Rhetorical Situation:
This song takes place at the end of Act One of the Musical Dear Evan Hansen. In Act One, Evan prints off his therapy assignment at the school printers (Dear Evan Hansen, Today is going to be a good day, and here’s why…) and it accidentally gets picked up by Connor, who steals the letter and puts it in his pocket. That night, Connor commits suicide, and they find his body with Evan’s letter in the coat pocket. The next day, the school calls Evan to the office to break the news, thinking that Connor was his friend. Evan, instead of telling the truth, uses Connors death as a way to make friends and gives a speech on suicide awareness and mental health to the school, which goes viral. This is the point at which this song begins.

Metaphors:
“you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again”

“Even when the dark comes crashing through
When you need someone to carry you
When you’re broken on the ground”

“You will be found”

Patterns:
Loneliness, mental health awareness, reaching out for help, helping your peers, Friends willing to help even if the person doesn’t realize, banding together

Implications:
This song is about mental health awareness and reaching out for help if you need it. It’s also a reminder for friends to help each other out and be there for each other in tough times. Ultimately, this song it’s about using the help of others to pull yourself out of a dark place, and how your current situation isn’t your forever situation.

The rhetor of this comic strip is Charles Schulz. It is a comedic piece used primarily for entertainment purposes. The audience is the general public, as this was published in newspapers. Anyone who bought a newspaper would have been able to see it, and now that it’s on the internet, anyone who googles Peanuts cartoons would be able to find it.

Presented Elements: Woodstock sleeping, Snoopy pulling on the branch, the brach recoiling with Woodstock still in his nest, Snoopy laughing and thinking about not being able to resist

Suggested Elements: Woodstock getting disoriented, Snoopy’s inability to talk (suggested by the use of a thought bubble instead of a speech bubble), Snoopy’s amusement at Woodstock’s alarm, Woodstock being woken up by Snoopy’s shenanigans, Snoopy harassing Woodstock being normal (suggested by Woodstock not flying away)

This artifact suggests that sometimes things can’t be resisted for the purpose of personal amusement. Snoopy knows he could injure Woodstock, but he thinks it’ll be too funny to not pull on the branch. He can’t resist because he thinks it’ll be funny, so he does it anyway.