Week 3 response


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    Joshua Woo
    Participant

    <span style=”font-weight: 400;”>In the episode of Black Mirror, there were many uses of rhetorical rhetoric but I found that two were most impactful in supporting the main idea of the episode. The first example of visual rhetoric I found in the episode was the monochromatic color in practically everything surrounding the protagonist’s life. Everything from the bedroom, to the bathroom, to the clothes were all shades of gray and black. Despite having different ethnicities and personalities, all characters in the episode were wearing the same gray clothing, worked at the same gray bike and slept in the same gray and black room. The use of gray often is associated with passivity and uniformity which are characteristics of the “working” class in capitalism. The extensive use of gray and black discourages individuality and therefore minimizes opportunities for passionate feelings to arise, thus leading to revolution. The second use of visual rhetoric I found in the episode were the screens. In the place where all things were either gray or black, the only thing that had color were the screens. These screens are vital because they were the only medium in which characters could spend the currency they earned by cycling. The vibrant colors of the variety of different things on these screens provided, enticed the characters to work hard on the cycles to buy said things. The characters in the episode did not know who was selling these things, nor were most of the things that the screens were selling real, all they knew was that they wanted it and they were going to cycle for it, which in a nutshell describes consumerism. One main point that the episode made that is also addressed by Contrapoints is the fact that these characters don’t even know who they are cycling for or why. In the black mirror episode, we can see who is at the bottom of the capitalistic ladder, which are the main character and all the cyclists, but we never once see who is at the top, selling these commodities in exchange for cycling. As contrapoints described them, these capitalistic lizards are always scheming and manipulating but we never see them because we are too blinded by the our “wants”. </span>

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