Remake of Rhetorical Analysis by Bailey Stone - Grade 11

Thesis for analysis

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Young as the man with insomnia uses logos, pathos, and ethos throughout his lyrics and video “Fireflies” to tell people to slow down and cherish their childhood. Young wants time to go slower so his dreams can come true. Young’s use of these appeals through metaphors, similes, imagery, hyperbole, personification, and symbols make him effective in expressing his message to others.

Introduction by SOAPS

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The speaker is Adam Young a.k.a Owl City who is singing the song. Adam Young’s idea for the song came to him when he was growing up in Owatonna, Mn. He recalls staying up late in his bedroom that was located in the creepy part of the basement. https://www.songwritingmagazine.co.uk/how-i-wrote/fireflies-owl-city Adam was having difficulty falling asleep. The song was written in 2009. He also remembers going to summer camp in Northern Mn. The camp was rustic and remote and did not have much of anything to do. Young would look up at the sky at night and see meteor showers. He would visualize them like fireflies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireflies_(Owl_City_song)
His audience is about people suffering from insomnia. The song is about a person who is lying in bed and he cannot fall asleep, therefore they reminisce about their childhood and how fast time is moving. Adam uses the song Fireflies to express how quickly our childhood passes by and to have time slow down.

Lyrics Link

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Lyric Analysis for Ethos

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ETHOS-The first three lines state “You would not believe your eyes/ If ten million fireflies/ Lit up the world as I fell asleep.” This uses ethos to get the listener to believe that the average layperson would not believe their eyes if 10,000,000 fireflies were to illuminate planet Earth” (nme.com). Young uses hyperbole in this verse to exaggerate how fireflies light up the night. Young is referring to his memories and how they lit up his own life. He compares his life to the light of the fireflies lighting up the sky. The fireflies are teaching him new experiences which represent all things he wasn’t able to do in his childhood. Young also wants us to believe that we could be embraced by 10,000 lightning bugs in his verse “'Cause I'd get a thousand hugs/ From ten thousand lightning bugs.” According to nme.com “the average person concludes by instinct that 10,000 lightning bugs, acting as a collective group, are capable of embracing a human being 1,000 times without difficulty.” The hyperbole of the lightning bugs he is referring to are his friends and family. The hugs and love he receives from them.

Lyric Analysis for Pathos

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PATHOS-Young experience strong emotions about growing up and leaving his past behind. In the verse “I'd like to make myself believe/ That planet Earth turns slowly/ It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep/ 'Cause everything is never as it seems.” Young wants time to go by slower. He wants time to take in everything around him. Young wants more time to make his dreams come reality. He feels when he is awake that time goes by too fast, and he is getting closer to adulthood. If he can stay asleep and dream, time will move slower and he can fantasize about all the things he has not been able to do in his childhood. Young uses the verse “It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep” as metaphor for dreams. Dreams take him to a place where he is happy and youthful. Another example of

pathos is the sadness Young feels losing his childhood. In the verse “To ten million fireflies/ I'm weird 'cause I hate goodbyes/ I got misty eyes as they said farewell.” Young is afraid to say goof-by to his friends and family. He uses imagery to show he is sad when the fireflies leave which represent his friends and family leaving. He wants more time to figure out the meanings of his dreams. When Young uses the metaphor “I got misty eyes as they said farewell.” The misty eyes represent him crying and being sad.

Lyric Analysis for Logos

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LOGOS-Besides focusing on pathos, which deals with strong emotions that hold us for meaning, and ethos, which deals with values that make us the people that we are, Young also uses logos to state facts to relate him to his childhood. In the verse “'Cause I'd get a thousand hugs/ From ten thousand lightning bugs/ As they tried to teach me how to dance/ A foxtrot above my head/ A sock-hop beneath my bed/ A disco ball is just hanging by a thread/ (Thread, thread...).” In verse three he keeps talking about items from his past when he was younger. Lightning bugs are used as personification as they are used to represent the people who taught him how to do all those activities. Fireflies are used to represent childhood because children like to collect catch fireflies. When Adam refers to the word thread, he is referring to his own life and his childhood which is disappearing. The foxtrot, sock hop, and disco ball are all memories from his childhood. Young also uses logos to interrupt adults' lack of sleep. In the verse “'Cause I feel like such an insomniac,” Young uses a simile to compares himself to an insomniac because he can’t sleep. He cannot sleep because he wants to stay in the present and enjoy life. I believe he used the word insomniac to refer to adulthood and how tough it is to be an adult.

Video Link Reference

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Video Analysis - Ethos

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Young uses personification to represent ethos in his video "Fireflies". After the verse "I'd like to make myself believe, that planet Earth turns slowly." Then multiple objects like the globe, robot, etc. start to spin at a fast pace. Making you believe that time goes by fast and it can't slow down.

Video Analysis - Pathos

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Young uses personification, hyperboles, to prove his emotions he has about his insomnia and the reoccurring feelings of time moving by to fast and he wants to go back to his childhood. In this example he says "please take me away from here" As in the present. He wants to go back to his dreams/childhood. The robot is reacting and looking like it's about to explode giving off the feeling he is going insane from being an adult.

Conclusion

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Works Cited

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Owl City - Fireflies (Official Video). 2009. [video] Directed by A. Young. Los Angeles, CA: Universal Records.
Metrolyrics.com. 2021. Owl City - Fireflies Lyrics | MetroLyrics. [online] Available at: [Accessed 16 May 2021].
Huff, K., 2020. It's A Beautiful Day by Michael Buble. [online] Padlet. Available at: [Accessed 16 May 2021].
Huff, K., 2020. Rhetorical Analysis. [online] Padlet. Available at: [Accessed 16 May 2021].
Songwriting Magazine. 2021. How I wrote 'Fireflies' by Adam Young (Owl City) – Songwriting Magazine. [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 May 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Fireflies (Owl City song) - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 May 2021].
Moore, S., 2021. Owl City explains reasoning behind confusing 'Fireflies' lyric. [online] NME. Available at: [Accessed 17 May 2021].

Logos

410237 — 2021-05-17 19:01:19 UTC

Young uses personification, hyperboles, and metaphors to represent Logos in his music video. In this example it shows a disco ball dropping by a thread. The disco ball being Young himself and the thread snapping is stating he is losing himself from his Insomnia and from being an adult.