Professor Elaine Minamide
English 100
11 October 2012
Rhetorical Analysis of “Heather’s Life Ended Too Soon” One fear parents always have is the first day their child gets behind the wheel of a car. I remember when I first got my license my mom did not let me drive alone for about a month, and when she rode with me every thing I did was wrong. In the poster “Heather’s Life Ended Too Soon,’ Heather, a 19 year old girl’s life was taken from her. She was driving home from work a few miles away from home, and was texting back and forth with a friend. The poster reaches out to young drivers and their parents, and displays how texting and driving can be very dangerous. In the image from top to bottom Heather is leaning on a tree stump looking ecstatic and beautiful. The center of the image is covered with text and has a few highlighted words that directly state the message of the image. At the bottom of the image her car is demolished; the image contrasts from happy and nostalgic to painful and destructive. This poster uses many devices in the image, but the few I found that were most successfully used were the use of presentation of the image, pathos, and juxtaposition of the image to clearly make known of the issue on texting and driving. For starters, the presentation of the image is an important factor when analyzing this poster’s argument. The image has two photo’s in which they are separated by a message given in text. The images take up the majority of the page leaving the text with minimum space. The text has few highlighted words that stick out to the audience, allowing it to give the images value and plot. The poster is divided in three’s so that the image’s are cropped for emphasis. The poster tells a story, and in the first picture Heather is happy and appears that picture could be her high school picture. Then you move down to the second photo of her destroyed car which emphasize the destruction and chaos of her death. The image is in black and white, with a few words in the text highlighted for emphasis. The use of presentation of the image allows readers to see the unplanned consequences and how damaging texting and driving can be. This goes to show that anything could happen at any time. Heather was a daughter, a friendly individual, an important and irreplaceable part of so many people’s lives: and her life was taken from the world in such an untimely manner. Another device successfully used in this image is pathos. In the image the writer emotionally appeals to its readers by showing us a story about Heather’s death. The hardest thing in life for a parent to loose their child. This poster allows me to make a connection such that it metaphorically compares to ripples in the water. What happens to calm water when you throw a rock into it? The ripples start big and end up slowly die’ing down throughout the whole water. Texting and driving may not seem like a big deal, but when something tragic happens it ends up having a big affect on many people. The tragedy affects not just the ones involved in the accident, but the loved ones also. I can only imagine how guilty the friend or person that was texting her felt. Heather was a young adult, whom will never get the chance to fully experience her dreams and go through many of the things that most people experience in life. The most emotional part of the image is seeing the car demolished. Its imagery and effects allow us to picture the accident in all of it’s magnitude and then implies the carnage that took place. The image is more than just using an image to allow us to see what happened, but also allows us to