WP2 Rhetorical Analysis Synthesis Essay JH (1)

Jamarquan Houston

David Riordan

Persuasive Writing

April 14th, 2020

Is There Always a Perfect Way to Do Things?

“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor,” once said by the late Franklin D. Roosevelt, which suggests that challenging experiences are the most educational and hence beneficial. In modern-day history, people may find this to even now be valid, primarily upon listening to the array of situations gone wrong in “Fiasco!” from This American Life. On November 1st, 2013, radio host Ira Glass inadvertently showcased how the bad could eventually work out in something’s or someone’s admiration. Through the personal lens of those involved or the dreadful and sometimes horrifying details of the stories, each fiasco moves listeners into the idea of disasters not being so awful after all. Whether it is from growth, wisdom, or luck, buffoonery will give one a bang for their buck. As in the case of The Great Depression, which resulted in the New Deal that is still employed today, sometimes catastrophes need to happen to promote improved efficiencies. Therefore, the possibility of making mistakes should guide an individual, but not deter them from seeing if something works or not.

Empathy is what the audience should have undeniably had while listening to the compilations of “Fiasco!” on This American Life. Almost any and everything is imperfect. Even when one might believe that they have it all figured out, there might still be problems underway that are unforeseen. For instance, the oil attack that failed in “What We Wanted To Do” (Glass Act Two). Reasonable people understand that it is human nature to make errors, and there is no way to predict them, which goes beyond fiascos. From the miscalculation of an underestimated virus that has turned into a 21st-century pandemic to personal mistakes, flops are just one of the many examples of errors that people witness all the time. One saw this first hand with the battle of the squirrel, the sloppy oil repels, or the awkward coffee tale in “Fiasco!.” However, with every mistake made, people realize the cliche saying of “one still living to fight another day.”

A dramatic play that placed parents at the edge of their seats filled them with remorse, while also filling them with defeat in “Opening Night.” It was the terrible gut feeling of something not being right that made everyone bear tight. Nevertheless, the audience and listeners started to come to their senses about what was going on that night. From the child actors flying in the air to getting physically injured, the brightness of the gloomy show gradually became pictured. As Jack Hitt made clear, “It was hard not to laugh at this thing. Whatever restraint that the audience had, it just evaporated at this point.” (Glass Act One) Whatever deep feelings people had before dissipated, and everyone started to delightfully indulge in the play’s foolery. For what could have been the actor’s or the attendees' disappointment, the act turned out to be everyone’s enjoyment. Even the host Glass acknowledged this when he stated, “And it sounds like this production, even though it was a fiasco-- in fact because it was a fiasco-- was more successful than any conventional play could be.” With the usage of pathos, people understand that everything is not meant to be taken so seriously or the fact that “what does not kill someone makes them stronger.”

The fight to catch a squirrel made a police officer notice his real morals in “Squirrel Cop.” The new cop knew it was not in his job description to capture animals, but he figured that he would help a beautiful young mammal. The cop’s attraction to the strikingly beautiful woman might have caused his downfall, but this did not stop him at all. However, listeners give him more praise for being vulnerable enough to own up to his rookie mistake. After all, the cop had the right idea, but acted on impulse and never took the time to construct a thought-out plan. In (Glass Act Three), it was discovered that approximately three to four thousand dollars, and a broken nose were the afflictions from the cop’s actions. When asked if he would have made the same mistake that he did 13 years later from then, the officer admitted, “There is always a new mistake to be made. One makes plenty of mistakes. One tries not to make the same one twice.” In the end, that statement is what truly speaks to the cop’s character; his ability to learn from a mistake. With the usage of ethos, people start to understand that the problem is not an individual making mistakes, but an individual not learning from them.

Finally, even a canned plan could not keep something from falling out of someone’s hands, as seen in “Fiascos As A Force For Good.” In other words, there is eventually a chance of failure for something that usually works, especially in tense situations. A nervous lady named Margy Rochlin had the right plan, but the wrong kind of woman. Rochlin assumed talking in a familiar and formal language would work. She said, “I'm the right person for the job. I'm going to speak to her in the valley language. And we will bond.” (Glass Act Four) To her surprise, this was not working, and their conversation was starting to become way too uncomfortable. Rochlin acknowledged this when she said, “Well, what I noticed was it was a tense situation. I did not feel like it was going very well.” Despite this, she continued to try harder to reach a connection, but her attempts still did not register. That was until the woman humorously said something that caught Rochlin off guard and sent her into deadly laughter, as she accidentally choked on coffee. Before one knew it, Rochlin was receiving the Heimlich maneuver from the concerned woman, which resulted in their bond. Thus, allowing people to see that it was not the plan to speak in the valley language that sparked what was becoming a disingenuous relationship, but the genuineness of the woman in a scary situation that did. With the usage of logos, people start to understand the idea of “nobody or anything is perfect,” giving them no option but to see the value of being themselves.

After hearing the “Fiasco!,” in This American Life, people quickly detected the difficulties in some of the craziest events. Initially, some might feel that there are no excuses for certain behaviors that caused them, but some happen to know that there are exceptions. These people know that it is in human nature to make mistakes. The usage of pathos, ethos, and logos comes together from four stories to teach every listener that everything is not what it seems; that fiascos are not completely bad things. While taking the easy route may seem more plausible, one should not be afraid to have flaws, slip-ups, and gaffes. The unseasoned cop from “Squirrel Cop” learned not to let his attractions influence his actions in the future. The frantic people of the play and the people watching from “Opening Night” learned that there was light in every predicament. The nervous lady from “Fiascos As A Force For Good” recognized that all she had to do was loosen up. Therefore, one must be aware that there is a balance of things. When they do not, perfection becomes the most prominent disease and problem than any mistake ever made. “Everything is not what it seems when one can get all they want from their wildest dreams. One might run into trouble if they go to extremes. Because everything is not what it seems,” once said more recently by Selena Gomez.

Works Cited

Hitt, Jack, et al. “Fiasco! (2013).” This American Life, 1 Nov. 2013, www.thisamericanlife.org/510/fiasco-2013.

(John Adair, Selena Gomez "Everything Is Not What It Seems" 2009)

DMU Timestamp: April 20, 2020 22:34

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