Analysis of "Self-Evident" by Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco’s poem “Self-Evident” is her commentary criticizing the current state of America. She includes major issues such as the questionable outcome of the 2000 election, September 11, rising oil prices, the Iraq war, and the general stagnation of American culture. At the same time, the author seems to try and convince the general public to become more aware of the injustices occurring in the country around them and perhaps even tries to convince them to take action. She appeals to them using the techniques of rhetoric.

Logos, ethos, and pathos are used to convince the audience of existence of many unaddressed problems in America. Through logos, she appeals to her audience’s common sense with solid evidence and examples. For example, she cites the results of the 2000 presidential recount election in Forida: “…under the thumb of some blue blood royal son who stole the oval office and that phony election…”DiFranco hopes to persuade the audience by pointing out real-life examples of problems in the government. DiFranco’s logo is somewhat difficult to pick up, however, because much of it is in the form of metaphors and other poetic devices that somewhat distort the understandability of phrases. Besides logos, she appeals to the audience’s confidence in her credentials simply with her words. The complexity of the poem itself is enough to gather the attention of the audience. Using complex metaphors such as comparing people to poetry helps give the audience a sense of DiFranco’s ability as a poet. However, overall, the ethos is weak because there is not enough room to focus on DiFranco’s life and accomplishments. Instead, the attention centers on DiFranco’s ideas and beliefs. Finally, pathos is used in the poem in the form of buzz words such as KGB and toxic smoke, which both evoke negative connotations. DiFranco wants to link the problems in America with these words in order to operate on the audience’s emotions. Furthermore, DiFranco uses strong phrases such as “I’ve got no room for a lie so verbose,” which also sparks a sense of indignation in the audience; making them feel deceived by the government. Thus, DiFranco uses pathos rather effectively through her medium since poems allow the author to evoke a great deal of emotion. In effect, DiFranco’s contemporary examples, poem structure, and syntax are the basis for the poem’s rhetorical cocktail.

The rhetorical technique for poetry and written mediums in general differ from other mediums such as audio and visual because the audience cannot see the pictures nor hear the voice of the author. Instead, the audience must paint the pictures themselves and must provide the voice. As a result, the author’s ability to use some forms of rhetoric, such as ethos, is rather limited because it simply would not fit in the medium. On the other hand, other mediums can fit more information into one sitting which allow for greater flexibility. Furthermore, written language is more subject to interpretation. Without the voice of the author, the audience must guess what emotions are evoked based on diction. Without the visuals that the author wants the audience to see, the audience might imagine different interpretations of the same words. Thus, it is somewhat more difficult to use some aspects of rhetorical analysis when it comes to written mediums.