How Does Carl Wittman Use Ethos In Refugees From Amerkia

The purpose of my paper is to compare how Carl Wittman’s manifesto, “Refugees from Amerkia: A Gay Manifesto,” and Harvey Milk’s speech, “That’s What America Is,” form the idea of a queer community to better address the issues they face in current America, and seek to unify the queer population under a common goal: liberation from the vitriol spewed by a straight America. Carl Wittman uses bitter diction, intentionally crafted syntax, and the exploration of his ethos to create an idea of a queer society, while Harvey Milk relies on rhetorical and dialectical questions, the addressal to his audience, and his already present ethos. Wittman and Milk represent two different time periods in the gay rights movement, and were responding to two different

To convey this attitude, Wittman relies heavily on diction that carries the same critical tone. He does this through the repeated usage of vulgar phrases such as, “ f---ed-up.” Other than the obscenities, Wittman uses words with extremely negative connotations, such as “garbage,” “imprisoned,” “rotten,” and “oppressive.” Wittman primarily uses these words when discussing what straight people have imposed on queer people. In the introduction to his manifesto, Wittman identifies his goal for the queer community as: “to free ourselves; that means clearing our heads of the garbage that's been poured into them” (Wittman 1970). This line serves two purposes: it immediately identifies that the issues affecting queer people are caused by the “garbage,” and it initiates Wittman’s main metaphor, that the “straight society” has trapped queer people in a prison. Wittman directly references this metaphor in his section “On Roles”: “Now we are becoming free enough to shed the roles which we've picked up from the institutions which have imprisoned us” (Wittman 1970). This metaphor, in combination with the resentful diction, serves to create a sense of wrongful imprisonment and animosity towards the “straight society”. Wittman does not want his audience to be complacent any longer, and by comparing America to a dirty prison Wittman can more easily transition into his

Wittman isn’t arguing about the social status of queer people, he is addressing queer folk and articulating the resentment they should feel for being served the rotten pie. Wittman is not trying to argue that queer people are being oppressed, he is presenting unquestionable truths about how society is treating queer people, and he wants queer people to feel the same way he does. Wittman’s goal of “clearing the garbage” is not just educating queers on how society treats them, he wants to purge queer people of their complacency. All of Wittman’s syntax and diction choices work towards this precise goal. The combination of the casual reference to America as a fascist state and indirect communication of resentment, with short sentences and bitter diction choices, portrays Wittman’s fervor to his audience. Wittman does not have to outright tell his audience how to feel; they already feel the same way he does. All he tells his audience to do is “come out,” and that alone is enough to associate “coming out” with feeling the same resentment Wittman