Chase Caldwell Professor Gwaltney English 1102 14 March 2013 When The Levees Broke Rhetorical Evaluation Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana on the morning of August 29, 2005. The storm produced sustained winds of up 125 mph when it hit that morning. On that very same day Katrina brought on 53 totally different levee breaches in better New Orleans, spilling the waters of Lake Pontchartrain into the town and flooding an amazing majority of New Orleans.
The floodwaters destroyed numerous houses and lives alongside the way in which. Some estimates of the price of Katrina had been up within the 200 billions however based on Kimberly Amadeo, “The precise value of Hurricane Katrina’s harm was between $96-$125 billion, with $40-$66 billion in insured losses. ” This statistic makes Katrina some of the costly pure disasters to ever hit the USA. Cash wasn’t the one factor that was misplaced; the storm killed roughly 1,500 individuals in Louisiana alone.
Floodwaters stayed in New Orleans for weeks leaving many individuals stranded and preventing for his or her lives. Put up-Katrina New Orleans was a warfare zone with looting, shootings, theft, and folks desperately needing assist from the federal government. Assist was sluggish to arriving although. Individuals went days and days with out meals or any form of assist in any respect. Many individuals died from all types of various causes. Deaths ranged from warmth exhaustion in attics to drowning on the street and even within the victims own residence.
Nearly all of residents of New Orleans’ ninth ward really feel like the federal government didn’t take the best measures in getting assist to the victims of the storm they usually additionally really feel just like the destruction altogether may have been prevented had the levees been constructed accurately. The story of New Orleans and the failing levees is true up one filmmaker’s alley. Spike Lee is understood to make motion pictures that look at race relations and political points. The story of New Orleans throughout Katrina touches on each of those topics immensely. Thus, When the Levees Broke was born.
The documentary is a heart-wrenching medley of eyewitness accounts, video information footage, and images of the destruction that blend collectively in a manner that reveals Lee’s dissatisfaction with what occurred throughout Katrina. Lee was legitimately upset about what occurred in New Orleans throughout Katrina and even toys with the concept that the U. S. authorities blew up the levees to rid New Orleans of poor blacks. For sure, Lee won’t hesitate to inform anybody what he believes and is the middle of many various controversies in Hollywood. His character is finest described as that of a ticking time bomb.
His emotions for the individuals of the ninth ward coupled together with his outspokenness on political affairs and race relations had been the driving power behind When The Levees Broke. Lee’s supposed viewers is absolutely anybody who takes the time to observe his work. He actually needed to get the story out to the general public and that’s precisely what he did, he let the world see precisely what was occurring in New Orleans with none sugar coating. Lee doesn’t hesitate to place a floating, swollen lifeless physique on display screen simply to let the viewers know the grotesque actuality of what occurred.
Lee makes use of this documentary to voice his opinion in opposition to how the federal government dealt with Katrina. He felt that the federal government didn’t do what it ought to have completed throughout this time and he reveals his disappointment with the federal authorities by means of the film. Lee conveys an enormous array of arguments on this movie from the federal government blowing up the levees to George Bush not caring about black individuals. All through all of those arguments his barebones, central argument is that the federal authorities didn’t fulfill its obligation to the individuals of New Orleans through the Katrina disaster.
Lee conveys this argument in a lot of other ways. As an example, he conveys the argument by interviewing a large number of folks that lived by means of Katrina and has them clarify their unrest and disappointment within the authorities on digital camera. He additionally reveals pictures of posters and work that learn issues like “The place’s Fema? ” and “Fuck Bush”. These ways make it fairly straightforward to see that Lee is upset with the Authorities. He makes use of a lot of appeals to get his argument throughout. He largely makes use of pathos by utilizing horrific eyewitness accounts and grotesque pictures to stab on the viewers’s feelings.
The viewers can’t assist however really feel horrible for the individuals who needed to undergo this. One of many worst emotions is watching somebody cry over their misplaced dwelling or hear an account of somebody who comes dwelling to their lifeless mom. Lee undoubtedly does an excellent job of evoking emotion from the viewers. Lee interviews a melting pot of individuals on this documentary. It looks as if there may be an interviewee from nearly each stroll of life. In reality HBO explored simply how many individuals Lee interviewed: Lee and his group chosen near 100 individuals from numerous backgrounds and representing a variety of opinions to nterview, together with Governor Kathleen Blanco; Mayor Ray Nagin; residents Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, Kimberly Polk, Shelton “Shakespeare” Alexander and Rev. Williams; activists Al Sharpton and Harry Belafonte; CNN’s Soledad O’Brien; and musicians Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard and Kanye West. This works in his favor and provides to the ethos of the movie. Since he’s getting the opinions of a lot of totally different individuals it reveals extra of the larger image and doesn’t deal with just one particular person or one group of individuals.
Range and unifying individuals below their disappointment with the federal government is a key a part of his argument. This reveals that he’s not the one individual that feels this fashion in regards to the authorities, in truth everybody within the film feels the identical as he does. This may trigger some hypothesis. Spike’s argument shouldn’t be good. There are a number of flaws within the argument that may trigger it to be discredited. For one, the opinions of his interviewees are so one-sided that the viewers doesn’t see a single glimpse of the opposite aspect of the spectrum.
Not one particular person within the movie appears glad with how the federal government dealt with the state of affairs. In a manner this discredits Spike Lee’s argument as a result of it appears as if he’s solely exhibiting you what he desires to indicate you. He reveals you nothing good that the federal government did or individuals which are glad with how the federal government helped. The viewers solely sees the people who find themselves disgruntled by Katrina who simply need increasingly assist. It’s laborious to imagine that there’s not a single particular person in New Orleans who was not glad with the assistance that they obtained from the federal government.
Mr. Lee merely doesn’t present the glad residents of NOLA. If he had proven these individuals then his argument could be a lot stronger. Additionally, Lee does evoke emotion within the viewers however after some time it simply turns into an excessive amount of. After four hours of seeing wreckage and lifeless our bodies you nearly develop uninterested in feeling sorry for individuals. The primary time you see a destroyed dwelling or a lifeless physique you wish to cry for the victims however after hours and hours of seeing the identical factor you change into used to seeing it.
Spike lee undoubtedly evokes emotion however he ought to have completed so extra carefully so the viewers wouldn’t tire of feeling sorrow for the victims. Lee’s background as an outspoken critic that actually simply appears to like controversy additionally discredits his argument. It’s as if Lee may very well be making this movie to simply fire up controversy in Hollywood as a result of that’s what he appears to like to do. He has had numerous run-ins with nearly each director within the enterprise from Tarantino to Tyler Perry. He indicate loves controversy so why would he not take this story and blow it up and make an enormous controversy out of it? It could not be out of character for him to take action. That’s the reason his argument might be considerably discredited by his background. It’s not unlikely that Lee took this story and made it an enormous ordeal simply to fire up controversy in Washington and in opposition to Bush, whom he doesn’t help. The story is absolutely only a good alternative to pin individuals in opposition to Bush. His background, one-sidedness, and extra of pathos all harm his argument enormously.
When the Levees Broke is a Spike Lee documentary that tells the story of the destruction that Katrina and a failed levee system had on New Orleans, Louisiana. The creator makes use of the movie in an try and argue that the federal authorities didn’t do its half to assist the individuals of New Orleans after the catastrophe. Nevertheless, he fails at arguing that time as a result of his one-sidedness and his private background. In the course of the movie, interviewees all agree on the consensus that the federal government didn’t assist out how they need to have however nobody thinks that they did an excellent job of serving to out.
This simply reveals that Lee is simply exhibiting the viewers what he desires them to see. If he had proven each side of this argument and disproved the opposing aspect his argument would have been a lot stronger. Additionally, Lee’s private id as one who loves controversy discredits his argument in that it seems to be simply one other one in all his critiques. He has so many critiques of issues that this argument actually simply will get misplaced within the sea of all of them. Works Cited Amadeo, Kimberly. About. com. The New York Instances Firm. n. d. Net. 12 Mar. 2013. HBO. com. n. p. n. d. Net. 12 Mar. 2013.
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