Civic Artifact Speech Outline

The civic artifact I am choosing to explore rhetorically is the musical Les Miserable.

To begin the speech, I intend to show a short preview of the 2013 musical film Les Miserable to give the audience some background on the storyline and the music. I will mention the tone of the clip and briefly tie in some background about the original novel, the author, and the later adapted play, musical, and film versions of the story.

Then I will shift the discussion to the musical’s worldwide renown and ponder why it is so widely recognizable. I will talk about how people love to be entertained, hear a good story, and feel like they can relate with others on one level or another.

From that point, I will talk about how the true essence of Les Mis is the story behind the dance numbers, the emotions crashing within the ballads, the real issues conveyed through the dialogue, rather than it being just a “generic” musical.

In this part, I will discuss and develop the nature of emotional appeals within the story, paired with the entertaining aspect of music. I will talk about how much more effective it is for an audience to experience situations and really develop that empathy for the characters. When a musical is performed well, relationships are created between the characters and the audience during a performance whether the audience realizes it or not, and this connection is the basis of empathetic growth to the deeper issue being portrayed symbolically through the character.

In the news today, there are stories of wretchedness equivalent to those considered in Les Mis that so quickly get overlooked, and nothing is done by sufficient bystanders who can afford to give what they have to provide for the needs of others. This raises an interesting, but possibly far-fetched question that I will pose to my audience: does the audience watching the musical somehow represent real life individuals who are able to see the wretchedness of the world and who, by choice or ignorance, do nothing to ease the pain of those suffering? In any case, Les Mis functions civically by acting as a call to action for those of us who do “hear the people sing” in real life; therefore, it is our civic duty to respond to that call and react accordingly.

I will then shift to a second aspect of rhetorical analysis in which I will talk about how the storyline follows the lives of several main characters that are living in a world of poverty and injustice. This evidence serves to prove the legitimacy of their cries for justice, mercy, and political reformation. I will tie in the idea that the United States was founded on political beliefs that the people of France were striving to replicate in their own political system. The civic purpose of this aspect of Les Mis is to use the characters’ testimonies to remember that our freedoms as Americans are not something to be taken for granted. In other nations, social systems are so much worse than is even imaginable by someone who was raised in a country with a stable justice system, political leaders with good intentions, and a flexible social order.

Les Mis also functions civically by promoting the importance of justice in society as well as questioning the true meaning of justice.

Then again, what is justice? I will explore possible definitions and applications of the musical’s themes to those in the real world. Who among us has the true right to determine the extents or limitations of our justice system? Are there ever instances where something done illegally is justified? For example, in Les Mis, the character Jean Valjean is originally sentenced to serve in the galleys for 19 years for the crime of thievery. The circumstances surrounding this sentence were not taken into account: Valjean had stolen a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. Once he served his sentence, he was placed on parole and could not hold a job because of the label his society had given him for a crime that had spared the lives of several individuals. To be able to earn a living, he broke parole, which was considered another legal offense, and many years later, he was still hunted down by Inspector Javert, who believed that the law is the final rule which must be obeyed at all times or else the world would be faced with nothing but darkness and chaos. Is there a right answer? Or does an individual’s network of interpretation ultimately determine the outcome or solution to an imposing issue? It could be that our civic duty lies in determining how to measure the scale when justice is being weighed – determining the balance between safety, consistency and empathy within society.

The evidence of the significant role Les Miserable plays in acting as a civic artifact is striking in the musical’s ability to relate with current societal problems, its subliminal call to action in addressing those problems, and its underlying question of determining societal power: who among us truly has the right to determine what is just?

 

One thought on “Civic Artifact Speech Outline

  1. Les Miserable is one of my favorite book of all time, so I am really excited to hear more about your speech and analysis of the musical. I really like the point you are discussing about the connection made between the characters and audience. I have seen musicals before (sadly not Les Miserable), and I have had the feeling of connection with characters in those musical and thought about the deeper meaning of certain themes of those musical before.
    Also, I think you should emphasize more on the question, “does the audience watching the musical somehow represent real life individuals who are able to see the wretchedness of the world and who, by choice or ignorance, do nothing to ease the pain of those suffering?” For me, this idea really hit me because I have never thought about it before watching not just musicals but also movies and other shows. When I think about it now, I think this point allows your audience to really think about the problems of the society and the civicness of this artifact that reflects those problems.
    I liked your mentioning of the freedom in the US and its connection to Fance and connecting those ideas to the topic of justice. However, the structure (or order) of those ideas confused me a little bit. Maybe because the first point about the character-audience connection stood out, so the ideas that followed seemed waker or a little unclear.
    I think if you can incorporate the topic of justice to the question you raise, that will make the analysis more structured.
    Overall, I can’t wait to hear your actual speech.

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