Evangelos A.

Harakas

Professor Agosta

UWRT 1101-005

March 3, 2017

Rhetorical Analysis Essay

A civic text is one relating to citizens, a community, or any other topic

relating to the public. The civic text being analyzed throughout this analysis

is a billboard making a political statement regarding gun control. The

billboard has received recognition by the media for being insensitive and

offensive.

In this example of a civic literacy, a billboard was used to express that

the government should not force people to give up their right to bear arms.

Through this a group of Native Americans were displayed holding guns with

the phrases: TURN IN YOUR ARMS then stating: THE GOVERNMENT WILL

TAKE CARE OF YOU. The use of Native Americans to depict this directly

refers to how through history, the United States has notoriously mistreated

this group of people by lying to them and stating that they would be

protected, only to be confine to a tiny territory. The phrase is used in a

sarcastic tone to make the point that losing guns is like giving up your

freedom and putting trust into the government, who historically, has

mistreated groups of people.

 The billboard uses persuasion through the use of this specific group of

people to make a point. This particular billboard has been criticized for being

too harsh or offensive; however, the fact that it is so direct and to the point,

in a sense, is the reason for it being so persuasive. It is not meant to be

taken lightly because of this. The billboard is brutally honest which is why it

causes an emotional effect on its audience, expressing pathos. It hits a

person so that they experience this feeling and almost a connection through

hypothetical possibilities of being stabbed in the back as the Native

Americans have been throughout history. This clearly addresses the

intentions of the person or group of people that put the billboard up. The

civic text is effective in its ability to get a point across even if it was

confrontational to a controversial topic in United States history; moreover, it

states a consequence which will occur if people give up the right to have

guns. Through this, it uses logos. This is how it appeals to emotion and

causes people to have a reaction.

The outcome of this emotional reaction is the reason for the exigence

regarding the billboard. It caused an outburst among the community causing

it to be placed on the news. A group among the audience, which was the

general public in the community, had a negative reaction to this display. The

constraints of this situation were the opposing opinions and beliefs of the

political message being expressed on the billboard.

The use of a billboard to display this targets the general public and to

make sure it attracts as much attention as possible. Through the use of a

historical reference, the billboard was able to give a possible outlook as to

what would happen if people were to give up their weapons to the

government. This generally says that history could possibly repeat itself by

the government making a promise that will not be kept; therefore,

addressing the audience.

The presentation of this massive billboard is what forces a sense of

authority, using ethos, to viewers. Because this display is so large, it gives a

sort of in-your-face effect. This an effective use of spatial and visual

expressions of multimodal design. Also, because this civic text is expressed

through a billboard, it gives the designer of the billboard a sense of

legitimacy which pertains to authority. Billboards are not cheap and which

can even be taken in a way that gives the person who put the billboard up a

sense of financial authority.

When viewing this billboard, a person receives a strong emotional

feeling to the message being expressed and the display is incredibly

effective in how it delivers its message to the public. The billboard was able

to capture enough attention that it even made the news where it was

labelled offensive for bringing up such a touchy subject in United States

history. However, the intentions behind this display were specifically to have

a brutally honest message, generally summarized by saying if you give up

your guns to the government, you will be backstabbed like the Native

Americans. All in all, this political statement was completely effective in its

ability to persuade its audience.

https://www.google.com/url?

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KEwi2-fuuiLHSAhWF6yYKHRQwBqAQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F

%2Fwww.denverpost.com%2F2013%2F04%2F29%2Famerican-indian-

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