21 Guns Rhetorical Devices

Words: 564
Pages: 3

The song, “21 Guns” was written by the band Green Day and uploaded as a music video on YouTube.com on October 7, 2009 scrutinizing the internal skirmish for the typical teen experiencing a hardship. Throughout the song, Green Day divulges that individuals must live their life jubilantly and allow the needless obstacles surpass them in life. Moreover, in order for their purpose to influence their audience, Green Day incorporates rhetorical strategies, containing pathos, logos and ethos within the lyrics along with the music video. Their attempts to appeal to avid music fans have been successfully implemented as they portray the internal fight is not worth the melancholy. Moments after the first verse of the song, Green Day intensely cries out the words, “Does the pain weigh out the pride? And you look for a place to hide? Did someone break your heart inside? You’re in ruins.” Exemplifying the power of enduring internal pain alone and hiding from others due …show more content…
He uses ethos to lure his audience by letting them know that they are not alone, but united. Halfway through the music video as the chorus plays, the two characters (the female and the male) begin to walk towards each other for the purpose to show they are united, again not alone. This again pertains to ethos by enabling the one who is drowning in their thoughts to trust another person for help.
As a closing remark, Green Day productively used many rhetorical strategies in order to appeal to anyone who struggles with depressive thoughts. They not only used pathos, logos and ethos throughout the lyrics of their song, but they also incorporated them into their music video. As a result, it effectively persuades Green Day’s fans into knowing that they are not alone, but supported as