Reflection of Huckleberry Finn

Of every novel we have read so far this year (and that is a lot of novels), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been -unquestionably- my favorite. The combination of Mark Twain's simple language, energetic plot line, subtle (yet substantial) underlying themes, and the heart-warming friendship between Huck and Jim held my interest throughout all three hundred and something pages. I immediately sympathized with Huck at the mention of his drunken, abusive father, and my love of Huck grew stronger as he went from a pitiable little narrator to a complex character with fears, quirks, playful habits, adventurous desires, and a soft spot for sweet young girls who are being fooled and betrayed. 

The first time I read through the novel, I regret to say that I did not fully grasp the underlying satire that Mark Twain encoded in the pages. However, when I went back to read key passages of the book to prepare for the essay test (this being the day we reviewed satire), Twain's stance on the issues of slavery, racism, and following societal expectations began to jump out at me. What I had originally admired as a classic tale about a young boy and his travels down the Mississippi River, I now regard as a clever and cunning tool to get a meaning full point across. 

TED TALK ANALYSIS

I was scrolling through the list of TED talks under six minutes in length (because, let's face it, I'm lazy), but I did not succeed in finding a title that sparked my interest. When I finally decided to branch out and search videos of decent lengths, I came across one describing the global warming crisis (an issue which has always concerned me). Even better, it was presented by Al Gore, a politician, and who could be better specimen for examining rhetorical techniques? 


http://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_warns_on_latest_climate_trends.html


In Al Gore's bewildering TED Talk presentation, he underscores the grave extent of the effects global warming has had on the polar ice in recent years. He extends his argument to include an attack on the coal industry and obliterates the industry's claim that coal is an increasingly clean source of energy. In order to lock the full attention of his audience, Gore primarily uses logos by presenting viewers with frightening statistics and reinforcing them with an alarming time lapse video of the rapidly shrinking ice caps. Gore employs a second use of the shock-value strategy that visual rhetoric can create when he uses actual footage of field scientists lighting the flow of gas from an arctic glacier on fire to explain the severity of the thawing reserves of carbon trapped beneath the disappearing ice. He then explains how dirty fossil fuels and CO2 emissions are to blame for the climate crisis and uses this information as a segue to point his finger at the coal industry. The coal industry claims to have become much more eco-friendly while simultaneously effecting the climate in disastrous ways. In his assault, Gore switches to pathos by showing the coal industry's new marketing campaign, the logo of which is an adorable lump of coal with a face and sunglasses. Gore ignites the public's pre-existing anger of dangerous, unhealthy products by relating this new mascot to the late Joe Camel of the cigarette company. Although it is not his main approach, Al Gore's fame and recognition add to his ethos and because he does not try to impress the public with an ostentatious display of his credibility, it ironically enhances his support from the audience.  


"The polar ice cap is... the beating heart of the global climate system."
-Al Gore