Taylor Norris
Prof Rice-Evans
9.21.18
The rhetor is known as Tank Man. That’s what people call him. Really he is a man who just wanted peace in his country. Him standing in front of a whole line of tanks to stop them from suppressing a protest makes him one of the most historical figures in the world, and we do not even know his name. He is a unidentified Chinese man who stood in front of tanks. This picture screams, “Let us have peace.” This man was apart of a harmless protest known as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The Chinese military tried to suppress the protests when the Tank Man decided to step in because the military had harmful intent towards the protestors. Every time the tanks tried to maneuver around him, he would shift his position to stay in front of the tanks, so that they could not advance on the protestors.
The Tank Man had no intention of reaching any kind of audience. Although, he did not have the intent the picture that was taken is shown in many classes. It is shown so professors could preach non-violence. The Tank Man was calm, cool and collected when doing this amazing act, not to have people follow in his path, but because he thought what the Chinese military was doing is and always will be wrong. Freedom of speech and the right to a peaceful protest is our rights of Americans and he shows that it should be the right of any man, women or other in the world. The audience intended is every single person around the world. Having this picture shows a strong message that even one person can make a huge difference in the events that take place. The values of any person are around the same thing when it comes to peace and harmony. The only problem is that not many humans will do anything about those values. Tank Man is different in the way he dealt with a situation. He saw a problem happening, knew that there was extreme violent intent and dealt with the situation. He stood his ground and made it clear that he wanted peace and harmony.
The audience and everyone who has seen this picture and video sees how strong of a man the Tank Man is. People love to see someone who has a very strong character to them. The Tank Man shows that he a strong man in nature and does not care what someone can do to him. He wanted peace and no violence and his actions showed that. The audience he had at the time was man other protesters and civilians at this event. The strong character he had must have rubbed off to them as well. Witnesses say that once he started to do this everyone saw and knew they had to help him. Most other protestors stood with him after the picture was taken. It is said that the protestors still got shut down and in trouble with the law. Everyone still tried and followed the Tank Man’s lead.
The Tank Man unfortunately had the audience of the Chinese military as well. Many limitations stood in his way when trying to stand his ground and turn the tanks away from the protesters. He also has the bystanders who did not want to see him in harms way and in fact tried to get him out of the way when in danger. The Tank Man was confronted by a man in the tank, we do not know what they spoke about, the quickly proceeded to end the conversation. Once the Tank Man got out of the way the tanks proceeded to the protestors. The Tank Man did not like that, he then jumped in front of the tanks again to stop them. When he made this action a bystander decided to jump in the way and pull the Tank Man out of the way and brought him to safety.
The picture and video of the Tank Man standing in front of the tanks has circulated a lot. There are many different ways that this image was portrayed. Through media and it is still in circulation today. This only happened in 1989 so there were cameras, which means that when this picture was taken it was immediately put on new channels. The picture still circulates now in classrooms and all over the Internet today. One just has to look up, “The Tank Man.”
This picture holds a strong message that still is apparent in present day. Everyone thinks of peace as one of the greatest achievements. Although we still have not reached full peace on earth, people pray for it every ingle day. This picture portrays the message of people wanting peace. This one man chose to rise above what their government wanted to do by shutting down a peaceful protest. So what he did was stand in front of a line of tanks that wanted to take out the protesters for good. Although he was not successful his actions did not stand in vein. He was very brave in standing in front of lethal vehicles. Protesting peacefully is a right and freedom we have. The freedom of speech and the right to peacefully protest are pivotal when the people want a say in how countries are run. The meaning of that is democracy, if we did not have a right to these things then government would, in a sense, have total control making it more of a dictatorship or capitalism.
The rhetorical appeal of the Tank man I feel like appeals more of ethos. Ethics is the understanding of right and wrong. Is it right or wrong to try and stop an army trying to maliciously break up a peaceful protest? Morally and ethically the Tank Man was doing the right thing in trying to stop the tanks. Although it is a very dangerous and stupid thing to do, that part did not matter to him. Preventing a mass slaughter of college students, peacefully protesting, was the right thing to do. This man shows bravery and fearlessness. This made other want to rise up as well to stop the Chinese army.
The rhetor took this picture to not only capture the amazing image but to give the guy credit. The rhetor made this man very famous. Teaching people how to stand your ground and be fearless even in times of dismay. The Tank Man proved his worth by standing in front of a lethal crowed, that is the military, just to stop violence. This picture was captured and circulated back then and still circulates now to teach and make people aware. Make them aware that we the people do have a say. We will not go down without a fight; we will not just fall in line to what the government has to say. Rise up when things are tough, do not just sit idly by and watch things get out of hand. Stop it at the source and keep freedom of speech alive.
https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-the-tank-man/ – VIDEO
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d8/Tianasquare.jpg/220px-Tianasquare.jpg&imgrefurl=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man&h=145&w=220&tbnid=_mLSZCPrcgl85M:&q=the+tankman&tbnh=132&tbnw=200&usg=AI4_-kTonj1rJtNZFZj4lbntFaHwBzlj6w&vet=12ahUKEwjr8Jv5u9LdAhXFt1kKHUlZCPAQ_B0wGHoECAUQCQ..i&docid=bCv21D1FQLzmBM&itg=1&client=safari&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjr8Jv5u9LdAhXFt1kKHUlZCPAQ_B0wGHoECAUQCQ – PICTURE
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