16.2 Analysis in Practice

As described earlier in this chapter, analysis involves “breaking down” the object of study into its various parts. While we’re not always literally breaking the object—when we write a literary analysis, we usually do not rip the book up into tiny pieces—in an abstract sense we are dividing the whole object into smaller, more digestible parts, in order to view those parts more easily through an analytical lens. We might look at its structural elements–such as plot, setting, style, characters, dialogue, symbols, and tropes—individually.

Let’s look at an example of analysis. Suppose you are tasked with writing an analysis of a G.I. Joe toy. Your professor shows you a picture of a G.I. Joe toy, like the one below:

On the surface, we might be inclined to say that this is just a toy—that it does not mean anything, and that it is just something people play with. If we break this figure and its packaging down and look at its parts through different lenses, though, we discover that there can be multiple meanings hidden beneath that surface message.

For starters, let’s break down what we mean by meaning here. Whenever we read something—whether we read a typical text like a book or article, a visual text like a painting or advertisement, a cultural artifact, and so on—we can read it in at least two different ways: for its message and for a meaning.

A text’s message usually refers to its surface-level information. When we read a book for its message, we are reading to learn its information, without interpretation or analysis. We often read textbooks or scholarly articles in such a way. We read for the information the author wishes to share—the message the author communicates.

A text’s meaning, on the other hand, refers to things beyond the surface-level messages and details the text communicates. Meaning does not depend on authorial intention–i.e., a text of any kind can mean something other than what its author intended by its production, and a text can mean multiple things at once. Meaning can be uncovered or revealed through analysis. As described above, analysis involves first breaking an object down into its parts before looking at those parts through different lenses. These lenses influence how a reader uncovers meaning through analysis.

Looking at the G.I. Joe figure and its package, we start to break it down into its various parts. Here is just a sample of those parts:

• Military clothing
• Muscles
• Rocket launcher
• Bright yellow color behind the G.I. Joe figure
• U.S. flag
• Face: The face of the figure depicted in the background could look determined, aggressive, engaged, and/or serious
• Text: “A REAL AMERICAN HERO”
• Text: “AGES 5 & Up”
• Text: “GUNG-HO™” and “U.S. MARINE”
• Text: “ROCKET LAUNCHER SHOOTS! BATTLE STAND INCLUDED!”
• Text: “FULLY POSEABLE FIGURE WITH SPRING ACTION ACCESSORY”
• Pose/Positioning: The figure is depicted holding the U.S. flag while aiming the rocket launcher

Now that we’ve broken the figure and its packaging down into its constituent parts, we can consider these parts and how they relate through various lenses.

Rhetorical Analysis

One can view this toy and its packaging through a rhetorical lens, examining how it attempts to persuade its audience to purchase it. The cartoonish depiction of the G.I. Joe figure takes up a bulk of the package’s space, demanding the audience’s attention. The figure holds a massive rocket launcher in one hand and the U.S. flag in the other, and the figure is positioned on a backdrop of bright yellow color, a kind of “explosive” background. This explosive background tied with the rocket launcher implies that the figure is engaged in battle, and the text, rendered in capital letters to attract the reader’s attention, declares that the rocket launcher does indeed shoot. The determined, aggressive face of the cartoonish figure suggests that it is in the middle of a battle, but this isn’t just any battle: since the figure holds the U.S. flag, the reader is inclined to believe that the figure is at the very least fighting on behalf of the United States of America. This suggestion is further supported by the title text “U.S. MARINE,” again presented in capital letters.

Taken individually, these parts could make various rhetorical appeals that might not seem coherent in isolation. The figure’s face alone, independent of the other features, could suggest a violent determination or aggression fueled by anger. When considered alongside the U.S. symbols, however, new meaning emerges. The U.S. flag might evoke feelings of loyalty, patriotism, bravery, devotion, and even love, connected most prominently to one of the flag’s symbolic meanings: freedom. The cartoonish figure’s face, then, might express a determination to uphold these emotions, if it does not also express those emotions itself.

Furthermore, the figure, engaged in battle with an unseen force, expresses emotions of valor sometimes associated with dramatic portrayals of war, insofar as the figure fights for those symbolic ideals and emotions listed above, values and emotions commonly associated with the United States. All of these traits are further supported by the capitalized slogan “A REAL AMERICAN HERO,” suggesting to the audience messages of heroism and all of the emotions tied with those messages.

The above considered, one could argue that this G.I. Joe figure appeals to pathos—i.e., emotion—in order to convince an audience to purchase it. The audience is invited to connect with the figure and its packaging on an emotional level, one underscored by patriotism, valor, bravery, determination, and freedom.

Cultural Analysis

As mentioned above, objects can express multiple meanings. While the rhetorical analysis lens might allow us to arrive at one meaning, a cultural analysis lens might allow us to uncover other meanings. Taking those same parts listed above in our breakdown of the G.I. Joe figure, let’s attempt a brief cultural analysis.

Cultural analysis can look at how objects relate to broader social, historical, cultural, and political contexts and events. Cultural analysis does not seek to make evaluative statements—that is, it does not seek to discuss the pros and cons of some element or object of culture. Rather, cultural analysis seeks to show how a cultural object communicates something about a culture. In other words: a cultural analysis uncovers how an object means something, and how that meaning is tied to a culture.

The G.I. Joe figure and packaging above prominently features the U.S. flag, which, symbolically, expresses ideas typically associated with a generalized view of U.S. culture: freedom, bravery, unity, and so on. The figure holding the flag, the cartoonish G.I. Joe, is portrayed as a U.S. military figure because it wears military clothing, and its title is U.S. MARINE, as is declared by the text beneath its name. The figure holds a rocket launcher, is apparently engaged in battle—or is, at least, aiming and possibly preparing to fire the weapon. The figure’s name is GUNG-HO™, which is adapted from the English word “gung ho,” a “slogan adopted in the war of 1939-1945 by the United States Marines under General E. Carlson” and has hence been used as an adjective to describe something or someone as being “enthusiastic, eager,” or “zealous” (OED). Finally, the slogan, “A REAL AMERICAN HERO,” looms above these U.S. symbols and warlike imagery.

Taken together, these parts can express a particular kind of generalized U.S. culture, one that romanticizes war. First, the figure is a toy, meaning that its marketed purpose is for entertainment. This toy markets a specific kind of entertainment: war. If toys are used for entertainment, and war is the topic of such entertainment, then war here could be romanticized.

This possibility is further supported by the capitalization of text such as “ROCKET LAUNCHER SHOOTS!” which stylistically communicates excitement, an excitement compounded by the exclamation mark added to the phrase. One is invited to feel excited about firing the weapon, or rather, by simulating that firing action. The GUNG-HO™ name of the figure, linked up with its definition, further expresses this excitement, as the name implies that the figure is “enthusiastic” and “eager” to fire its weapon—to engage in war (OED). The phrase “A REAL AMERICAN HERO,” capitalized to draw a reader’s attention, appeals to a patriotic emotional stance that further contributes to the romantic narrative of war insofar as valorizes warlike activity.

The figure itself holds the U.S. flag, which implies that the above traits are connected to some aspect of U.S. identity. Underscoring all of these features is the fact that there is no clearly defined, explicit war occurring on this package. War is generalized; this toy can be in any war that has happened and, perhaps, that has not yet happened. So, taken together, the parts of this figure and its packaging could communicate a U.S. cultural romanticization of war.

Theory and Argument

Another lens to use when analyzing objects is a particular theory or argument. There are many kinds of theories across various disciplines, so to comprehensively explore those theoretical possibilities here is beyond the scope of this text. Still, we can look at an example of one theoretical lens.

In his book entitled Mythologies, French literary theorist Roland Barthes claims that “toys are essentially an adult microcosm; all are miniature reproductions of human objects,” that a toy “always signifies something,” and that toys “literally prefigure the universe of adult functions,” preparing the child to “accept them all” as normal structures of reality (59). For Barthes, these toys that bear specific identities and encourage a limited, specific set of uses, help create for the child various socio-cultural boundaries and expectations of the adult world (59).

Applying this theory to the G.I. Joe figure, one can uncover how such a toy could prepare a child to accept war as an integral part of U.S. life and culture, downplaying both the realities of war violence and perhaps even encouraging a child to celebrate such violence, or at least see it as a normal—if not required—part of society.

One arrives at this position by examining the parts of the figure and its packaging. On the very top left of the package, the words “AGES 5 & UP” clearly establish who the toy is meant for. A five-year-old child, picking up this toy, is then offered a series of ways to play with the toy, and the toy’s specific features limit those ways of playing. The toy comes with a rocket launcher, a formidable weapon comprehensive and total in its capacity for destruction. The toy is not given a frying pan and spatula, for example, meaning there are proscribed actions that the toy can engage in and, importantly, actions that the toy is discouraged from engaging in; one is not encouraged to have GUNG-HO™ cook a meal with its rocket launcher, which, as the package indicates, “SHOOTS.”

In the cartoonish depiction on the package, the child is exposed to the ideal performance of the toy: the G.I. Joe figure must equip the U.S. flag and rocket launcher and must charge forward, thrusting the rocket launcher ahead of the U.S. flag, perhaps to meet the unseen foe in battle, a word used on the package to describe a stand for the rocket launcher. Not only does this depiction provide the child with a recommended performance, but it also suggests to the child that this performance is in line with what it means to be a “REAL AMERICAN HERO,” a suggestion communicated by both the U.S. flag held by the figure charging forward and that capitalized slogan above the figure and flag.

Works Cited

“gung ho, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, September 2021, www.oed.com/view/Entry/82570. Accessed 17 November 2021.

“192 Gung-Ho: U.S. Marine v3.” 3DJoes.com, 3DJoes, 2021, www.3djoes.com/gung-ho-v3.html. Accessed 15 November 21.

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Translated by Richard Howard and Annette Lavers, Hill and Wang, 2012.

Continue Reading: 16.3 Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis