Blog #3

Over the week, we had a discussion over the second act of Hamilton. Some of the questions asked in the discussions led to a debate about Hamilton’s behavior. We also started our rhetorical analysis paper. I am doing Eliza and her role throughout the whole musical.  It was interesting looking at some of the rhetoric used in Hamilton. Especially the use of diction and the ones who are saying particular lines. Burr says “Death doesn’t discriminate”. (Miranda “Wait for It”). It depicts an interesting use of personification with death. Death is given a unique role because death really doesn’t care if a person is good or bad, rich or poor, or your skin tone.  If your time has come, your time is gone. Another interesting line is when Eliza says “You built me a palace of paragraphs” (Miranda “Burn”). Personification is used for the paragraph because a paragraph made Eliza feel like a queen. Eliza was so in love with Hamilton; however, Hamilton didn’t seem like he was in love with Eliza. Eliza though he no longer loved her because why would you cheat on someone if you didn’t love them anymore? I just think it’s interesting that Eliza was furious with Hamilton , yet she still stayed with him.

This week I saw rhetorical devices in advertisements. There is an advertisement with Patrick Stewart about refugees. It displays pathos by using a very simple visual. There was no sad music; however, it gave truthful facts about millions of people not having a home. It’s sad to think there is a lot of people without a home. I can somewhat relate to this because my parents were immigrants coming to America from the Vietnam War. They had nothing with them and couldn’t speak any English. Thankfully, they worked very hard and had opportunities to grow and get a better life. I couldn’t imagine how it would feel like if I had to leave my home and have nowhere to belong.

I used rhetoric this week to convince my mom and sister to come with me to see BTS. I used different tactics to first convince my parents to allow me to go. My parents wouldn’t let me go alone, so I asked my older sister if she would be able to go see BTS. At first, my mom said my sister can’t go because of her college debt, but thankfully, my sister agreed to go if the tickets were less than a hundred dollars. My dad then told me I should ask my mom since the week BTS is here, it is my mom’s birthday week. Somehow after a long time of convincing, my mom also agreed to go.

Miranda, Lin-Manuel. “Burn” Hamilton: an american musical, Performances by Leslie Odom Jr., Anthony Ramos, Daveed Diggs, Okieriete Onaodowan, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Phillipa Soo and Christopher Jackson, Atlantic Records, 2015.

Miranda, Lin-Manuel. “Wait for it.” Hamilton: an american musical, Performances by Leslie Odom Jr., Anthony Ramos, Daveed Diggs, Okieriete Onaodowan, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Phillipa Soo and Christopher Jackson, Atlantic Records, 2015.