Apollo 11 Rhetorical Devices

The worldwide attention brought about by the success of the Apollo 11 moon landing was used by many speakers and writers to push forward their own agenda or opinions using a variety of rhetorical appeals and strategies. The texts, “Man’s First Step on the Moon” , a news article by the Times of London, “In Event of Moon Disaster”, a prepared speech to be spoken by President Nixon written by William Safire, “The July 16, 1969, Launch: A Symbol of Man’s Greatness”, a commentary by philosopher Ayn Rand, and “Transported”, a political cartoon by Herblock, were all made in occasion of the Apollo 11 mission and directed toward the viewers worldwide but each with a different purpose and rhetorical appeal. Each of the four texts creates an effective

This is done by the speaker acting as an omniscient presence that tells each detail of the event to create the feeling that the reader is watching first-hand the events of the Apollo 11 mission. Imagery is used to support the pathos by detailing each step of Armstrong’s actions which allows the reader to easily imagine the events. Insignificant details such as, “Aldrin… was walking backwards and could not see the ladder,” and “they [viewers] saw him stepping foot by foot down the ladder, which has nine rungs.” are added to better help create an image in the viewer’s mind. In addition, the section, “Greatest moment of time”, utilizes repetition to establish the idea that the Apollo 11 mission was a time of greatness and amazement. The text specifically uses the quotes of world leaders, such as President Sagrat of Italy, King Hussein of Jordan, and the Prime Minister of Britain, in this section to give greater credibility to those quotes due to the automatic credibility established by their reputation as the world’s most powerful people. The news articles engage the reader in the text through the use of strong imagery and invokes strong emotions of astonishment through this method supporting it through the use of

Within the image, a giant plume of smoke covering the earth with the words, “War”, “Poverty”, and “Prejudice”, is the context of the image and what was going on around during the Apollo 11 mission. In the top left, the moon with the man watching T.V represents the world watching the moon landing. The appeal to logos is the implied message that is seen in the image: the Apollo rocket leaves behind global issues while the world watches the event rather than the threatening black cloud of smoke. The idea that a moon landing is more important than global events that cost lives would be preposterous to most people. Yet, this is the case that is portrayed within this image. And because of Herblock’s reputation, his cartoon is already given merit due to his well-known reputation due to his past works. This works in conjunction with his appeals to logos since it gives credibility to the logic that is being given since they are not directly stated. Herblock relies on the symbolism of the plume of smoke to portray the argument that the world is focused on less important events and supports it through both common sense and actual global issues like the Cold