A Rhetoric Suggestion

Ronnie Raborg

Paper 2

November 14, 2005

A Rhetoric Suggestion

“Homer Simpson: Classic Clown,” “Tod Browning’s Freaks,” and “Fear and Trembling in Literature of the Fantastic: Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Black Cat’” are all interesting readings, but for the exception of this paper, do not have much in common. Although each author’s style of enlightening each of their arguments is different, they all have an effective way of getting their point across.

In “Freaks,” author’s Mark A. Vieira and Gary Morris describes background information of the movie, details the key production notes, and analyzes the movie. The authors note that “Freaks” was actually produced at MGM and used the studio’s facilities and craftspeople. Although the horror movie was anticipated to be the most horrifying of its time, it was withdrawn from circulation due to its $164,000 loss and that more of a general feeling of it hosting “unpleasant” images. But the author’s main point that it was cut from circulation was due to MGM’s view on glamour; which was known as their Trademark. MGM’s view on glamour was their idea of making profit.

“Homer Simpson: Classic Clown” Ellen Amy Cohen writes about how Homer Simpson, from the popular cartoon The Simpson’s, is profoundly similar to William Shakespeare’s Falstaff, from Henry IV, Part I. Cohen describes Homer and Falstaff’s love for food is similar. In “King-Size Homer,” Homer decides to gain weight, so he starts eating a lot of food. In Act I, scene ii of “Henry” when Falstaff asks what time of day it is someone tells Falstaff that he should have no reason to ask, unless “hours were cups of sack, and minute’s capons….” She also describes Homer’s childlike logic is similar to Falstaff’s; she gives an example by describing when homer tackles the ham burglar because he believes he’s actually a thief. She gives strong support to her idea and argues that if there was an episode of Henry in a Simpson’s episode, then Homer would have the part of Falstaff.

In “Fear and Trembling in literature of the fantastic: Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Black Cat,’” Richard Badenhausen summarizes Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” and then theorizes about the philosophy on fear using real-life situation and literary evidence. The paper included a lot of insightful evidence on their view on fear and how it oppresses the human mind. The author also includes Karl Jaspers “ultimate situations,” which refers to situations where we face “inescapable realities in relation to which alone human life can be made genuinely meaningful.” (Badenhausen 3) The author also introduces the black cat as symbolism to the narrator of the short story as