Rhetorical Analysis Essay Draft/ Revised Speech Outline

Essay Draft (10/4)

From 1933 to 1945, many parts of Europe experienced the overruling of the Nazi German regime as a result of the second World War. Since then, artists and producers from around the world have been using their creativity to shed light on the horrors of the systemically rooted persecution and murder of six million Jewish people, known as the Holocaust. The “Human Laundry”, a painting by Doris Zinkeisen (1945), compares the lives of the German nurses and doctors to that of the Jewish prisoners in order to visually critique the ideologies of inequality and antisemitism, while also using the concept of kairos to display a sense of urgency about the matter. On the other hand, the film The Pianist (2002), dives deep into the life of a Jewish person suffering during the war to touch on those same ideologies, and it does so by addressing the commonplace that it is our civic duty to find ways in which to keep the horrors that the Jewish people experienced during World War II alive. The “Human Laundry” and The Pianist are unique forms of artwork that each take on a pathetic approach to endorsing the same two ideals, but they do so in different ways. 

Through its use of visual rhetoric and Kairos, the “Human Laundry” works to critique the ideologies of antisemitism and inequality during the Holocaust. The “Human Laundry” is a series of four paintings that depicts a scene where a line of wooden tables sit with an emaciated figure on each table. Each figure is being treated by a woman or man wearing a white uniform, presumably German nurses and doctors. Zinkeisen, the female artist behind the “Human Laundry” paintings, was sent overseas to be an artist for the Red Cross following the end of the war in 1945. Immediately following the war, all of the remaining prisoners were brought to the hospital to be treated. The “Human Laundry” pinpoints the period of time before the remaining prisoners were brought into the hospital, and it shows when they were washed by the nurses to ensure that no diseases from the prison were transmitted into the hospital. She utilized the Kairos of this being directly after the war ended to demonstrate the antisemitism that occurred in Europe during World War II by expressing the sick and weak patients that lie on the tables. By capturing the clear, visual contrast between the well-fed, rounded men and women who are working and their scrawny patients, Zinkeisen calls attention to the inequalities that were displayed between Jewish people and their overruling German caretakers. She is shedding light on the result of millions of Jewish people being dehumanized over the course of several years. Small details such as the shrubs in the windows and the lack of light and cleanliness within the room serve as visual proof that the Jewish prisoners were not treated with the best of care. The wash buckets beside each table signify that the prisoners were living in a dirty and dangerous environment for the duration of the war, and this works to further analyze the clear inequalities during this time.

While the painting used both visual rhetoric and Kairos as its way of communicating the two ideologies of antisemitism and inequality, the movie took a different approach to doing so. The film The Pianist addresses the commonplace that it is our civic duty to remember the lives of the Jewish people who died during the Holocaust in order to analyze these ideologies. The Pianist is a true story about a man who works for a radio station as a pianist during World War II. The film dives deep into the horrors that a Polish, Jewish man named Wladyslaw Szpilman experiences as he hides in various places along the ruins of Warsaw, Poland until the time when the prisoners are released after the war. Roman Polanski, the director of The Pianist, did not release the movie until 2002. Considering the movie is a retelling of the life that a real Jewish man once lived, Polanksi is remembering his life by telling his story through film. Although it had been over half a century since the World War II time period, it is equally as important now as it has ever been to remember people like the man behind Szpilman’s character for the struggles that they had to endure. 

Both Zinkeisen and Polanski demonstrate the use of Pathos throughout their works. The creators do not hold back from showing the raw and intense suffering of the Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust, and in doing so they are provoking a strong sense of emotion within the audience. Although the medium differs between Zinkeisen and Polankski’s artwork, both pieces aid the audience in developing a stronger understanding of what inequality, and more specifically antisemitism, looked like for Jewish people during the time of World War II. When seeing or watching images of Jewish people who have suffered years of severe starvation and exhaustion, the audience develops a strong emotional outlook on these prisoners. The idea of antisemitism becomes more clear to modern Americans when they are exposed to Pathetically driven work such as “The Human Laundry” and The Pianist.

In the painting “The Human Laundry”, Zinkeisen critiques the ideologies of antisemitism and inequality through the use of Kairos and visual rhetoric. This differs from the way that the film The Pianist addresses these same ideologies, as it uses the commonplace of restoring Jewish memories after the war. With those differences in mind, both forms of artwork use Pathos as a way to establish trust in order to address these ideals. 

(end with thank you)

Speech Outline: 

1. Start with information about the Holocaust

• All around Europe 
• 1939-1945            
• European Jews were forced to work at concentration camps, approx. 6 million dead, ghettos 

2. Discuss context of the painting “Human Laundry”

• Doris Zinkeisen, 1945, she was working for the Red Cross and was sent to Europe after the war to paint
• One of a few female war artists that was sent overseas

3. Discuss how the painting uses visual rhetoric to critique the ideologies of antisemitism and inequality 

• Shrubs in the windows represent unmaintained spaces 
• Rounded, well-fed men and women are the nurses and doctors and this contrasts with the frail patients on the tables 
• The buckets beside each table- purpose was to wash the patients before being admitted so that they did not transfer diseases 
• Lack of light in the building 

4. Discuss how the painting uses Kairos to describe a sense of urgency about these ideologies 

• The painting was created in 1945 immediately after the war 
• Dehumanizing 
• Kairos of the painting being done immediately after the war and this is what the situation looks like- this is what it looks like to dehumanize people 

5. Discuss how the painting makes use of Pathos as a way to gain trust in the audience 

• The painting shows gruesome bodies that are starved, beaten, exhausted 

6. Conclusion 

• How have people around the world responded to the painting?
• Does modern-day antisemitism exist?