Rhetorical Devices In Good Will Hunting

“How ‘bout them apples?”- One of the most famous lines in recent movie history was asked in a scene from the film Good Will Hunting that showcases an extremely effective example of the commonly used idiom “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”. In order to impress onlookers and make a fool out of a local “townie” character of clearly inferior intelligence, a man that has been costumed to fit the character of “Ivy League graduate student” to a tee is begins to reference obscure academic literature in the local Harvard bar that both characters are patrons of. When the graduate student picks an intellectual argument with the uneducated townie, the writers bring in the townie’s friend and the film’s protagonist, a genius having trouble harnessing …show more content…
The film allows the rhetor’s to reach a demographic of people that would be much more difficult to reach in the setting of a novel or an alternative medium. The rhetor’s in this rhetorical situation are the writers and stars of the scene, two men who have grown up in the Boston area and have likely witnessed situations similar to the one being portrayed. The audience that the rhetor is trying to reach is young men at certain points in their lives who are utilizing outward hyper- masculinity and a perceived nobility in having little ambition beyond a day to day survival. The message that the rhetor communicates is the pitfalls in the utilization of the hyper-masculinity and perceived nobility as a veil to hide behind as opposed to actually attempting to explore the extent of their abilities. The use of film is an eminent utilization of medium as the audience is able to witness the message as shown through the lives of characters clearly visible and not limited by the imagination of the audience.The setting within the film was also important to the rhetorical success of the …show more content…
Viewers of the film will consider the cost of using a veil of masculinity and nobility as an excuse for low ambitions, viewers will consider this because of the large degree of rhetorical success in the