MaryAnn Cabrales October 7, 2013 P.

1 Rhetorical Analysis: "Perspectives of Fear" Cubism is an artistic strategy in attempt to see all sides of a single aspect all at once. Despite its distortion, cubism can be analogous to that of fear. In "Perspectives of Fear" by Saskia Verlaan, the author expresses the similarities between cubism and fear through a central metaphor. Verlaan points out to us the similarities through using the language of cubism, pointing out the multiple perspectives, and by stating how both aspects are composed of contradictions. The language of cubism is an element Verlaan uses to describe the characteristics of fear itself and that of cubism, hence exposing their similarities. She reveals this language when stating, "My memories of fear burn...into my mind with a similar richness of pigment, saturating the cerebral tissues with bright, indelible inks." By using words like pigment, saturating and indelible inks, Verlaan is describing adjectives that would usually be articulated when analyzing a painting, yet in this case it gives us an artistic understanding of how she envisions her thoughts of fear, calling it "vividly bright" with an "unhappy subject". She also directly states what results from fear is a "memory full of a composite of contradictions where terror and death stick out at odd angles from what I know to be true like the noses, eyes, and limbs of Picasso." Here she draws attention to the similarity between cubism and fear by referring her thoughts of fear

containing odd angles that stick out like the one Picasso painted in the Weeping Women. Additionally, Verlaan reveals that both cubism and fear are composed of contractions. She sets us off with her explanation of, "My memories of fear seem contorted...a nagging ache of contradiction." She never fails to refer to her thoughts of fear as being "irregular" just like cubism. For instance, she explains that the result from fear is, "a memory that is a composite of contradictions...from what I know to be true like the nose, eyes and limbs of Picasso. " We can derive the analogy between the distortion of her memory similar to the distortion in a Picasso. Thus, creating confusion in the author because the complexity of contradictions fail to be " neatly stack" like shoe boxes, instead the complexity in cubism is misleading Verlaan because she doesn't understand it's origins. She states this when saying, "I could tell you that cubism involves an attempt to see every side of a figure all at once, but I don't understand the way in which it is created." Nevertheless after presenting her confusion between fear and cubism, Verlaan finally makes sense of the multiple perspective that she has created throughout her piece. Initially, Verlaan states that when thinking about her experiences it's like looking at a picture from many angles all at once, an "amalgamation of perspectives." Never failing to bring in cubist language with her metaphor, she also conveys to the reader the thought of "multiple perspectives." She presents this idea in later text, when stating, " Beyond my confusion, I want to believe that their is some purpose to the multiple perspectives that fear creates." Here she is portraying a perspective based on confusion which she later alters by explaining, "Perhaps it's not that they are deformed but my

understanding that is." We can strongly infer that understanding the multiple perspective has been a solution to Verlann's thinking process. All in all, Verlaan creates confusion within herself, which is shortly realized and came to a conclusion in the end. She digests the qualities of both cubism and fear and understands why the interpretation of them has been misleading. She comes to the set of conclusions by emphasizing her confusion, understanding her multiple perspectives and by articulating the language of cubism.