Killingworth's Four Tropes

I chose to write my response to the first question that was proposed in the prompt.  Why are tropes important to understand?  Do they have any power of persuasion?  Should they only be considered in discussions of literature?

Regarding Killingworth's flexibility on the term "trope," he writes, "I prefer the term trope to figure of speech because figures of speech are also figures of thought and figures of writing" (Killingsworth Introduction).  From the start, he chooses to narrow down his use of the word trope.  I think he simply does this for the sake of his argument.  I found his explanation helpful because I was able to narrow down my thinking of the term so I could relate it to his own understanding of a trope.

It is important to understand Killingworth's typology of the four tropes.  By distinguishing between the four tropes, he shows specific examples of each that are different in their relationships to words and phrases.  Also, he discusses the metaphor in regards to Lackoff and Johnson's article.  I really connected this article through its argument in metaphor being embedded in our thought processes and everyday decisions.

In his identification/metaphor section, Killingsworth says, "...metaphor is not merely one technique among many but is instead a crucial way of thinking, an attempt to bridge conceptual gaps, a mental activity at the very heart of rhetoric" (Killingsworth 123).  It is infinitely clear that the author does not think tropes, like the metaphor, are just elaborate and decorative uses of language but, in fact, are essential to rhetoric and life.  I find myself agreeing with this belief that metaphors are unconscious components in daily activity.  They influence our very decisions and beliefs.

The other trope I will focus on is irony since my understanding of this trope is lesser than the others.  It is actually a little ironic because contrary to my minimal understanding irony is an extremely important trope that impacts our thinking.  "Unlike the other tropes, it depends almost completely on contextual clues," says Killingsworth (Killingsworth 132).  Irony cannot be taken at face-value.  I believe this trope to be important because it provides as a way to improve our critical thinking skills.  Critical thinking has gone to the way-side a little in this society.  With critical thinking skills, we are able to look past the intentional material and find irony and other entities that are embedded within a text.  It causes us to search deeper so that we may reveal other meanings that are usually not obvious at first.

"Appeal Through Tropes" does a great job in showing the importance of tropes as means of persuasion as well its simplification of each category.  Instead of melding all four tropes together, Killingsworth chooses to distinguish them in a successful manner by showing how each can be used in various contexts and scenarios.  Tropes should be not viewed just as forms, but as concepts that are used every day with or without realization.  Things that impact how live our lives.

Works Cited

 Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. “Appeal Through Tropes.” Appeals in Modern Rhetoric: An Ordinary-
Language Approach. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2005. 121-135.