Rhetorical Analysis Rough Draft

Unfortunately, cancer is a disease that touches so many every day. St. Baldricks is one of the many an organizations that impacts numerous lives all of the time. St. Baldricks takes a specific aim at ending childhood cancer once and for all through awareness, funding, and St. Baldricks events. The artifact that I am analyzing is the St. Baldricks video on their website. Because St. Baldricks is a childhood cancer organization, there are obvious appeals to not only the adults and parents, but also to the younger kids as well. The video does a great job of appealing to all of these audiences.

In the video, it aims to accomplish a few different things. The video first and foremost, wants to raise awareness in regards to this incredibly prevalent issue that is childhood cancer. The video also aims to raise funds for childhood cancer research. The organization does this in hope that they will someday (hopefully sooner than later) find a cure. Most importantly, the video really is trying to promote hope. They are trying to promote this hope in different areas. Because the video does have such a large target audience, the video aims to provide hope to the kids who are suffering from cancer as well as the parents who are just as scared as their children. Finally, they are trying to promote a general feeling of hope and wellbeing. The organization does not want people to who are suffering to worry about getting funds and finding a cure. All of those worries and concerns are in the hands of all of the researchers and people in charge of funding—things that the people suffering should not have to deal with.

There are so many things that are rhetorically appealing in this three-minute video. Ethos and pathos play an incredibly large role in the video. St. Baldricks as an organization first tries to establish its credibility within the video about the research, raising money, and the ripple effect that cancer has on the lives of so many individuals. When they speak about the ripple effects and just all of the numerous effects that cancer has on peoples’ lives that increases their credibility drastically. Their knowledge of the different ways in which people are impacted by the disease makes them look like they know what they are talking about and they are then more relatable from the beginning. There is also a strong pathos appeal within the video as well. This is evident almost continually in many aspects of the video. Certainly, cancer pulls at the heartstrings of so many individuals in so many different ways, therefore evoking a reaction out of many. The sole topic of cancer, let alone childhood cancer, is not their entire pathos appeal however. Unfortunately, one of the harsh realities of many who are battling cancer is that it claims their lives. The video shows this in an interesting manner. In the video, it shows a little girl trying to climb a mountain with an IV attached to her. This brings out a sense of sympathy and an empathetic appeal from the audience for the little girl and then the video states, “The path to survival is a brutal, dangerous road. And sometimes, cancer does have the last word.” With those words, the video shows a bleak gray landscape and a dark circle closing in on the little girl in the video. The main pathos feelings that are evoked are anger and sympathy—and both rightfully so.

The style within this video is truly mind blowing. It is written in an incredibly personal manner through repetition, imagery, diction, and tone. Like stated above, this video is so personal and that has a lot to do with the pathos that is brought about. As a result of the tone that is present, it really makes a person feel the pain and remorse that the families and children have to endure. The mood is incredibly sullen in the beginning of the video and somewhat shows the agony that people undergo. Then mood then moves to a more hopeful tone towards the end, with hope for a brighter future and a healthier tomorrow.  Now onto the imagery… The imagery that is shown in the beginning of this video almost hurts to think about. The image in one’s mind of a small kid being poked a prodded, losing their hair, and ultimately losing their life as a result of the horrid disease that overtakes them is not something that anyone wants to envision in their minds. The imagery is not only strong because of the harsh pictures that are being imagined as a result of this video, but also because people know how prevalent this disease really is and that’s not really anything that people want to face.

Another way that this video has such strong rhetorical appeal is by the repetition and diction that is present in within the ad. The diction within the video is so emotionally driven and all of the words that the narrator of this video chooses to use are so finite and brutal. On the other side of that however, the video is daunting because of the severity of the topic and the finite words that were chosen in order to accurately depict what is going on. This also helps with the appeal within the video though. The appeal is present because of the emotions that are evoked as a result of this word choice. Those words that are used are more appealing than listening to medical jargon; people can actually comprehend this, and that’s what is really scary for them.  Furthermore, repetition is used continually throughout the video. The most frequent things that are repeated are the words cancer and three minutes. Obviously, when one repeatedly hears the word cancer, it really gets beaten into them how real of a disease cancer is. The other, even more startling fact that the video continually reiterates is the three-minute statistic. The video states, “Every three minutes a parent somewhere in the world hears your child has cancer.” Throughout the video, the listeners are continually reminded of that statistic in different manners to keep in the back of our minds, cancer really is that prevalent. One of the other ways they remind us of that is by saying that cancer is a nightmare, and it starts again every three minutes. I believe that in repeating that statistic, it truly drives home how common this horrid disease really is.

In conclusion, through examining the rhetoric that is present throughout this video, it brings forth how truly compelling the video really is. Through the use of pathos, ethos, tone, imagery, repetition, and diction this video stands out from others of its kind. The organization that is St. Baldricks has a broad target audience ranging from the sick children that it hopes to cure, to the parents with these sick children, to doctors and researchers that the funds will be going to in order for them to find a cure. The people that were involved in the making of this video carefully chose the words that they thought would best depict the struggles that children diagnosed with cancer go through, and the struggles or triumphs that some also go through later on in life. The driving forces that really bring the points of the video home are the imagery and the repetition that are used. The words that are chosen to be repeated throughout the video- cancer and three-minute- are two words or phrases that really leave a lasting impact on the reader and give them something to think about or show empathy for. The imagery that is present in the video, engrains the images into the minds of viewers, which also causes them to empathize for the children who are diagnosed with cancer. I would highly suggest that you watch this video on StBaldricks.org!

Please take the time to watch this video, it truly does make an impact. http://www.stbaldricks.org/why-we-exist