Rhetoric of the Movie Mean Girls - Assignment Example

Rhetoric Analysis of the Movie Mean Girls The movie Mean Girls was produced in 2004 and directed by Mark Walters. Itis an American comedy teen film that was scripted by Tina Fey. Based on the novel Queen Bees and Wannabes a courtesy of Rosalind Wiseman writings, it describes how girls in high school behave and the effects such behaviors can have on them and other females. The film includes popular stars like Rachel McAdams, Lindsay Lohan, Lacey Chabert, Lizy Caplan and Amanda Seyfried. Based on the scenes in the video, was the movie actually filmed to be used in the commercials? Well, Cady Heron (Lohan) was a girl who schooled partly in Africa because her parents used to work there. After they moved back to America, she is admitted at Evanston Township High School located in Toronto. The woes of Candy begin as a result of not knowing how the clique of ladies dress, hang out and socialize with each other. Candy makes friends with two schoolmates, Damian (Daniel Frazese) and Janis (Lizzy Caplan). They warn Candy about the girls from hell. They are a group of three ladies who skim and manipulate anyone for their own gain. Their leader is Regina. Candy was invited by Regina to their table. Janis tells her to join them. They use this as a chance to get close to them and get some information so as to use it in bringing down her campaign. Cady then learns about Regina’s notebook known as Burn Book. It has secrets, gossip and rumors about teachers and the girls. As events unfold, Regina falls in love with Cady’s ex boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett). Cady plans to cut down her resources and ruining their relationship with Aaron. She also wants to make her friends turn against her: the wealthy Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) and Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried). As she executed her plans, she made herself to fit Regina’s clause and became superficial and spiteful. This made her end up her contacts with Damian and Janis. Cady plans a house party while her parents are away. A large crowd turns up and she expects to meet Aaron in the crowd. Unfortunately, she drinks one too many before Aaron shows up. In her state, she tries to talk to Aaron, who only just gets angered by her attitude and personality. Janis and Damian also show up and rebel against her for hiding out her characters. They take her to be worse than Regina in her habits. When Regina heard of Cady’s plot, she reveals the content in her notebook, which causes a riot among students. To calm the situation, Ron Duvall (Tim Meadows) the principal gathers the girls in the auditorium so as to solve their differences. Sharon Norbury (Tina Fey) the mathematics teacher makes all the girls mentioned in the book to take responsibility of the claims. In as much as the movie may resemble a typical teenage girl flick, it has positive morals in specific scenes that should be considered educative. When she moves to her new school, Cady is befriended by the wrong people known as the plastics. They change her personality, decision making ways, her viewpoints and her activities that she does in her daily life. Instances of nervousness are seen in the movie when Cady shoves off, Regina in front of a bus. She also admits to writing the Burn Book. This comes after she was declared winner of the homecoming queen and now she had to act to be accepted for who she really was. She decides to write a speech to reduce the shock that befell the whole school. The speech is supposed to be read in front of her teachers, parents, enemies and peers at the Fling dance spring. During the appointment of the winners, the king was highly appreciated with shouts and screams that filled the air. When her name was read, silence crept over the school and only a few clapped to show courtesy to her. She was once an adored student by her fellows, but her behavior changed all that people had for her. For her to read a speech during Spring Fling dance Queen was shocking to the students. It was a rare thing that happens in the school. The students only got confused. What Cady had in front of her was the anger and rage from the audience, which made it very hard to deliver the speech. To start, she uses an apprehensive tone that left the audience irritated but puzzled. Her first words give her thoughts and the sense to continue. After all, it was the first time such a thing was happening in the Spring Fling dance. She then acknowledges the fact that most people are mad at her while others like her for pushing Regina in front of a bus. She states that it is of bad character behaving that way. With this she justifies the audiences claim that what happened was bad and cannot be taken back. She wants the people to view her as a remorseful person for that all had happened. When she notices that the audiences are at her level, she uses pathological actions to adjust their viewpoints. She apologizes immediately and says that feelings are affected by virtues of actions. This brings the audience back to the fact that their welfare was certainly affected. She then realigns the feelings of the audience to the crown that she had just received. This is achieved by letting the people know that so many had longed for the crown and did almost everything to obtain it. This leaves her better pleased with her audience and she can now proceed with her speech. She then decides to recognize some people in the audience. This she does selectively to average girls who were badly talked about and received a little respect. She says that Jessica Lopez is wonderful in her long dress and that Emma Gerber’s hairstyle is best for the occasion. This makes the students believe that she likes everyone despite the fact that the Burn Book revealed them as neglects. This makes the student positive about her and she gets the nod to continue with the speech. In what appeared to be a more drastic decision she had ever made in the school, she broke her newly won crowns in two. This made the student body and the students to attest in unison. Surely, something that people really wanted to get hold of is broken into pieces: this left the crowd to wonder and wait for what was in store for them. But to her, she made an ethical move that convinced the crowd. She asked why so many people were involved over the plastic she broke. In essence, she only broke the chains of adoring people and highly coveted items in the school. Just as part of giving the broken pieces to other nominees and the audience, she insisted on the point of each one trying to maintain their own lifestyles and personalities. She concluded by inviting the principal to close the session. People were convinced and accepted her back. A good look at her speech, we notice that she used appeals that were rhetoric in nature to communicate and convince the audience to accept her back. She admits her mistakes in the first place and makes the audience to believe her. She then does what many least expected and explains why it was better not to have fought for the item that brought disunity in the school. The drumming sound in the movie takes the viewer between two worlds: civilization and jungle. The aspect of cross cultural background is evident because of Cady’s early learning in Africa. Stereotypes also appear in the movie as in the case where her teacher welcomed a black American lady instead of her to class. This occurred because the teacher had known that she is from Africa. Other scenes also depict this as in the place where she greets other African girls and gets mixed answers. She even tells the other students that in Africa everyone is fluent in Swedish. This only shows that the others had very minimal knowledge of other cultures around the world. Cady in some instances tries to relate her new surroundings to the African jungle. This is seen in her first day at school where she saw strange things that she could only imagine of in the African wilderness. The students in the campus acted more like apes due to their related behaviors while those at the fountain mall brought back her memories at the water hole. She clearly knows that conflicts are only solved by fierce fights in the animal world. She becomes confused when she is faced with the same situation. In referring to her talk while lamenting to her father, she uses a metaphor: I feel like a hog surrounded by lions. This can only be traced back in the African scene. Her thoughts were made right when her headmaster said that the girls had gone mad at their selves because of the rumors that were in the Burn Book. Cady is forced to adapt to her new surroundings and accept the culture. She was used to handling dangers that were in the African jungle, but had to fight any resistance to join the American culture. She raises herself from a normal African brought up school girl to an American queen in a new setting. At first, she is faced with language difficulty inasmuch as English is her mother tongue. She also struggles to get the meaning of the slang language used in the campus. When a boy asked her whether she had a buttered muffin she fails to answer because she does not know the meaning. Even her parents felt disowned by this culture. They experienced problems with her for grounding her- they did not know the meaning of the term. This meant that she was not to leave the house. Cady finally in the end finds a middle way to follow and get the better of his friends and their culture. Reference Wiseman, Rosalind. Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping your daughter survive cliques, gossip, boyfriends & the new realities of Girl World. Little Brown Book Group. 2011.Print. Read More