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1. Rhetorical Analysis Jack Johnson’s “Gone”
2. Modesty vs. Materialism
3. The Purpose The purpose of the song is to criticize money-driven, materialist people.
If all of these purchased items were gone, would these people still have value?
It’s not that one should eschew buying expensive or unneeded things, but that one should not dedicate themselves to materials.
4. Context The context of the song is how too many people are obsessed with objects and buying junk.
These people center their lives around unnecessary materials too much.
Too many Americans are going down this path where they begin to lose respect for themselves and others.
5. Ethos Jack Johnson has almost no situated ethos because this song was released in his second album in 2003.
He established his ethos in the lyrics by laying out the foundation that he is also a casual American like his audience.
He argues casually in the second person making the reader his audience and “opponent”.
He is credible because he uses simple facts and a legitimate, logical hypothetical situation.
6. How does ethos help? By establishing his ethos as a casual American, Jack becomes more relatable and his purpose becomes more believable.
He becomes a legitimate spokesperson for the subject because he is wealthy from his music career and has not become corrupt by money.
7. Audience Primary: Money-driven people and those who must involve themselves with these materialists.
Secondary: Fans of acoustic, soft-rock/guitar music.
8. Pathos The speaker addresses his target audience (the materialists) directly by using “you”. He wants to provoke guilt and remorse to the materialists.
And he provokes pity and sympathy to those who must involve with the materialist people.
9. How does pathos help? Using the appeal to emotions, Jack helps motivate the corrupt-minded to feel sorry and guilty. Then they must resolve the emotions by moving towards modesty.
The emotions can motivate the corrupt restore the their own value and ethics.
10. Logos Logos is established by using simple facts and comparing materialists to more modest people.
Jack’s first logical point is how expensive items, like clothes, have no more utility than the cheaper options for those items.
He then uses a hypothetical situation to express that dedicated materialists have no value and are shameful.
11. Is the message logical? The message of the song is logical because the situation is legitimate describing the lives of everyday Americans so people can relate.
Also the situation seems pretty one-sided. It makes sense for people to strive to be more modest, but it doesn’t make sense for people to aim to be more materialist.
12. Style Jack uses rhetorical devices to strengthen the impact on the readers. These devices include:
Imagery: “fancy clothes… and cars and phones and diamond rings”
Repetition: “gone” is repeated 6 times in the chorus
Rhyme: “rings… things… shine… time”
Colloquial diction + slang: “bling bling… give a damn”
Metaphor: “is [your soul] straight from the mold and ready to be sold”
Rhetorical Question: “And what about your soul? Is it cold?”
Idiom: “And what about your mind? Does it shine?”
Hypothetical Situation: “Gone, going / Gone, everything”
13. Rhythm and Tone The song has a soft melody that is moderate in tempo. It creates an atmosphere that is neither jolly nor negative in tone.
The tone is of shamefulness, and disappointment in those people who lose respect of themselves and others because of materialism.
Jack also furthers the idea of “not buying expensive things” by keeping his song as simple as using just one guitar and singer.
14. How does his style and use of rhetorical devices help? Using rhetorical devices helps keep the interest of the readers.
Jack argues in such a casual, non-provoking manner that it seems that one wouldn’t want to oppose him.
They probably couldn’t even if they did want to because the issue seems so one-sided.
15. Works Cited www.azlyrics.com “Jack Johnson Lyrics: Gone” lordygee14@ahoo.com 10/1/10
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jackjohnson/gone.html
