Using the given texts and resources available, I am able to determine
the rhetorical analysis for the music video “Elastic Heart” by Australian
singer, Sia. Beginning a rhetorical analysis requires the ability to understand
what the artists is attempting to appeal. For the most part there about three
types of appeals: pathos, ethos, and logos. Through watching the video and reading the
lyrics, my conclusion to what type of appeal Sia shows is pathos. In Texas ATM’s
rhetorical analysis cite, they refer to pathos as “pathetic.” Their definition
of the “pathetic” appeal is that it “invokes the audience’s emotion to gain
acceptance and approval from the ideas expressed.”[1]
I decided this appeal due to the fact that the lyrics describe a war of love,
and the music video expresses a man who cannot leave his cage, literally and figuratively.
So how
does Sia use Ethos in her video and lyrics? With the lyrics, Sia shows her
challenge of not being able to “conquer love” (line 2). Sia continues
throughout the rest of the song showing how her feelings and emotions were
played with and stretched. The song explains that she is strong and has an “elastic
heart,” revealing she is in control of her emotions. By showing her struggles
in her relationship, it is easy for a typical person to feel the same. Any
person that has ever been in some type of a relationship has experienced the
sadness that comes with a break up or disconnection. Sia’s song helps people
relate to her emotions. Throughout the song, she explains her emotional torment
by claiming that “there were so many red flags” (line 6) thus proving she wasn’t
able to accept the warnings that this relationship had caused her pain. Further
in the song, Sia claims “You did not break me” (line 9) which is a common
phrased used when discussing a break up, thus relating to most people, or her
audience. Last, Sia wraps up the song stating her reason for the song by
claiming, “It’s hard to lose a chosen one,” (line 26) which shows that in the
end this song is about losing someone. In this day of age, most people have
lost someone whether it be with relationship or death, meaning most people can
relate to this song by Sia.
When
watching the video, you see one man (Shia LaBeouf) and one girl (Maddie
Ziegler) looking at one another. At the time 0:25 you begin to see these two
people begin to communicate through dance. The video shows Shia LaBeouf’s
character trying to understand why this girl is messing with him. He doesn’t
understand what’s going on and thus tries to connect with the strange girl. At
minute 2:00 you see Shia is able to get close with the girl. They begin to act
and work together in sync. At 2:20 the girl then bites Shia, showing that he cannot
trust this girl. She then at 2:55 leaves the cage, but Shia can’t. She returns
at 3:17 and the two begin to bond again. At minute 4:00, Maddie Ziegler’s
character tries to take Shia LaBeouf out the cage, but he won’t fit.
This
video really shows how people are when making new relationships. At first you
don’t understand the person, and you need time to learn about them. Once you
share intimate time together, you begin to want to stay with one another,
example is when Maddie Ziegler’s character comes back in to the cage. In the
end, the two characters were going to walk away with each other but Shia couldn’t
leave the cage, which means to me that he wasn’t ready to leave his safety in
the cage.
With the
video, Sia appeals to people’s emotions once again. She takes the fact that we
are all scared of creating new relationships with others, and expresses the
torment it can bring.
[1]
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The Weeknd, and Diplo. Elastic Heart. Sia. Diplo (Greg Kurstin), 2013. MP3
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