Unit 5 TOW 2 Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine. Dir. Michael Moore. United Artists, 2002. Film.
Bowling for Columbine, by social critic Michael Moore, explores the underlying issues of the Columbine High School massacre and American gun violence in general. In the film, Moore notes that homicides are so much more prevalent in America than in other developed countries not because of the music we listen to, video games we play, or even the number of guns we own, but because of our culture of fear. He essentially says that throughout their history white Americans have been afraid of one thing after another, which has made us desensitized to gun violence and death. In the case of Columbine, this culture of fear led two high school introverts to shoot at the their fellow students one fateful day, killing 13 other students and injuring another 21. He also infers that Lockheed Martin, the weapon manufacturer that employs the largest number of people in Littleton, Colorado (the location of Columbine High), was an indirect cause of the massacre. The overall message of the film is strongly pro-gun legislation, despite several interviews with gun "fanatics" about their opinions.

Almost every one of the devices/strategies mentioned on the worksheet was used at least once in the film, but one of the most obvious Moore incorporated was the use of juxtaposition. For example, he played a montage of historical foreign policies that portrayed America as the aggressor nation, with pictures of dead civilians and (often democratically elected) leaders with each example. In the background, however, Moore played "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. The happy emotions of the song make the audience more aware of the discrepancy between what they hear and what they feel from the images rolling past, and furthermore almost betrayed that the two things do not match, as if they've been lied to.

Moore also uses expert testimony in various ways to make his point about the poor gun policy in America. He interviews Marilyn Manson, a rock star who was incorrectly blamed for the Columbine massacre, Littleton resident and South Park creator Matt Stone, author Barry Glassner, and comedian Chris Rock, all of whom seem to share the same opinion of Moore and are thus displayed positively. Alternately, gun fanatics like James Nichols, brother of Terry Nichols, who was convicted for the Oklahoma city shooting, and former NRA president Charles Heston, are subtly criticized by Moore, who portrays them as crazy and inhumane. By talking to his opponents, Moore makes himself seem more credible in his stance, and thus the audience is more likely to help further the gun legislation cause.

Metacognitive Reflection

For Unit 5's Reflection, I reviewed my previous TOWs on Red Bull Stratos, the article "Never Mind Talent," and the Audi Superbowl Ad, respectively. In the first one, I noticed I relied substantially on summery, and only had 1 concluding paragraph discussing the rhetoric of the video. The TOW's length did not reflect the minimal information provided. In the second TOW, there was a noticeable difference in the amount of rhetorical analysis, and the length of the blog entry was much more appropriate. The writing style reminds me of Argument essays, which reflects what we had covered in class up to that point in time. My last TOW, from the 3rd maring period, was extremely long, discussed multiple rhetorical devices, and even made a solid attempt at analyzing the effectiveness of the advertisement. The TOW seemed like 5/6ths AP English information and only 1/6th summary, and I was even impressed with my own mentioning of the context of the ad: Superbowl ads tend to be about being cool rather than informative.

Overall, I feel like I have mastered the art of picking out rhetorical devices and strategies in various texts and videos, but I can still improve my ability to analyze each strategy's effectiveness, as well as being concise in doing so. This year's TOW assignments were meant to encourage me and my classmates' actively reading of a variety of texts, and putting the information we've learned in class to the test. Overall, I think my TOWs reflected how I've grown over the course of the year, but did not help me actually grow themselves. I say this because I did not use any of my sources on 5.10.13, and each week when I went to write my TOW, it felt like busy work to me, rather than an opportunity to learn.