Rhetorical analysis - Essay Example

It lays bare, only too well, the feelings and aspirations of a man who, like all of us, wants to obtain the object of his longing, all the while being completely aware of his inadequacies. One of the main reasons this song was a success was also due to the fact that the person singing the song, Thom Yorke, establishes his credibility from the start. Yorke is, to put it kindly, a very average looking man himself, and, thus, seems more than just a spokesperson, or singer, thereof; when he says “What the hell am I doing here?

I don’t belong here” (Creep), it seems he is speaking right from the heart. Since Radiohead is an Alternative Rock band, the main audience of this song is young people, however, since it is written from the point of view of a man, perhaps young men would be the specific target audience. Though admittedly Alternative Rock is quite a popular genre of music, being the first single of the band, however, as there was no established fan-base of the band, the ethos for the song, musically, had to be built from scratch.

Yorke’s personality, in this regard, seems also to foster the image of a young, average looking man who does not see his love being returned for want of a handsome outlook. This seems to be the reason why Yorke seems to have chosen to have written for this audience. Although inclusive language does not form any part of this song – it seems to be just the inner soliloquy of a man – however, the theme of the song is quite common. “But I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo” (Creep) are words used by many a young person, inwardly mostly similar to the soliloquist singer.

Hence, there is a sense of inclusion portrayed in the song. In a rhetorical sense, the song also has an ethos-filled content. Creep is replete with emotional substance and passionate imagery. The beloved is described allegorically: “angel” for instance. Whereas the passion of just how special the beloved is stressed by a vulgar vernacular expression: “You’re so fucking special” (Creep). This stress is to describe just how highly stressed the specialness of the beloved is. On the other hand, words like “creep” and “weirdo” are used to describe the writer himself; again, vernacular is used to portray how low the person’s regard for himself is.

There is much repetition in the song – the words “you” and “I” are used repetitively in the first and second verse. This repetition creates an aura of exclusion – the writer is differentiating between himself and his beloved. This lays bare his idolization of his beloved: “You’re just like an angel… You float like a feather” (Creep), while at the same time, the second verse stresses on his need to be good enough for the beloved: “I want a perfect body, I want a perfect soul” (Creep).

Though it does not do so directly, the song also has logos filled content. The logic of the impossibility of a “weirdo” or a “creep” to win the love of someone who is “an angel” and who “float[s] like a feather” is all too apparent. This is the reality of the world we live in, those who are beautiful do not, normally, tend to fall in love with those who lack any outward charm. All in all, the main rhetorical objective of this song seems to be to relay the hardship of unrequited, or unsaid, love, where the impossibility of gaining the love of someone “perfect” seems to be at the forefront.

This is exacerbated by the low self esteem of the person writing this song,