ANALYZING RHETORICAL SITUATIONS

1. Slide presentation. How does Bryan Davis define the archetypal hero? Which aspects of the hero are most interesting to you, and why? Among Murban’s examples of heroes and their stories, which is most compelling, and why?

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2. Slide presentation. Evaluate the readability of Davis’s presentation. To what extent does his choice of genre and format affect how you understand his main points?

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3. Map. You probably read The Odyssey or parts of it in high school. How does the visual representation of Odysseus’s journey in the form of a map work as a stand-alone piece? Does it require you to know the story? Why or why not?

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4. Interview. What are Joseph Campbell’s main points in his analysis of Star Wars as a hero’s adventure? Why does he believe that every society needs heroes, and that every hero takes a journey?

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5. Interview. What assumptions are built into Campbell discussion of Star Wars? Who do you believe is the intended audience? Can you think of audiences who would be offended by it? Explain.

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6. Argument / blog post. What is the FANgirl blogger’s main purpose in writing the post for “The Heroine’s Journey” series? How persuasive is this piece? How does the writer back up the main points of her argument?

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7. Slide presentation, map, interview, argument / blog post. How do the authors of each of these pieces highlight different aspects of the hero?

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COMPOSING IN GENRES

8. Take a hero poll. During the course of their interviews, Moyers and Campbell discussed how society at the time of their interview (1988) was more inclined to worship celebrities than heroes. Create a survey to find out who your peers look up to. Who are their heroes? Are they real people? Or are they drawn from movies, novels, and other popular culture? You might consider breaking down the results of your survey by age, gender, cultural background, and other demographic factors. Then create a chart to present your findings.

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9. Map a Heroine’s Journey. Select a famous myth or hero narrative that portrays a female character. Create a map that portrays her journey. (For models, you may want to refer to the map in this chapter—or to diagrams of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, easily found through a Google image search.) Alternatively, imagine yourself as a hero or heroine, and create a profile of yourself based on the characteristics that Murban identifies.

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10. Analyze Homer’s Amazon ranking. Go to Amazon.com and find the sales ranking under “Product Details” for The Odyssey in different versions (comic version, Kindle version, large-print edition, different translations, etc.). What do the sales rankings of the different editions tell you about who is reading The Odyssey these days and why? Do some exploring on the Amazon.com Web site, looking up sales rankings of different books. What conclusions can you draw about our cultural interests and preoccupations based on sales rankings?

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11. Take a position on PowerPoint. It has been argued that “PowerPoint makes us stupid.” For example, speaking about the U.S. military’s use of PowerPoint slides in briefings, Brigadier General H. R. McMaster said that PowerPoint is “dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control.” He told The New York Times, “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.” Go to slideshare.net and view several slideshows on a topic you are familiar with. Then write a brief paper in which you take and defend a position on whether PowerPoint “makes us stupid.”

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