Jaline McCallum

English 21001

Argumentative paper Shaowen Liang: Rhetorical Analysis of the Eiffel tower

While reading Shaowen’s paper, it is evident that she spent time going over the Eiffel tower and all the devices being used. Some of the devices she mentions is structuralism, symbolism, sarcasm, and many more. She mostly zones in on different motifs in Eiffel Tower that show sarcasm.

The first example she gives is when Barthes describes the tower as a “sign of visual pleasure that is self-sufficient and serves no purpose beyond.” She goes on to discuss that his wry humor and sarcasm allow her to ponder the celebration of popular culture. Iagree with her connecting these two things because often, as humans, we celebrate things that are popular without actually taking the time to learn or know more about them. She connects an example to Elon Musks’ former partner, Grimes, who was tired of paparazzi following and stalking her every move. She decided to take out a book about communism and read it in public, and the paparazzi just published the picture without making sure and asking if she actually believed in communism. She did it as a prank on the paparazzi and this just proves how people don’t take the time to actually hear the whole story and just take something they see and run with it in popular culture. So I agree with how she relates this back to Barthes Eiffel Tower as people just see the Eiffel Tower as this amazing attraction because it was deemed one by society when in actuality, it’s not all that special. That’s how I feel living in New York City, another tourist attraction, and people come from all across the world to visit Time Square when to me and many of my peers, Time Square is not that important. People only visit it because it associates itself as a staple of Nyc. Overall I agree with Shaowens rhetorical analysis paper and I believe she did a great job on this assignment