Rhetorical+Visual+Analysis+of+Death+Draft



Rhetorical Situation:
 * Author: adventure time story board artist, under the direction of creator/writer Pendleton Ward
 * Audience: children ages 7-14, however, other audiences include young adults/ fans of animated shows.
 * Purpose: most likely depicts death to serve the purpose of the episode of the cartoon show, adventure time, death in bloom. However, the traits, both physical and personality wise are meant to portray the image of death that the creators see.
 * Context of image: Adventure time episode: death in bloom. Very basic overview of episode is Finn and Jake travel to the underworld to retrieve the soul of a plant that died under their watch. The plant belonged to a friend of theirs called Princess bubblegum. In order to do this, they try to make a deal with death.
 * Design: attributed to the story board artist and director of that episode. Since this is the first appearance of death in the show, the creator and director for the episode most likely influenced the direction of the show by instructing the story board artist on what he wanted death to look personify and represent. Design is obviously cartoonish due to it being a kid’s show, but the overall look seems to be simplistic and straight forward. Death’s clothes seem to resemble that of a farmer/lower class citizen. He carries with him a farming rake, a big hat made to shade him from the sun while out on the field. He is average sized, skinny build, and his head is a skull of an ox/ bull (context: often this skull is seen in many images of desolated, rural/desert landscapes to represent the amount of life, or lack thereof, in those environments)
 * Tone: overall tone of episode is light, misadventure humor but with moments of dark humor. This specific picture, the tone is dark, menacing, and intimidating, as shown by the shadowing and shading of death’s face and the black background.
 * Constraints: It is a kids shown, that has to meet certain standards and aims for higher viewership/ratings so those requirements often limit the creative freedom of both the cast, creators, directors, writers and storyboard artist. That being said, death could not be drawn in a way that would completely frighten the children that makes up most of its audience, although from analyzing both the show and image, it doesn’t seem like that was ever going to be the intention of the creators.
 * Rhetorical strategies:
 * o Background vs light color palate of death’s clothes
 * o Shading
 * o Simplistic cartoon style
 * o Old Disney style influence?
 * o Light contrast
 * Rhetorical appeals
 * o Ethos: the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspiration
 * § Doesn’t seem to influence by the modern perception of death in terms of drawing style, however, his personality is.
 * § Retro design: death being seen as a lower class citizen/ farmer etc.
 * o Pathos: a quality that evokes emotion
 * § In specific picture, the emotion that the author is looking to evoke is a sense of dread and intimidation, as indicated by the shading and black background
 * o Logos: the logic/ reasoning behind the ‘text’ of the image
 * § Drawn the way it is in order to serve the intended depiction of death by the creator, which seems to be that death is a very powerful and subtlety wise man/ruler that prefers to go about his “life” and present himself in a very simplistic, almost deceiving way. This includes the simplistic drawing style, the clothes he wears, the tools he is presented with, and in context of the episode, what he was doing at the moment of his introduction, which was tending his fields like a farmer.

Final Draft:

Herandy Santoyo English 1102 Professor Grimm 2 February 2017 Visual Analysis: Death in Bloom 

 If you consider society today as a whole it can safely be assumed that there is a consensus that death is something people would generally avoid discussing because it is viewed as something uncomfortable to do so. That is not to say that there haven’t been in depth and critical analysis of death in the past, but for the most part death seems to be something left to be interpreted in private by individuals themselves. However, the fact of the matter is that it is one of the few certainties that every human must deal with at one point or another, and as something that impacts everyone and everything it begs the question as to why things such as television shows, even children’s shows, have taken it upon themselves to take on the conversation of death, while society, as a whole, remains silent on it. Preciously, it is a children’s cartoon show from which the image above comes from. The show, titled Adventure Time, is given a personification by the story board artists/ writers and Adventure time creators. On the surface, it may not seem as this character of death has all that much too it, but at closer inspection, and with a little context, the creator’s interpretation of death comes through more clearly defined. In order to begin the process of analyzing the image of death presented above, a bit of background knowledge and context is needed about the show and its creators. The main creative force behind the show is the adventure time story board artists team, which are all under the direction of creator/writer Pendleton Ward. At first glance, the show seems nothing more than a colorful children’s show. And to a broad extent, it is, but Adventure time has also drawn a lot of attention and viewership from older audiences, both in their late teens, and young adults. The reason for this lies in the ability of the show’s creator and team to subtly insert themes and ideas that make a statement about society, social trends, or in this specific case, the personification of death. For further context, the episode this image of death was used in the episode “Death in Bloom,” and the plot of the episode dealt with the two main characters, Finn and Jake, who were on a quest to retrieve the soul of a plant that had been entrusted to them by their friend Princess Bubblegum. In doing so, the encounter death and attempt to strike a deal in order to take back the plants soul (citation). As has become the trend in today’s culture, death seems to take on a less intimidating tone when the protagonist first encounter him. In short death’s personality is laid back and indifferent to Finn and Jake’s situation, but when challenged he is almost certain to win and his challengers are exposed to just a portion of his true power in those moments. Another piece of information that is needed to begin to analyze the rhetoric of this images is how the design and style of the artist/writers impacted their decision to make death look the way he does (Cabral). Their style of drawing tends to favor simplicity and boldness over detail and subtlety. Everything that death is and is attributed to him in the image was meant to be there and is not necessarily there just for accessory. The tone of the show, which tends to go in the direction of the humor and situation that comes from their misadventures, also provides context to the image in that the personification of death in this show was never intended to be a serious interpretation of death personality wise (Trendacosta). Finally, if you consider the constrains the writers/artist work under (TV rating demands by the network, censorship etc.) then you get a better understanding of the why they might have left something out, or not gone further with some of death’s physical aspects. Of course, those physical aspects deal with the way death was drawn, and the way he was drawn is exactly how the writers/artist convey their message as to what they think death should or could be personified.

When it comes down to it, this image captures death in a moment that makes him seem intended to intimidate whoever was facing him. At the same however, the simplistic cartoonish style he is drawn in takes that intimidation factor down just a bit. In terms of the background, this image has it blacked out, which automatically contrast death’s light color clothing. That very same light color palate that death is given for his clothes is also another way the storyboard artists use contrast the image of death and their own personification. When one thinks of death, dark and looming images tend to come to mind, but in this instance, the exact opposite is presented, with death’s white and light clothing. Still sticking with death’s clothing, the artist chose to go with an outfit, and consequently, an accessory that makes the impression that death is some sort of farmer. This idea of death being a farmer of sorts is nothing new, as it has been discussed and used in various interpretations of death in the past, both in literature and contemporary art (Brangan). Still, this interpretation literally has death tilling a field as he is introduced in the episode, and according to the main artist behind the character of death, that was the intended look all along (Moynihan). Going back to the intimidation factor of this image, the shading has a lot to do with it. Most of the time, shading is used to highlight the specific features/emotions, the artist/director wants the audience to focus on (Cabral). In this case, the shading helps to intensify death’s already ominous and terrifying stare. Combine these drawing strategists with the show’s rhetorical context and it allows for a better picture as to how exactly this message of death is meant to appeal to the show’s audience. How the message is received will of course, depend on the individual reader. Their own experiences with death itself and the ideas that come with those experiences will warp the message the show’s creators are trying to send through their art. However, any type of analyzation by a significant amount of people will lead to an eventual comparison of each interpretation, and general trends/similarities will most likely appear. In this case, it can logically be deducted that that interpretation is one that presents death as a more approachable, reasonable, but nonetheless, intimidating figure that is not to be messed with.

Works Cited "The Death." On DeviantArt. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2017. Brangan, Derek. "Mythology: Why Does Death Carry a Scythe?" //Mythology: Why Does Death Carry a Scythe? - Quora//. N.p., 03 Aug. 2013. Web. 06 Feb. 2017. Cabral, Carlos Gomez. "Cartoon Fundamentals: How to Draw a Cartoon Body."//Design & Illustration Envato Tuts+//. N.p., 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 06 Feb. 2017. Trendacosta, Katharine. "The 10 Greatest Personifications of Death in Pop Culture ." //Io9//. Io9.gizmodo.com, 18 Dec. 2015. Web. 06 Feb. 2017. Moynihan, Jesse. "Jesse Moynihan." //Jesse Moynihan Adventure Time 3 Post Show Comments//. N.p., 26 Feb. 2011. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.