Ethos and Pathos in Wake Me Up When September Ends

     In the song Wake Me Up When September Ends, Green day uses rhetorical appeals to protest the war in Iraq.  Ethos is displayed in that the audience finds the singer, Billie Joe Armstrong, credible because he is in the very popular band Green Day.  He also has credibility in the song because he can personally relate to the feelings of pain and loss felt by Americans after 9/11 because he lost his father. ("Like my father's come to pass.")  In the music video for Wake Me Up When September Ends, Green Day uses pathos to appeal to people's emotions.  Since the music video follows a couple where the boyfriend goes off to fight in the war, the audience can put themselves in the shoes of the couple.  The audience can feel connected to the couple and feel the pain when the boyfriend has to leave his girlfriend to go fight.  The video uses pathos to show the audience that the soldiers fighting for our country are not just random people, but they are people with families and significant others who have to deal with someone they love leaving them.

Sources: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/greenday/wakemeupwhenseptemberends.html
              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU9JoFKlaZ0

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall- Stasis Theory

          "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" was written during the Cold War, specifically during the Vietnam War, when the threat of nuclear war hung over everyone's heads.  A month later, the Cuban Missile Crisis began, and the threat to America became even larger.  Urbanization was becoming the new trend and pollution went unchecked.  Dylan wrote this song to protest the unnecessary wars and the society America had become.  He believed America was going in a downward spiral and would be the cause of it's own downfall.  "Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters" could refer literally to the pollution happening during the 60s and to America causing it's own demise.  Dylan wanted America to change for the better and for the warring to end.  He thought the violence and hatred needed to come to an end and for America to clean up it's act.

Stasis Theory For "Wake Me Up When September Ends"

"Wake Me Up When September Ends" came as the fourth single from Green Day's album, American Idiot  during a time of decreasing public support for the American war in Iraq. This served as a strong antiwar statement and was accompanied by a video depicting a couple torn apart by the war. The song's lyrics, in addition to the couple in the video, portray the pain of war and its detriment to families and loved ones. Lyrics such as, "the innocent can never last," and, "drenched in my pain again," are meant to voice the negative impacts that war has on the American people. Green Day protests war as they believe it is a dire issue Green Day is calling us to not think about the attacks on September 11th, but to not forget them, as shown by, "As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost, wake me up when September ends."

Sources: http://rock.rapgenius.com/Green-day-wake-me-up-when-september-ends-lyrics

Rhetoric and Style in Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall"

There are a lot of rhetoric appeals that are used throughout Bob Dylan's 1960s song "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall". Pathos can be shown as Dylan expresses "I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children", providing imager of little children with weapons of war. This is shown in order to scare the general public by exposing the fact that it is the old who wage war but instead the young who die. Ethos is also strongly used in this song. Dylan sings of how he "met one man who was wounded in love" and "met another man who was wounded in hatred." He has personally been influenced by these people that are full of emotions such as love and hatred and how they are both capable of fueling violence. A stretch in ethos could be seen as Dylan makes a biblical reference to the number 6 by stating, "I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways." In the bible, 6 represents badness and evil. Dylan uses the number six to describe a "crooked highway". This signifies how the country has a path it must take but in order to take this path they may have to do things that are not very morally right. The badness is describing all of the immoral things which will take place. Logos can also be seen in this song. Dylan recalls how he's "been out in front of a dozen dead oceans" and he's "been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard." The graveyard quote has previously been used in another analysis of mine but not for logos. Here both quotes can be tied to logos as Dylan juxtaposes the imagery of death along with the numbers he uses in order to try and explain the multitude of death that has occurred due to war. Logos can also be found as Dylan "heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'." The general public has many small issues conveyed in their whispers, but these issues are simply ignored because nobody is listening. There are a lot of different style aspects in this song as well. The song starts off in past tense with Dylan describing all of the negative things that have happened in the country's history. However his last verse switches to present and future tense starting when he states "I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'." All of the problems that he mentioned throughout the song Dylan believes are still going to exist because nothing is getting done.


Sources: http://listverse.com/2012/09/20/top-10-significant-numbers-in-biblical-numerology/
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/ahardrainsagonnafall.html

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Rhetorical Analysis

          Dylan performed "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" about a month before President John F. Kennedy announced the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba.  He wrote the song as an anti-war protest against the Vietnam War and nuclear warfare.  During the Cold War tensions were rising and many people were afraid of a possible third world war using nuclear weapons.  The 1960s was a time period filled with anger and sadness.  Dylan used his songs as a way to get people's attention and to get them thinking.  His lyrics "I saw a newborn baby newborn baby with wild wolves all around it" could represent how newborns were being born into a world of violence and beasts fighting with each other.  "I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it" could be a criticism of urbanization and the usage of materials harmful to the environment, and "Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters" is a reference to the large amounts of pollution infecting the environment.  "I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'" could be a representation of the violence against blacks during this time period.

          Dylan's song is actually an imitation of an old British ballad called "Lord Randal" which also has a questioning and answering pattern.  In "Lord Randal" a mother asks her son many questions until it is revealed he has been poisoned by his lover.  Dylan's imitating of the ballad could imply he believes we are slowly being poisoned by ourselves, and if we don't stop soon it will be to late.


http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4052

Stasis Theory and Audience for A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall

            A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall is a song that Bob Dylan wrote in 1962 during the Vietnam War and the Cold War to protest them.  During this time, U.S. citizens were living in fear of a nuclear war.  Dylan was unhappy with the way people were treating each other and the planet.  His song is speaking to the American people against the war in order to make a change.  The lyrics in the song are meant to point out all of the negative impacts that the war or the threat of war are having on the American people.  The lines, "I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans, I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard," show that war causes so many deaths and brings so many losses. Dylan obviously believes that the war needs to end because the costs of war are not worth the benefits.  The costs of the war, for Dylan, are having to live in fear every day and men suffering and dying for their country.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Rain's_a-Gonna_Fall

Rhetoric is Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends"

As was mentioned in a previous post by Angie Han, "'Wake Me Up When September Ends' is a tribute not only to his father who died twenty years ago, but also to the victims of 9/11. The song also acted as an anti-war protest against the Iraq War." In addition to his father's death, the line, "Like my fathers come to pass" represents those who we look up to as our role models that have died and have meant so much to so many. The lyrics that state "seven years has gone so fast" refers to the fact that Green Day started their group 7 years after his father's passing. When he states "twenty years has gone so fast", he is referring to the 20 years it was from the time he wrote the song. This song shows extreme pathos as he does not even want to stay awake for the rest of September. Green Day states how the rain keeps coming showing intense sadness for the situation at hand, and the rain makes him "drenched in {his} pain again." He'll never forget what has been lost (his father, father-figures, and all of the victims of 9/11). This song is more than seven minutes of singing about intense pain and feelings of loss, and it is the most personal song that Billie Joe Armstrong has ever written. Ethos is used as credibility is provided in the knowledge  of 9/11 and of the speaker's personal relationship to death and then also the knowledge of the countless victims of 9/11. Even when the memory of the deaths is not in the front of his mind he will always forget the horrible losses that have occurred. All of the hardships that we endure are supposed to build our character and make us stronger.

In analyzing the music video for this song, the young couple is separated by war, as the male enlists in the army without tell his female partner. The male subject in this video is personally affected by the situation (war) going on it that time period. The video expresses the director's feeling that with all of the losses in the world, we should all value each other and every moment we have with others. We should never take others for granted, because times and circumstances change.

Sources: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/greenday/wakemeupwhenseptemberends.html

http://www.geekstinkbreath.net/greenday/song-meanings/wake-me-up-when-september-ends/

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3936

Rhetorical Analysis/Audience of Wake Me Up When September Ends

   Both Bob Dylan’s song and Green Day’s song are used as a form of protest against a negative time.  The audience in Wake me up when September Ends would be all Americans in this current time period, especially those effected by war and 9/11.  These people may be greatly effected by war or not be effected by it at all, but after listening to the song they will get a strong sense of the effects of war. The music video showing a loving couple where the boyfriend dies at war uses pathos and ethos to appeal to the listeners.  Pathos is used to show the horror that war brings and the sad effects it can have on lives.  Ethos is used to bring credibility to Armstrong’s claim that war simply tears lives apart, as shown when the loving couple lose each other forever because of war.  Aside from that piece of imagery, Armstrong uses specific diction to express his view also.  He says “the innocent never last” which uses logos and “here comes the rain again…drenched in my pain again” which uses ethos again. Logos is used in the first lyrical example because Armstrong is saying that the innocent are effected by the negative effects of war, therefore the logical thing to do is stop the violence and destruction to save lives.  Ethos is used once again when he gives credibility by expressing his own feeling of pain from his father’s death. 

Sources:  http://www.geekstinkbreath.net/greenday/song-meanings/wake-me-up-when-september-ends/

Wake Me Up When September Ends Rhetorical Analysis

Billy Joe Armstrong's song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a tribute not only to his father who died twenty years ago, but also to the victims of 9/11.  The song also acted as an anti-war protest against the Iraq War.  Armstrong uses ethos throughout the song as he speaks about his father's death.  "Here comes the rain again" shows how Armstrong cries every time he remembers his father's death, but it could also represent the pain and sadness victims feel on the anniversary of 9/11.  The lines "as my memory rests but never forgets what I lost" represents how Armstrong still has not forgotten about his father's death and how American citizens have not forgotten about 9/11 to this day.  The song title itself indicates how Armstrong wanted to escape reality when his father died and hide away until September ended.  The music video for the song showcases a loving couple torn apart by the Iraq War.  They each promised to never leave each other, but the boyfriend decided to enlist in the war to help protect America and his girlfriend.  The music video shows how American's lives were ruined by the Iraq War and the pain and suffering it brought with it. 

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Lyric Analysis

       Dylan’s song “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” is meant to protest the negativity in the world and fight for change.  The audience of this song was intended to be those living in the 1960’s. These people may not believe anything was wrong during this time, but after listening to the song they will see certain hardships during this time period.  Dylan implores ethos in each line because he personally experienced all of the events he was singing about, including “I’ve stumbled on the side of twenty misty mountains.. I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests” which gives his lyrics credibility.  This is similar to the second text, “Wake me up when September Ends” because Armstrong also uses ethos to give his lyrics credibility.  Armstrong implores ethos when expressing his feelings about his father’s death, “like my father’s pass, seven years have gone so fast, wake me up when September ends”.  Both lyrics express a sense of something negative, waiting for a change to occur. Dylan also implores pathos when personifying the “sad forest”, “misty mountains”, and “dozen dead oceans”, to cause the listener to feel sympathy for the destruction happening to nature. Armstrong is also using pathos when talking about his father’s death because death usually creates a melancholy feeling in most people. 

Sources:  http://www.geekstinkbreath.net/greenday/song-meanings/wake-me-up-when-september-ends/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Rain%27s_a-Gonna_Fall

Wake Me Up When September Ends

          "Wake Me Up When September Ends" was released in June of 2005 as the fourth single off of Green Day's seventh album, American Idiot. The song is commonly known to be dedicated to the lead singer's, Billy Joe Armstrong's, father, who died from throat cancer when Billy was a child. However, Green Day achieves a much larger meaning with their post September 11th song. This song appears on the album as the 11th track in order to connect with the families of all the victims hurt in the attacks on 9/11. The song speaks about the pain of losing loved ones and never being able to truly let go, "As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost." The band protests war and argues that war removes the innocence from our nation, "the innocent can never last." 

          The music video for the song continues their message as an anti-war protest. A soldier promises to never leave his girlfriend, but is soon separated due to the Iraq War. He then dies in battle and leaves his loved ones mourning. The video emphasizes the idea that war turns innocence into fighting and death.

Analysis of "A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall" - by Bob Dylan (1960's song)

Bob Dylan first performed "A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall" in 1962, at the peak of the Cold War. This song is best known for exploring the fears that many felt while living under the threat of nuclear war. This is a protest song, and a month after this song was first performed, John F. Kennedy announced the initiation of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Dylan has been quoted saying how "Every line in it is actually the start of a whole new song. But when I wrote it, I thought I wouldn't have enough time alive to write all those songs so I put all I could into this one." The structure of lyrics is based on questions and answers, with each line either posing a new question or answering what is seen all around. The first four paragraphs of this song questions what is going on, and the final paragraph questions what actions should be taken. There are many lines in this song that represent the injustices and the sufferings of many at this time. These include "I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard" to display the outstanding number of deaths as well as "Where the people are many and their hands are all empty" to explain how many do not have the materials and supplies to continuing living.

Sources: http://mariepoetryofsong.blogspot.com/2009/01/song-analysis-hard-rains-gonna-fall.html
               http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4052

Texts being Analyzed:

1. Wake Me Up When September Ends-Green Day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci5D5r6ZjXA (Present Day)

2. "A Hard Rains A Gonna Fall- Bob Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O7heJ5ILvM (1960's)