Rhethorical Analysis Movie Shrek
Salma Segebre Ms. Krivel AP Language October 5, 2012
Shrek Rhetorical Analysis Essay People have always watched fairytales at a very young age, growing up to believe in them. Some watched them to obtain some kind illusion, for pure entertainment, and others for the sake of love. However, not every fairytale has a purpose of giving us an illusion, of entertaining us, or making us believe in love. Shrek is not a typical fairytale. Even though many people see Shrek along with other fairytales as any other movie created for entertainment, it is a satirical critique of the archetypes involved in a fairytale. While in many fairytales we have a knight, a damsel in distress, a partner, and a villain, Shrek changes things up by manipulating our stereotype of these characters. Our usual knight in armor is a smelly, heartless ogre. The damsel in distress is not much of a mannered lady and changes her pretty human shape at nights. The partner, the knight’s companion, is in denotation and connotation of an ass, both a donkey and an imbecile. The feared villain turns out to be a weak midget who cannot do anything for himself. The movie Shrek is not a standard fairytale as the director uses the rhetorical device of logos to archetypes of the damsel in distress, the knight, and the friendly beast. The knight pictured in Shrek, is not the standard tall, dark, handsome, strong, loving human being. A knight is supposed to be chivalrous, handsome and well mannered. Even though, Shrek doesn’t represent any of these characteristics, he is a knight on the inside. Shrek was an ogre, which onion layers had to be peeled off in order to discover the true knight in him. With time, his layers were peeled one by one, and the audience was able to see a different man. Shrek also didn’t want to accept the hero’s quest or the search for the damsel in distress, Fiona. He didn’t want to leave his house or the ordinary world where he belonged to, apart from
Shrek Rhetorical Analysis Essay People have always watched fairytales at a very young age, growing up to believe in them. Some watched them to obtain some kind illusion, for pure entertainment, and others for the sake of love. However, not every fairytale has a purpose of giving us an illusion, of entertaining us, or making us believe in love. Shrek is not a typical fairytale. Even though many people see Shrek along with other fairytales as any other movie created for entertainment, it is a satirical critique of the archetypes involved in a fairytale. While in many fairytales we have a knight, a damsel in distress, a partner, and a villain, Shrek changes things up by manipulating our stereotype of these characters. Our usual knight in armor is a smelly, heartless ogre. The damsel in distress is not much of a mannered lady and changes her pretty human shape at nights. The partner, the knight’s companion, is in denotation and connotation of an ass, both a donkey and an imbecile. The feared villain turns out to be a weak midget who cannot do anything for himself. The movie Shrek is not a standard fairytale as the director uses the rhetorical device of logos to archetypes of the damsel in distress, the knight, and the friendly beast. The knight pictured in Shrek, is not the standard tall, dark, handsome, strong, loving human being. A knight is supposed to be chivalrous, handsome and well mannered. Even though, Shrek doesn’t represent any of these characteristics, he is a knight on the inside. Shrek was an ogre, which onion layers had to be peeled off in order to discover the true knight in him. With time, his layers were peeled one by one, and the audience was able to see a different man. Shrek also didn’t want to accept the hero’s quest or the search for the damsel in distress, Fiona. He didn’t want to leave his house or the ordinary world where he belonged to, apart from
Cited: Shrek. Dir Andrew Adamson and Victoria Jenson. Dream Works Pictures, 2011. Film.