Sharon Daniel’s
essay Public Life serves as a
critique of the corporate prison system that, “insist that we understand the
prison industrial complex as a social problem that impacts us all, its dehumanizing
effects spiraling out to call into question the basic principles underpinning
any just and democratic society. Public Secrets asks us each to realize
that the prison system diminishes us all” (Vectors Editorial Staff). This is
plain to see as the audience of the essay takes one click to view the project and
is introduced by Daniel’s voice of forbidding words, images of black and grays,
and background music that feels as if we are about to go a step further into
someplace that is unwelcoming. Through this brief introduction and the other
material Daniel provides her audience the view of the prison system is shown as
something terrible, but it is the information that Daniel and the inmates use
that really convict the audience that this essay is a critique of the prison. I
want to argue that it is the actual voice recordings help engage the audience (not
certain tropes), and assists in revealing Daniel’s exigence, which is to get her
audience to view this prison system as a problem in our culture and make them
want to take some kind of social action.
To start, let’s look at how tropes are not the fundamental aspects of the essay and how it is the basic facts that really affect the audience. Daniel starts her introduction with the description of the outside of the prison, she says, “pass the metal detector through two electronic gates under the gaze of the gun towers there is an uncannily suburban perfectly manicured lawn” and she uses adjectives like, “safe, calm and domesticated” (Daniel), to comment on the feel of the exterior of the prison. This would be a type of irony which is, “a trope that involves inversions and reversals” (Killingsworth, 131), but Daniel tells her audience that this is a façade herself and does not leave it up to her audience to figure it out on their own. According to Killingsworth irony, “usually involves saying one thing and meaning another” (Killingsworth, 131), so for this to have been irony Daniel would not have given the details of the prison just the “manicured lawn”. My point being, Daniel cuts straight to the exigence of the essay and that is the women in these prisons are mistreated and this must be stopped. Within the interviews with the inmates the women share their stories of lost love, not seeing their children, and being abused; Daniel hopes her audience will identify with them, there does not need to be any metaphors to explain this or to give an image of these things that take place in the prison because they are all firsthand accounts, and they have been experienced by these individuals. It is the facts that cut to the heart and is supposed to make her audience want to take social action.
For
Daniel’s audience to take social action she provides this digital as her
exigence. An exigence according Miller is, “a form of social knowledge – mutual construing of objects,
events, interests, and purposes that not only links them but makes them what
they are: an objectified social need” (Miller, 157). Daniel makes a point of
showing how this problem in prisons is a social need because these women should
be respected even though they are locked in prison because they are people too.
As Miller states, “the exigence provides the rhetor with a socially
recognizable way to make his or her intentions known. It provides and occasion,
and thus a form, for making public our private intentions” (Miller, 158) , the
website itself is Daniel’s exigence because it is an appropriate way to make
her intentions known and that is to critique the prison system.
It is not my
intention to say that Daniel does not use any kinds of tropes in her essay, but
I want to state that it is not symbolic turns of phrase that captures the
audience, but the information she provides and the audio files. It can be seen
that Daniel did attempt to make her exigence known through the Internet,
whether is was successful I am not sure, but do know that Daniel’s argument was
clear and the intention of making her intentions known in the essay was
accomplished.
I would like to
know whether there were other tropes used in Daniel’s essay?
Also, what do you
think of the idea that the website itself is symbolic of a prison and is that a
type of metaphor or another trope?
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. “Appeal
Through Tropes.” Appeals in Modern Rhetoric:
An Ordinary-Language
Approach. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2005. 121-135.
Miller, Carolyn. “Genre as Social Action.” Quarterly Journal
of Speech 70
(1984):
151-169.
Will,
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts on Daniel's essay and her use/lack of tropes is interesting. I viewed Daniel's project before reading Killingsworth, which caused me to focus on the actual recordings and form of the website rather than her use of tropes. After reading Killingsworth, I still find myself focusing more on Daniel's employment of the inmate's stories as sympathy rather than metaphors or irony.
I do think the main trope that is used in Daniel's project is irony when she describes the entrance of the prison in relation to the insides of the prison. As you said in your post, the prison entrance is just a façade to outsiders and is nothing like the interior. I found her effectiveness in the inmate's circumstances and how/why there were imprisoned. In other words, their stories speak for themselves.
I wonder if her website could have been more effective if she designed it in a more positive way rather than like a prison. She could focus on the women gaining their freedom one day rather than focusing on their imprisonment. It is just a thought. Her website design does make sense when you read her argument for creating the project. She is trying to reveal the evils and flaws of America's justice system and they are made very clear after just reading/listening to just a few of the stories.
As far as Daniel's intention of identifying with the inmates, I could not identify with one single story that I listened to. But that does not mean that I did not sympathize with them. We don't have to share similar experiences with another person to sympathize or take action. I don't think Daniel wants us to try to relate to the inmates but rather she seeks to expose the extreme failures of our justice system and that should be enough for us to form opinions and perhaps take action.
After reading your post I have become more on the side that the content of actual events is leading to the most effective persuasion. Even though I do see many tropes along the way I agree that the substance of the argument and the real life events are enough to make most people see how there needs to be change in the prison system. One trope I highlighted in my post was when one inmate stated 'Let the Terminator explain it..'. I said this was a type of metonymy because she is replacing the terminator with the governor in a sarcastic way. It is very interesting how you bring to light how the website itself is symbolic of a prison. While surfing the hypertext of the website we are somewhat trapped in side the inter webs of Daniel's piece. Going from one inmate to another actually hearing their voices and respecting their claims. So it does have a feel as if you were in the prison. Maybe somewhat trapped from hearing another side of the argument as the prisoners are trapped inside the confides of the prison. The hypertext seems to be very one sided and does not give point of view of someone in the government. It seems as the comparison between the website and a prison is a strong metaphor but in a way it could also be seen as ironic, especially to the viewer of the website who is learning about a prison system by being in a somewhat prison themselves inside the website.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading your thoughts on Daniel’s use of black and greys in Public Secrets, I was led to some questions about this technique she used. I read in another blog post someone’s thoughts about Daniel’s use of black and white as a synecdoche. My question is does the black and white comparison count as a synecdoche because it is not a verbal comparison? The black and white is symbolic of the prison, but it is a literal placement of black and white next to each other.
ReplyDeleteWill, I also have a question for you. Since you say that it is the information in Daniel’s project that captures the audience more so than the tropes, do you think that the project and message would have been conveyed the same way had she not included the tropes? I feel like symbolism and irony were such a huge part of this project that it seems hard to believe that they don’t add significantly to the project. I see what you are saying that what is most captivating is reading and hearing the transcripts from the women in the prison. This too, for me was the most interesting part about the project. I wonder, however, how much the end result would be varied had it not been for the presence of the tropes. It seems that although the transcripts were the primary component of the project, the tropes and symbolism within created the project as a whole and led up to the transcripts making them that much more significant.