2nd Object Observation

A parents worst fear could either be their kids graduating from high school, their first date, or leaving home. My parents worse fear? Their second daughter behind the wheel of a car. With little driving experience and a 16th birthday, it seemed their little girl was doomed for disasters, or an accident or two.

My parents decided that after I ditched my first Pontiac Grand AM, they should probably buy me one that looked exactly like it, just to keep my trend going. The second one lasted longer than the first one. It was born in 1992, had 4 doors, and blue tinted windows. It had a loud muffler just to make sure people could hear it coming down the road. The color of it was red, just like the Huskers. It lasted about 3 weeks before it encountered its first disaster. Getting t-boned by a Dodge Ram in Fremont, Nebraska. It survived, but had a 7 month recovery time in which its fender and back passenger door were completely replaced to make it look whole again. That was only it's first test.

It went awhile without any major damages, and at least nothing hit it. Until one night, on a dark gravel road, a leif spring decided to puncture its way through the passenger floor board. Nothing damaged, just a nice little whole to remind its driver what had happened. It also liked to get random flat tires at the worst possible times, just to make sure the driver didn't get the feeling that their luck was improving. Then one day, it decided to end its life.

It was heading down the highway it was most familiar with, the road to David City. That's when it decided to stubbornly die in the middle of the road on a hill. Knowing its driver was a complete wimp and couldn't push it off the road, it decided it was the perfect ending to its life. Watching it take 3 hours to move the car onto a trailer to hall it back home was more than it could handle. He got his last laugh as he now sits on the street, just down the block from his owner's house. There he sits, waiting for the right time for someone to fix him back up so his torture on his owner can start all over again.

Object Post #1 Crucifix

It's easy to think of all the neat gifts you will get on your confirmation day. Your mom will buy you a nice white dress, and the perfect shoes to match. You will have pretty hair and invite your whole family. You'll get the usually Black Hills Gold cross necklaces that you'll lose in a week because you can't keep jewelry, or a new flashy bible to go along with the 3 you already have. But there is one gift that you will get that will have deeper meaning than you could have ever imagined. For me, it was a simple silver crucifix.

It wasn't anything real fancy, just plan gray medal, with a cute ribbon design wrapped around the center. It had a cirle hole at the top so you could hang it above your bed post when you slept so God would protect you. The Lutheran Churches of Nebraska gave each of the three kids in my confirmation class one. What the other two did with theirs I don't actually know. I hung mine above my bed against the echo blue paint for 3 years until I found a much better use for it.

I took the crucifix with me along with several items that reminded me of her. I drove the 7 miles to the hill where the dead lay to rest. I pushed past the metal gate, walking around the graves making sure not to step on a single one. I walked until I reached the very back of the cemetary to the freshly dug soil where several flowers, windchimes, and solar panel lights outlined her grave. I knelt to the soil, and held the crucifix in my hand. I looked up at the sky and prayed to God to take care of my best friend and to protect her. I stuck the cross in the ground right next to the photo of us, so God would know to protect her in heaven, and me on earth.

Rhetorical Response

In the video and image chosen, there are many types of rhetorical appeals and situations that could arise out of the two. One could go with a logical fallacy or a rhetorical situtation, but what pops out most is the use of pathos. It's clear that this video and image appeals to many of our different emotions, and those will be touched on.

The video itself gives us a pathetic appeal that we feel immediate grief for the boy because it at first appears that his girlfriend is merely ignoring him, but by paying attention to his tracks, we see that he is actually dead. She finds this out in a newspaper article which we see at the end of the video. Everyone could sympathize with someone that lost someone they were in love with and it hits our emotion of pity. We also are affected when we see the girl also die by running a red light and getting hit by a semi-truck. We all have experienced negligent driving, and this killed her. We feel remorse that she had to end her life so early, but we understand the bigger picture that she will now be happier in heaven with her true love.

The picture is a striking form of pathos because it is vivid and heart crushing. We have many thoughts run through our head, such as if anyone could survive an accident of that much damage, and if the pictures are actually disgusting. This picture doesn't so much appeal to us as it may repulse us or hurt us. Seeing this picture can bring traumatic memories of ones own accidents and deaths. It hits our emotions as being something we don't want to see or envision.

Pathos is easily picked out in most situations but in this one, it is evident as being appealing and disgusting. We sympathize with the emotions of seeing someone die, but we don't like the reminder like the picture does with the crushed cars. The video and picture compliment each other very well with the use of pathos.