Stalin's Red Army Speech- Paper One Commentary

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1941/11/07.htm

            Stalin and Hitler and many tyrannical leaders were able to gain their power through excellent speech delivering skills. Their power in speaking and persuasive language allowed numerous countries to believe in things that are looked at as atrocious today. Stalin committed acts that are unspeakable against his people and was still able to control his power and his country. The key to any political speech are literary devices that each are able to have a certain persuasive effect on the audience. By heavily antagonizing opposing countries and connecting with the army in order to empower them, Stalin demonstrates what is needed to be able to be a powerful leader.

The text that I will be analyzing is Stalin’s Speech at the Red Army Parade on the Red Square Moscow on November 7^th, 1941. The target audience is stated in the first minute of Stalin’s speech as Stalin says,“Comrades, men of the red army and the red navy, commanders and political instructors, working men and working women, collective farmers-men and women, workers in the intellectual professions…”. With this, it is clear that Stalin is targeting all of Russia. With that being said, the majority of the audience members are men of the Red Army. By addressing them as “working men and women” or as “workers in the intellectual profession”, Stalin is saying that they are more than just men in the army. He is showing them that he knows that they have other professions and other lives. This automatically attracts the target audience and allows Stalin to be the good ethical character. This further allows for the speech to be more persuasive. Stalin is aiming to persuade the men to fight and not give up against the German army. He empowers the men and degrades the German army throughout the entire speech.

            The speech is meant to congratulate the men on the 24^th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. It begins with expressing Stalin’s deep worry for the war and says what The Soviet Union has lost as a result of the war: “We have temporarily lost a number of regions, the enemy has appeared at the gates of Leningrad and Moscow”. After that, an empowering message starts as Stalin explains how the army has risen and fought successfully against the Germans. He begins to recall old events such as in 1918 where the Soviet Union was being controlled by the enemy and continues to explain how the Soviet Union, “recovered all lost territory, and achieved victory”. Again, this makes the army and the people of the Soviet Union view themselves as indestructible and inexhaustible, something that would have helped them win the war. Stalin continues to boost up the egos of the army by explaining how the country is currently in the best economic position it has ever been and how the entire country supports and fights for the Red Army. Throughout this entire process, Stalin continues to antagonize and demonize the “Hitlerite Germany”. According to Stalin, “Germany is bleeding, her reserves of man power are giving out, the spirit of indignation is spreading…” The speech ends with the idea that the “entire world” is looking at the Soviet Union as the force that can defeat the enemy and bring peace and justice into the world.   

            The speech is clearly very biased and attempts to antagonize the German people to a very large extent. There are many personal pronouns such as, “Our reserves of man power...” Stalin makes an attempt to connect with the audience through the use of personal pronouns and show that he is not different than them. He also makes a personal connection with the audience in the first paragraph by addressing each one of them personally. This hooks the audience and also would persuade them even more because they feel a connection with him. There are also several instances of hypophoras such as, “And what happened? We routed the interventionists, recovered all our lost territory, and achieved victory”. The use of a hypophora would allow the audience to formulate their own question for a second and then have it be directly answered. Because Stalin needed absolute control all the time, he used hypophoras often and answered his own questions directly after in order for the audience to not have an opportunity to formulate their own thoughts and rather just agree with him. Stalin also uses an expletive when saying, “Our entire country, all the peoples of our country, support our Army and navy”. This emphasizes that every single person who is a part of the country must support the red army because he said so. There is also a use of an eponym when saying, “Hitlerite Germany”. Because Hitler is known to be a horrible person, the use of “Hitler” to describe Germany makes Germany seem horrible and demonizing. He generalizes one person from a country to the entire country and makes Germany further hated. Towards the end of the speech, an anaphora is used when repeating “German Invaders”. Again by repeating this phrase, the idea that Germans are invaders is further emphasized and stays in the audiences mind. The use of all of these rhetorical devices is meant to do one thing: to antagonize the German people and to make the Soviets hate Germany and love the rule of the Soviets. Although Stalin goes down in history as one of the cruelest leaders, his speeches and persuasive abilities allowed him to climb up to power.

Although Stalin is believed to be an intimidating and tyrannical ruler, the speech shows the opposite. The tone of the speech is friendly and encouraging. Stalin makes an attempt to connect with the army and not to intimidate them. His welcoming and hopeful attitude further persuades them to do everything that he would want. The atmosphere is relaxed and the speech makes everyone empowered. The purpose of the speech is to lift people’s moods and self-esteems up. While watching the video, it is clear that everyone in the audience is encouraged and empowered and there is no sense of fear. Stalin speaks in a calm and encouraging way, something that allowed him to be such a successful leader.

Interactive Oral Commentary Practice

The Scene that I chose is Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 453 - 490.
The characters speaking in this scene are Miranda, Ferdinand, and Prospero.

Guiding Questions:
1. How does the use of Miranda as a symbol for innocence allow the contrast between man and monster with Caliban and Ferdinand?
2. How does Prospero's background as royalty contribute to his controlling personality? What does Shakespeare say about royalty through characterizing Prospero as such?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3qIclUmQO4NXzBJOTlieUJ0aWM/view?usp=sharing

bell hooks: On the Language of Power

In this essay, bell hooks discusses the rich history behind African American Vernacular English and how it started off as a tool of rebellion but could have the possibility of holding back many bright children today. Although the entire essay was informative and thoughtful, the most meaningful thing that I took away was the fact that children who have grown up in an environment where African American Vernacular English is the norm are being held up in educational facilities because their specific language is often thought of as “rude” or “incorrect”. The entire idea of Standard English has a very blurred line when it comes to the educational system. Most educational facilities require the use of “Standard English” not only in essays and formal assignments, but also as a means to communicate in the classroom. This leaves many children who have grown up in a “Non Standard English speaking home” confused about what they should be speaking and communicating with. When they are in their communities, they speak like they have been taught their entire lives. When they are in the classroom, they are taught that that way is wrong. This only reinforces the idea that AAVE or any other dialect of English is incorrect, informal, and un-educational. This in turn leaves the children thinking that their culture and language is not worthy of higher education. This leaves little opportunity for many children to seek higher education and be able to succeed in school. As one off bell hooks favorite quotes says, “This is the oppressor’s language yet I need it to speak to you”. The children who aim for higher education find themselves in need to abandon their language and move on to the “Standard English”. This does three things: leaves them confused about their identity, exposes them to criticism from the African American society, and allows them to lose a part of the language they have grown up with. What really struck me was the fact that both white and black children grew up in the same country and go through the same educational system and yet African Americans have to work twice as hard to climb up the educational ladder because the educational system does not have any programs that utilize AAVE (or any “Informal” dialect of English for that matter). What started off as a language that is meant as a means of empowerment and as a tool for rebellion is transforming into something that holds back a large majority of the African American community. Standard English being a means of communication has shown to be a difficulty for a large number of African Americans who have been raised to speak the language that their ancestors were once proud to speak.  

Linguistic Imperialism and Pop Culture

Linguistic imperialism is the idea that a certain dominant language is being transferred onto other people due to current world demands that center around that language. From education to business to pop culture, the English language is rising to be the most dominant language on the world. Pop culture is currently known today to be in “English”. When someone is named an “international celebrity”, it is generally known that they are either from and English speaking country or they have been able to make international relations because they are proficient in the English language. For example, Lady Gaga is very well known in both English and non-English speaking countries. Ailee is an international Korean star but was actually born in Colorado and studied in the states her whole life. In that sense, the face of pop culture are English speaking stars, English songs, and English television. These are the celebrities and shows that children will grow up watching and admiring. In today’s society, the spread of pop culture is extremely quick and accessible. Children in India can watch an American movie online easily. The movie industry is generally known to be American and most movie theaters in the world carry English movies. For many foreign singers, incorporating English words and sentences into their songs is a very good way to appeal to a larger and more international audience. For a star to be able to be international and successful, they must have connections from other countries. The only way they can get these connections is by being able to speak English because they will not learn every single language in the world in order to have to reach out to a wider audience. Shakira, for example, began singing only Spanish songs in the beginning of her career. As she broadened her horizons, she found that in order to make it into the business, her songs must be in English. She is the international sensation that she is today because she was able to learn and communicate in English. By making pop culture dominated by English, it excludes many potential singers, movie stars, and directors. There could be a little boy who lives in Malaysia that has the potential to be the most influential and brilliant director, but without the English language, he could never put himself on an international scale.  With that being said, there are always rare occasions of barriers being broken. The most watched video on YouTube and the only video to ever be viewed 2 billion times is Gangam Style, a Korean song that only has 2 English words. The appeal of this song comes from the rather unique singer, catchy tune, and the exotic music video. But as I said before, that is a rare occasion. Pop culture is continually being dominated by the English language and as for now, it does not seem like that could change. While there are consequences, pop culture is meant to be taken lightly and so the fact that there is linguistic imperialism in pop culture does not pose any real threat on the world today. 

Paper 1 Text 2 Analysis

           This paper one text can be interpreted to be a lot of things but I believe that it is an advertisement disguised as an informative article. The text starts off with an introductory paragraph that explains what the article will be about – something that many articles have. It starts off with facts and numbers and so the reader automatically knows that it is meant to be informative and factual. The article is split into three different parts and each part has its own subtitle, also another quality for an article. The last part explains the entire organization and everything they do and convey it in a positive light – something that might lead people to believe that it is an advertisement. The company helps areas with deep poverty and the article continues to explain how the company achieves this and is also very interactive with the audience and that is a good quality of an advertisement. The purpose of the article is to persuade and encourage the audience to donate and help the organization. The target audience seems to be people that are looking for ways to help and are considering organizations to donate to because this article recalls every possible way to shed a good and positive light on the organization. 

            The article is written from the point of view of a worker in an organization called “Oxfam”, an organization dedicated to address issues of poverty in extremely poor countries. The article is taken directly off of the Oxfam website. The target audience seems to be people who are interested and worried about growing epidemics and are looking for ways to help. In general, the text is meant to do two things: to inform and to persuade. Firstly, many facts and numbers are brought up. People tend to believe a number and tend to be more affected by such things. The article explains the problem very effectively. Secondly, as stated before, there is a hidden advertisement in this article. Firstly, the article is placed on the website and so it must aim for something specific. The organization is portrayed in a very positive light. Often, things like “we can help” are often said. By using pronouns like “we”, the article becomes very interactive and personal with the audience. The audience therefore is more encouraged to donate because it becomes more of a personal task. It very subtly persuades people to donate to the cause and do something about the problem. It offers a problem - solution scenario because it states all of the growing issues and then goes on to explain how Oxfam is the solution. 

            The article goes on to explain about the hunger epidemic that is present in West and Central Africa. The problem seems to be a result of poor food harvests and water shortages. A study shows that around 12 million people are facing the possibility of a serious food crisis like the one that occurred in 2005 and 2008. Oxfam is sending humanitarian aid to millions of people in this area and working closely with families to help set up a foundation in order to prevent further such epidemics. 

          The tone and mood of the article are sad yet hopeful. The article is structured in a way that it begins very sadly and explains this crisis and how many people are involved in this epidemic but then continues on to explain that there is hope and that many communities are hard at work to fix these problems. The reader would begin reading the article and would feel very affected and upset but by the end of the article, they would feel as if they can help and as if there is hope. It has a certain sad mood because it gives us facts about poverty and hunger and when people have numbers in front of them, it is difficult to not be effected by it. By setting a depressing atmosphere, the audience is immediately snapped into reality and it encourages them to want to help and do something about the problem. This article very efficiently informs and persuades the target audience in a way that this problem can be solved but the company can also benefit from it. 

          By disguising the advertisement as an informative article, it uses ethos because the audience would not look at it as something that is trying to get money out of them but rather something that wants to inform them. Oxfam places themselves on a high pedestal and very effectively persuades the audience. 

Native Advertisement

With such an expanding media and advertising empire, it's not surprising that companies have found new and improved ways to put advertisements into our everyday lives. Native advertisement is basically ads that have been strategically placed online and have been integrated into a normal online platform. For example, you could see "Sponsored by Forever 21" on a website that is designed for teens and people looking for clothes. These advertisements are placed in a website that targets their target audience. The above native advertisement is by Taco Bell and is placed in a BuzzFeed article. It is placed very naturally in an article that many people read for entertainment and looks like it's an unintentional part of the article. The audience that usually reads BuzzFeed is a young and new crowd that reads it for entertainment and has free time to sit in a computer. Taco Bell wants to target and new and fresh audience because most of their customers and young. The caption for the article reads, "Some things are meant to be kept for yourself, just like the new Taco Bell Loaded Grillers...". It seems so integrated in the article and like it's not even an advertisement. Because it's so naturally placed in the article, it becomes naturally placed in the readers mind and becomes a normal part of their life.The tone of it is very happy and friendly. It's almost as if the author is talking to the audience in a personal and friendly way, thus increasing the appeal of Taco Bell. The article is fun and entertaining, thus Taco Bell is fun and entertaining. Then it shows how the loaded grillers are 99 cents, also an appealing offer. It is all placed right above the article and so it is the first thing that people read and think about. This advertisement is clearly a native advertisement because not many people would consider it a "normal everyday advertisement" and would not ignore it like they would with any other advertisement. 

Generation Like

How powerful is the connection between the effect of social media and the structure of the Hunger Games?

The Hunger Games is a rising movie about a Utopian world that has annual games with children being placed in a giant stadium by adults and having to fight to death for entertainment. While it may be incredibly twisted, it is regarded as “normal” in their community. With such an extreme and violent ideology, it is surprising that many people have compared the Hunger Games with social media today. Firstly, just like the Hunger Games, social media is basically a big stadium with kids that is meant for entertainment. Each of these kids are competing for the most “fame” or the most “likes”. Each person in the Hunger and Games and in social media is looking for sponsors and looking for people to accept them. Most of these social media outlets are made by adults and always have a board of adults working the magic in the back, similar to the game makers in the Hunger Games. Similar to the Hunger Games, the point of social media is entertaining. But we as a society have invested so much time and energy in it that it has become a normal part of society. Because social media is integrated into our everyday lives, it is not often thought of as a competition till death. But when you sit back and examine each detail, it is shocking to see how much social media resembles a movie about competition and death. Every little aspect of the Hunger Games can be related to social media and that is eye opening.