the rhetorical ideas that this story present. The story also gives us a clear picture of how Clementi had caused a rift between his father and his mother of his sexuality. This also brings in this rhetoric point that women find it hard to accept change and instead, they often resist it with all they can find. The parents lived in a suburb and in that suburb, gay people were extremely discriminated against that Clementi’s mom could not bear the idea of everyone knowing that her son was gay. The father however did not mind. This too clearly shows the difference in how men and women tackle issues. the Clementis’ I am claiming that the church disciplines the way that the suburbs work. The reason I am claiming this is because of the way that clementi’s mum reacted to the information that her own son was gay and how she had difficulty in accepting this fact just because her church had taught that being gay is a sin. In one of Clementi’s comments, he had written how his mother a strong Christian had prayed to him for almost 20 years so that he could become straight and go to heaven. This clearly show that the church had set up a disciplinary conduct that was clear that being gay was a sin and anyone who was determined to go to heaven had to be straight (Crocker, 76). This therefore causes most gay people to be silent about their sexuality so as to avoid discrimination. For example, after knowing that their son was gay, the couple went silent on this matter and did not share it with anyone in the suburbs for fear of discrimination. This however is just a case of one family and if clearly checked, there might be a lot more people going through this in their families and suffering negligence for the fear of being discriminated upon. This shows that people value their public figure and how the society views them more than their personal interests. People will therefore do whatever it takes even if it means killing themselves like Clementi did just to please the society and avoid the shame that comes along with the discrimination. Clementi’s mum reveals that even though she knew that her son had done nothing wrong to the society and was just trying to be real to him, she never had the guts to come clean and accept the fact that his child was gay and say that it was right. Doing this would mean that she would be rejected by her fellow church members for declaring that her son was a sinner and accepting that he had the right to sin. With this revelation, it is clear that the church controlled the morals of this suburb and chose to distinguish the right from the wrong based on historical believes. Anyone going against these laws are considered to be sinners and expected to burn in hell and will never go to heaven. I am claiming that when people in a society fail to fit within a given binary and instead find themselves in the opposite binary contrary to societal expectations, they fail to become silent and avoid speaking out about their issues to other people. The reason I am saying this is because Clementi’s mum was afraid of telling the world about her son’s sexuality and this onyx came out after her son’s death (Billitteri 12). This could mean that there are a lot more people in the society with the same problem but hiding for fear of being discriminated upon. This clearly shows that this is how the society operates since in her interview, Mrs. Clementi insisted that she had never seen anyone come to her on the issue of their children being gay and so she found it hard to convince herself and share this with any person in the society. The people in the society therefore opt to be silent with their problems rather than speak them out to the public. When people fail to share their experiences and issues, it is not an indication that they are comfortable with being silent. However, in most cases they hide behind the mask not knowing what to do. And so the dilemma always exists on the right thing to do whether to be silent or to express their views and undergo the stigma that follows. In the dialogue of the article, the parents of Clementi are exposed to a dialogue that portrays some values of juxtaposition. His is also present in the photograph that is shown in the article. Morally, this community operates through hiding, in Clementi’s case; it took him a very long time to come open with his parents that he was gay. This therefore brings out the clear picture that in his society, people hid things that they consider to be wrong to the society. The reason behind this is that when people go against the disciplinary standards that the church has set for this particular society, the person is always stigmatised and it is always clear to the others that the person is going to hell. This belief is one of the reasons why Clementi was afraid to let out his sexuality to the society for fear of what would follow. This was so despite the constant struggles by human rights activist for gay people to be open about their sexuality (Cramer, 32). These claims show a clear depiction of how rhetoric analysis can be used to describe various values that a society has. Like in the case of Clementi, other communities also have various values and culture that can be analysed by the use of rhetoric analysis. Work cited Crocker, Lionel. Rhetorical Analysis of Speeches. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1967. Print. "Bullying: a Special Report: Police Investigate the Suicide of Tyler Clementi, a Promising Violinist Who Jumped Off a Bridge After His College Roommate Secretly Webcammed Him in an Encounter with a Man. Was He Bullied to Death? Plus: an Update on the Phoebe Prince Case; a Story About a Reformed Bully; and Tales from Kids Across the Country Who Have Been Bullied and Triumphed." People Weekly. (2010): 56. Print. Cramer, Elizabeth P, and Charles H. Ford. "Gay Rights on Campus, Circa 2011." Academe. 97.5 (2011): 38-41. Print. BILLITTERI, T. J. (2010). Preventing bullying do anti-harassment laws violate students' rights? Washington, DC, Congressional Quarterly. http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010121000. http://www.google.co.ke/imgres?imgurl=http://img2- 3.timeinc.net/people/i/2011/news/111219/tyler-clementi-family- 300.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20551711,00.html&h=400 &w=300&sz=32&tbnid=il3y_7WqhnpKcM:&tbnh=186&tbnw=139&zoom=1&usg=__j UJmzf4cfVuoTVSg4zj2GQB1r2s=&docid=5i8LxG8OyDlL3M&sa=X&ei=mIK3UL6W Hc2k0AXooYDYDA&ved=0CC4Q9QEwAA&dur=547 Read More