Sarah Hollenberger

Z1734494
Rhetorical Analysis Paper

What is actually free? Being able to say what you want? Being able to carry around
weapons? What about what you see as the ordinary such as whats on TV, what you have to
follow in law, what you have to do for a successful live? Are you truly able to do what you
want? You think youre free because thats what you want to hear, what others say, what
anything you see and listen to in media is what you assume that means to be free. Most of them
are for you and others safety, which is good. But when it comes to every fiber of your being
from the day you were born is controlled by everything you know; then its time to question: Are
you really free? With the art by Banksy called Follow Your Dreams is just one of those wake
up calls that make you question your true freedoms.
In Banksys work is set up on blank textured wall. It shows the phrase follow your
dream in all uppercase letters and in a purposely sloppy fashion with a bleak grey spray paint,
to create a dripping effect, to make it look like some armatur tagger running around and rushing
their work. Over top of that, shows a banner in red reading cancelled also in all uppercase but
in Helvetica. Which covers the d in dream and the w in follow partially while the your is
covered entirely; without the letters poking out from behind, above and below, you would have
almost no clue as to what the word was.
Next to the main focus of the piece, is a man in a work uniform spray painted in black
with a stencil. What age he truly is and what ethnicity arent specified, but with the creases by
his eyes would suggest hes getting to become middle aged. Plus his stature and look on his face
makes him very solemn. Hes with a paintbrush, more pieces of paper (probably more that say
cancelled), and potentially a bucket full of glue to paste up the banners.

Sarah Hollenberger
Z1734494
Rhetorical Analysis Paper

The last thing pictured is another piece of text in black, much longer and in a nicer font
than the messy graffiti, which goes Go to work, send your kids to school, follow fashion, act
normal, walk on the pavements, watch T.V, save for old age, obey the law, then repeat after me: I
am free!. Its lower than anything else in the image and much smaller in font size, its almost
size of what being used to type this paper compared to the size of the image being used to
analyze.
This piece though does not appear in any museum or art gallery of prestige, but it does
appear on some street facing wall in Boston in the Chinatown district. He did this because he
himself is a graffiti artist, otherwise hes known as a guerilla artist (Wagner), that takes
advantage of a blank wall to publicly display his opinion. That means all that walk by can see it;
no matter the age, race, gender, and etc., there is no limit to who it could touch. More so to
anyone oblivious to the matter and see themselves in complete control as to what they do.
Banksy is, by making the street art, showing his freedom to expression even if he may get
arrested for the deed. That freedom to expression is the very first amendment on the US
Constitution. Graffiti is illegal even though it could be considered a form of opinion. It shouldnt
be by the definition of the first amendment. Thats because its tweaked by the federal and state
laws to be considered vandalism on another persons property. There are more amendments that
supposedly followed and are made to protect people or to make their lives easier in the long run.
That sounds good, enough to make people happy to live in a government controlled country.
Then theres what the media gives you to learn from to make you in to you. You think
youre doing it by free choice, but youre probably not, most advertisement is held
subconsciously in your mind and affects how you make choices without realizing. Thats

Sarah Hollenberger
Z1734494
Rhetorical Analysis Paper

basically how racism came to be if you think about it, even if you think you arent theres
something at the back of your mind because of the things you tried to tune out. Media decides on
what are the norms and many follow trying to perfect themselves to the concept even though its
impossible. There are some many ways to consider how you are being controlled in minuscule
ways by other forces unknowingly.
Getting out of just street art, there are possibly countless other reasons why freedom is so
limited. Back before the 1940s, people where discriminated for their skin color making them
have to be careful as to what they did so the cops eye wouldnt fall upon them. This pretty much
happens still to this day, not just with people of darker skin, but with different ethnicities,
religions, genders, sexualities, social class standings, and pretty much anybody else with an
opposing opinion. These are obstacles that almost any person has to face if theyre looked down
upon due to what they are by choice or what you were born into. As to why theyre seen as
anything less than human, even though theyre clearly human, is unknown. It wouldnt make
them unable to do any kind of jobs or in general anything they want to do with their lives. That
isnt right at all. That shouldnt even exist, but it does and it seems like its encouraged by many
that have some kind of control over many.
Turning back to Banksys Follow Your Dreams, we could consider it as a way to calling
that control out and bringing it to ones attention. The messy, obviously straight from the can,
grey text saying follow your dreams could be considered as the free tagger, or quite literally
freedom itself writing the hopeful phrase that everyone would love to part take in with every
fiber of the being. This is what everyone assumes they truly own on their own accord, being able
to stride for whatever they want with their own choices.

Sarah Hollenberger
Z1734494
Rhetorical Analysis Paper

But then theres the red banner with the white cancelled upon it, stopping anyone in
their tracks trying to believe that that was possible. Which makes the phrase underneath seem
like it could be some event that could be attended, when in reality its not and should be
available for all and anyone who comes to seek it. This is what blocks people from becoming
what they really want to be, especially when they are considered to be the minority, or poor, and
whatever else could stand as an obstacle on achieving what they desire to with their lives. Its
created by the government and media, which is also unknowingly supported by the millions to
billions of people who follow whats been said. More so then others, but its there and its
practically brainwash.
Next comes the gaunt, solemn man with the additional banners standing to the side of the
main point. The body language he gives out makes it seem like hes not happy with his job or
what hes doing for it, such as a dead-end job he just cant find a way out of. Well unfortunately
for him, hes now the enforcer to control freedoms. According to Wagner, he is also considered
as the master of Pathos and is responsible for such actions (Wagner). This in a way personifies
the media and governments that have to control to keep; whether it is socially, fashionably, and
whatever other means that could control multiple lives at once. This could even mean the police,
some are good and some are corrupt. For example, one trying to make an excuse to enter a
persons home just because theyre of color or fit a certain criteria for some typical kind of
troublemaker without a warrant and possibly plant something to cause an arrest. That is literally
breaking another one of the earlier amendments on the Constitution, and the police are supposed
to follow it.

Sarah Hollenberger
Z1734494
Rhetorical Analysis Paper

Finally it comes to the swirled text below it all. This could be considered the red flag to
the whole idea; its almost as surreal as the red and blue pill scene from The Matrix just
without having to physically ingest something. Just from the few of the mundane repetitive
activities that we all are or will be going through our lives at some point or another such as: Go
to work, send your kids to school, follow fashion and so on and so forth. Then there are the few
you wouldnt think that would matter all that much such as walk on the pavements. You
wouldnt think that would matter all that much, but its just something you see every day and
then mimic it through your life ever since you could first remember something. Then at the very
end it goes then repeat after me: I am free! Itll surely make you feel that you arent as free as
you thought after reading the list.
Are we truly free? No, not unless you had a completely anarchy society, but the world
would be in utter chaos. Thus makes most governments a necessary evil; dont know about the
media though that might just be evil in general when it comes to some subjects. Now that you are
aware that there is no such thing as being truly free.

Sarah Hollenberger
Z1734494
Rhetorical Analysis Paper

Work Cited
Wagner, Isabel. "Visual Analysis." Isabel's E Portfolio. NA, 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 21 Nov.
2014. <http://iwagnereportfolio.weebly.com/english-1010/visual-analysis>.

Follow Your Dreams by Banksy

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