ENGL 101 Blackbird analysis PDF

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Summary

This is an analysis of the song "Blackbird"....

Description

Rhetorical reading to me, is the idea of carefully reading texts and analyzing and processing the information rather than just taking it in without a second thought. It is important to identify the rhetorical context of a text, which includes things like the author’s purpose, their audience, the themes, and more. Asking important questions while reading a text will best help the reader understand the true meaning of a text, why it was written, and overall help teach a reader learn to read rhetorically all the time. After reading “Blackbird”, I decided to answer the fourth question in “Questions Rhetorical Readers Ask”. This question asked how the author can keep the reader’s interest and if those appeals work for me as a reader. I think the way McCartney was able to hold the readers’, or listeners’, attention was by repeating the same line a few times. He keeps the song verses short and simple, yet they still hold a powerful meaning behind them if the reader or listener really pays attention and analyzes it. For example, McCartney repeats the line, “You were only waiting for this moment to arise” (McCartney 357) as many as five times, and the Carolina Reader does not even display all the lyrics. Repeating the same verse helps grab attention because then the reader or listener feels a sense of familiarity, which most of the time makes people feel safe, and helps the words of this song flow very smoothly. McCartney doesn’t add too many different words or ideas, which contributes to the simplicity of this song and how easy it is to read. However, if one to were read about how this song was created, they would understand that behind its simplicity, there were intense political moments, racial tensions, and world-wide protests occurring at the same time. In fact, these historical moments helped inspire McCartney to write such a powerful message through his seemingly simple song. McCartney’s use of repeating some of the lines multiple times and keeping each verse short and sweet grabs my attention and makes me want to keep reading....