Pick two different tropes/schemes (from the handout available on the moodle) and find an example of each from pop culture (you can use any media--internet, movies, music, television). Be sure to identify the figure of speech, how it is used, and to what effect.
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The first scheme which I analyzed is a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. He said "a lie cannot live." I identified the figure of speech as an apostrophe. The abstract quality is "a lie" and it is directly adressed. He assigns "a lie" a human quality in saying that it cannot live. Next I identified a trope in a Bob Marley quote, where he said "Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live! " I did not analyze the whole quote but I chose the first sentence, which is a metaphor. Bob states that "life is one big road with lots of signs." He transferred life from its literal meaning to stand for a big road with lots of signs. A metaphor is something else, unlike a simile. I found this quote inspiring and I wanted to include the whole quote so that the class may enjoy it.
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ReplyDeleteIn the song Re: Stacks by Bon Iver the lyrics:
ReplyDelete"There's a black crow sitting across from me; his wiry legs are crossed
And he's dangling my keys he even fakes a toss "
uses personification. The crow would not actually fake a toss with the keys. Although it may seem like that, it would not understand the teasing nature of this.
One of my favorite poem is "May I Feel Said He" by E.E. Cummings, and it uses an Epistrophe. At the end of each line it says either "said he" or "said she." With out this repetition, I don't think i would have found the poem as amazing. The poem is placed below.
may i feel said he
(i'll squeal said she
just once said he)
it's fun said she
(may i touch said he
how much said she
a lot said he)
why not said she
(let's go said he
not too far said she
what's too far said he
where you are said she)
may i stay said he
(which way said she
like this said he
if you kiss said she
may i move said he
is it love said she)
if you're willing said he
(but you're killing said she
but it's life said he
but your wife said she
now said he)
ow said she
(tiptop said he
don't stop said she
oh no said he)
go slow said she
(cccome?said he
ummm said she)
you're divine!said he
(you are Mine said she)
My first example is litotes, found in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. After King Arthur has cut off both of the Black Knight's arms, the Black Knight exclaims, "It's just a flesh wound!" This is, of course, a vast understatement, used for comedic effect.
ReplyDeleteMy second example is from the song "Oxford Comma" by Vampire Weekend. "Why would you lie about how much coal you have? Why would you lie about something dumb like that? Why would you lie about anything at all?" Anaphora is used to emphasize the message of the lyrics.
In the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling he uses Epistrophe by stating If at the beginning of every line throughout the poem, which is...
ReplyDelete"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"
He uses this scheme to envoke a sense of self questioning with every line. You keep asking yourself if these terms apply to you.
My second trope/scheme is a Pun in one of Albert Einsteins quotes....
"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."
This is one of my favorite quotes from Einstein because using this pun you get a totally new outlook on life.
I can relate the jack Johnson song titled, “Breakdown” to a trope because his meaning of breakdown isn’t in a literal sense of the train breaking down but more as a metaphor of perhaps his own breakdown within his life and desire to take in what else is around him beyond what he can see. In addition, the children’s book, “Oh, the places you will go”, by Dr. Seuss has several word schemes that use different words to have the same meaning.
ReplyDeleteMy first example is President Obama's "Yes, We Can" speech. The phrase "yes we can" is repeated over and over again and is an anaphora scheme. It was also turned into a song by will.i.am and became very popular on youtube.
ReplyDeleteMy second example is the movie Shrek. This movie is filled with ironic comments and other figures of speech..
some of my favorites are:
Donkey: Well, I have a bit of a confession to make. Donkeys don't have layers. We wear our fear right there on our sleeves.
Shrek: Wait a second, donkeys don't have sleeves.
Donkey: You know what I mean.
Princess Fiona: Wait. Where are you going?
Shrek: Well, I have to save my ass.
My first example is from the movie Casablanca. In this movie there is a great example of Anaphora. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." The way he repeats "in all the..." really shows his surprise and shock at the situation at hand.
ReplyDeleteMy next example is one of a pun. Snapper lawn mowers used this pun for one of their commercials years ago. "Snapper, anything less just won't cut it." This of course is clever because it could be referring to cutting the grass or reaching a certain standard of quality that only Snapper lawn mowers provide.
A metaphor can be found in the first stanza of Pablo Neruda's poem, "The Future is Space". The first metaphor to appear to the reader is in the title and throughout the poem, other metaphors appear.
ReplyDelete"The future is space,
earth-colored space,
cloud-colored,
color of water, air,
black space with room for many dreams,
white space with room for all snow,
for all music."
I indentified an anaphora in Marvin Gaye's song "Inner City Blues". He repeats the phrase "Oh, make you wanna holler,the way they do my life" through out the song. This trope is used to indentiy the injustices felt by the African American community living in inner city in the 1970's. lyrics below
"Rockets, moon shots
Spend it on the have nots
Money, we make it
Fore we see it you take it
Oh, make you wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life
This ain't livin', This ain't livin'
No, no baby, this ain't livin'
No, no, no
Inflation no chance
To increase finance
Bills pile up sky high
Send that boy off to die
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life
Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Hang ups, let downs
Bad breaks, set backs
Natural fact is
I can't pay my taxes
Oh, make me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands
Yea, it makes me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands
Crime is increasing
Trigger happy policing
Panic is spreading
God know where we're heading
Oh, make me wanna holler
They don't understand
Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Mother, mother
Everybody thinks we're wrong
Who are they to judge us
Simply cause we wear our hair long"
I chose to examine a song by David Grey called Please Forgive Me. His lyrics include “feels like lightning running through my veins every time I look at you…” This is a simile because he uses “like” which compares two things that are not alike but have similarities. I think the simile is used cleverly. I chose to examine a metaphor because it is something that we use often. “A heart of stone.” This states that a heart is equal to a stone. I enjoy metaphors because we not only use them often but you can read further into them.
ReplyDelete(Sorry about that, I posted this in the main blog)
ReplyDelete" [...] [T]hat government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - The Gettysburg Address
Lincoln used epistrophe here by using the word "people" to conclude three successive phrases, "of the people, by the people, for the people [...] ." The effect of this is to emphasize the United States government's uniquely democratic quality and purpose, something which Lincoln wants us to see as highly valuable, something whose preservation is worth fighting for.
"Mr Kakoshka, it just happened again/They struck the museum like a hurricane [...]"
These lines are from a Chumbawamba song called "On EBay", which is about the looting of Iraqi museums after the March 2003 American-led invasion. The second phrase employs a simile, "They struck the museum like a hurricane." The suddenness and fierceness of this wholesale looting is emphasized through its comparison to the strength of a hurricane.
"I love the java jive and it loves me"
This line is from a Manhattan Transfer song called "Java Jive," about the singer's obsession with the narcotic effect of coffee. It employs personification by attributing the emotion of love to the physiological side effects caused by caffeine. The point of this trope is to communicate the idea of an imaginary mutual attraction - the coffee and the drinker are a good match, in other words.
The first thing I analyzed was a line from Modest Mouse's "Black Cadillacs"
ReplyDelete"And it's true that the clouds just hung around
like black Cadillacs outside a funeral."
This song is more or less about a break up I think, and I believe the clouds represent the problems that were unexpected and had no solutions to them except getting over them, like funerals. Overall I believe it was imagery to relay the morbid nature of a break up, especially since a relationship ending is the death of something the was once alive.
The second piece of pop culture I analyzed was "Coma Black" by Marilyn Manson and I picked the line "My mouth was a crib and it was growing lies". It is a metaphor for someone who had problems expressing things/didn't say what he really meant to his girlfriend, which led to him losing his girlfriend because what he said wasn't what he actually meant. Later in the song it becomes apparent to him that this is what was happening because the song also says - "I would have told her then she was the only thing that I could love in this dying world"