When the Reckless Use Rhetoric On rare occasions, Greek rhetoric meets with Greek life as in the Greek

k life of a college campus. In the film Animal House, which centers on the shenanigans of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity, such is the case. The Delta Tau Chi fraternity brothers face expulsion and sulk. One brother, Bluto, makes it his mission to raise their spirits and have them pull one last prank. Considering the personalities of his fellow brothers and the situation they are in, Bluto employs dimwitted logos and arousing pathos to convince his comrades to face their fate with an iron fist; though with weak ethos, he needs outside aid to make his proposition a reality. To start, Bluto sets the vengeful tone of his speech proposing one final prank against the dean, based on his knowledge of the Delta Tau Chis openly hostile relationship with the dean, who had just expelled the Deltas. This hostile relationship between the Deltas and the dean had been ongoing since the Deltas existence. The dean of the Deltas college Dean Wormer, had always been out to get the Deltas. The Deltas had caused so much havoc in the college, such as killing a horse in the deans office and sleeping with his wife, that Dean Wormer made it his personal mission to have them removed. Seeing that the Deltas were already on probation, he put them on double secret probation, a term he invented. After having revoked the Deltas charter for hosting a rowdy party, the dean finally expelled the Deltas for their extremely poor grades. This final act of the dean against the Deltas crushes the Deltas spirits. The exigence is obvious to Bluto: his beloved brothers are letting Dean Wormer have the last stand, which gives the brothers a sense of defeat. To regain their dignity, Bluto proposes the Deltas throw one last prank on the dean and the college. Ready for the final retaliation, he ferociously yells to the brothers, Wormer hes a dead man!

A major factor into how Bluto frames his speech is his awareness of his audience, the fellow brothers. Bluto delivers his speech in a forceful, yet simplistic way considering the rowdy personalities and limited intelligence of the brothers. Blutos statements are brash, reflecting the extreme behavior

of the brothers. The Deltas are infamous for their pranks around campus. It is their character. For example, they poured fizzies into the swimming pool at the college swim meet and delivered the medical school cadavers to the Alumni dinner. The Delta fraternity is considered the worst house on campus (Kroger, 1978) and full of animals (Katy, 1978) according to outsiders. Considering these two points, Bluto communicates in an animalistic way, shouting with anger. In addition, the language of the speech is brought upon by the simplemindedness of the Deltas. Though the Deltas cheat on many of their exams, the brothers GPAS range between 0.0 and 1.6. As one can see, the Deltas regard school as a low-priority and would not value a long-winded and complex speech. Thus, Blutos words are simple and phrases, common. He opens his speech with, Whats this lying-around shit?! (1978). Rather than saying, Why are we sulking in self-pity? Bluto invents terms like lying-around and adds profanities, which match the language of his audience. In summary, Bluto takes into account the animalistic nature and limited intellectual values of his audience, the brothers, as he delivers his speech.

Speaking of simplicity, Blutos use of logos follows suit. Bluto uses a historically inaccurate analogy between World War II and their situation to prove that the Deltas should fight on. He says, Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! And it aint over now. The brothers recognize the inaccuracy of his statement, which downplays his point. Also, Bluto uses a trite motivational maxim to convince the Deltas to take one last stand. He uses the commonplace, When the going gets tough, the tough get going! (1978). The major premise is that the going is tough for the Deltas. They have just been expelled. The minor premise is that the Deltas are strong, tough. Thus, the conclusion is that the Deltas should mobilize. This maxim is very general and fails to make the brothers find substantial purpose in one last prank. In short, Blutos logic is too weak to motivate his audience into running to action with him.

As his last appeal to his audience, Blutos use of pathos follows Gorgiass argument that changing peoples emotions can help people change their minds. Bluto tries to change the hearts of the brothers from feeling defeated to feeling unstoppable. He starts by highlighting how pathetic the boys are being compared to how they usually were. What the f**k happened to the Delta I used to know? (1978). This question implies that the Deltas have changed for the worse, causing some brothers to reflect on their we-dont take crap past, and how that attitude has diminished now. He goes on to draw a sentimental appeal asking, Wheres the spirit? Wheres the guts, huh? leading the brothers to reminisce on their past and be ashamed of how they are responding to their situation now. He shows them how cowardly they are being by stating, This could be the best night of our lives, but youre going to let it be the worst. His statement emphasizes how the Deltas are succumbing to the very system they used to fight against. Bluto tries to make the Deltas see that if they dont take up his proposition, they are cowards. He mimics a refutation a brother might have to his proposition with a cry-baby voice saying, Ooh were afraid to go with you, Bluto; we might get in trouble. The cry-baby voice is intended to make the brothers feel like they are being weak, babies rather than the tough college kids they are. Bluto attempts to spread his feeling of frustration over the sadness by saying, Not me! Im not going to take this! Wormer hes a dead man! Marmalard, dead! The extreme, offensive nature of these statements encourages the brothers to take a stand and strike back. Generally speaking, Bluto tries to change the minds of his brothers from feeling defeated to feeling strong by making the brothers realize their cowardliness in his pathos appeal.

A major contributing factor to the detraction of Blutos speech early on was his lack of ethos. Bluto has unfavorable situated ethos. Taking Bluto seriously is hard for the brothers to do because they know his extreme personality. Bluto tends to be the one to start some of the most tremendous pranks the frat has ever pulled. For example, Bluto told fellow brother, Flounder, to capture a rival frat brothers horse, lead it to the deans office, and shoot it. Bluto also started a food fight in the cafeteria.

Additionally, he promoted the idea of the houses holding a toga party, famously chanting Toga! Toga! Toga! To the Deltas, another prank coming from Bluto is nothing new. In fact, they figure the prank will probably lead to a worse situation. Also, Bluto loses a lot of credit from the brothers due to his stupidity. Bluto has the lowest GPA in the Delta Tau Chi house of 0.0. He has been in college for seven years, failing to graduate in a normal time period. The brothers consider him a fool. When Bluto opens his speech with, fellow Stork responds to Bluto, calling Bluto a moron. As Bluto gives his historical analogy of World War II, the brothers recognize the inaccuracy and shrug it off with indifference as if what Bluto is saying is not significant. None of the brothers act on Blutos proposition until one of the brothers, Eric Stratton, does. Once Stratton joins Bluto, the other brothers follow suit. However, even Stratton admits that Bluto is psychotic. A key reason the boys join along with Stratton is because Stratton has stronger situated ethos than Bluto. Though not the official president of the frat, Stratton is felt to be the unofficial leader of the house. Stratton is the ladies man of the frat, due to his natural charm. He is also the recruitment chair, having some hierarchical power over the boys. When in trouble, Stratton smooth talked the Deltas out of the court hearing the Deltas had to go to. Thus, when Stratton thinks Blutos point is worth acting on, the rest of the boys agree. In summary, Blutos poor situated ethos undermines his speech, but hotshot Stratton agrees with Bluto, causing the whole frat to join in on the prank.

In conclusion, Bluto considers his situation and audience well in his language and tone of his speech, but his poor ethos and weak logos overshadow his strong pathos, causing his proposition to fail until Stratton lends his ethos to Bluto. The Deltas went on to perform the most extreme prank ever on the Homecoming Parade, going out with a bang. Whoever thought the power of Greek rhetoric on Greek life could cause explosions?