Metaphor Criticism

Aguilera 1 Princesleah Aguilera Dr. Mary Rist ENGW 2325.01 11 October 2016

I.

Introduction

In the 2016 presidential election, immigration has served as a hot debate topic among the candidates. America can see why. Although immigration reform is an American issue, Donald Trump has essentially made it his mission statement. Why are people allowing Trump to speak of the topic of immigration in such an exaggerated manner that fabricates the perspective on the immigrant community as a whole?

The artifact I have chosen to metaphorically criticize is a speech which Donald Trump gave in Arizona over immigration, specifically illegal immigration. He speaks for the republican side of the presidential candidacy and glorifies the idea of criminal activity relating back to illegal immigration. I will be searching for metaphors in Donald Trump’s Speech in Phoenix on Illegal Immigration, using metaphor criticism, to display what metaphorical language and comparisons he uses to display his perspective on American immigration reform.

In the essay I will be using a metaphorical criticism to discover how the author used metaphors to express their worldviews. I will be analyzing Donald Trump and exploring Donald Trump’s Speech in Phoenix on Illegal Immigration to show the reader how Donald Trump views the world and his campaign and convince the reader of Trump’s perspective through metaphors.

II.

Analysis of Artifact

1. Presentation and Analysis of Artifacts

Donald Trump’s Speech in Phoenix on Illegal Immigration was presented by republican presidential nomination in Phoenix, Arizona on August 31, 2016. He used his platform to raise awareness on illegal immigration and to propose a plan that would rid America of illegal immigration once and for all.

Aguilera 2 Trump describes illegal immigrants repetitively as criminals, killers and thieves of the United States.

He does so, by emphasizing on the illegal immigration, the so-called connection between homicides and illegal immigration, and the stealing of welfare that is being used by immigrants.

Homicides in the U.S. is directly correlated to illegal immigrants. At one point in the speech, he states, “Crime will go down. Border crossings will plummet. Gangs will disappear” (13). Stating that immigration is the negative problem that America has. His metaphors work for the republican party to be convinced that immigration is what is holding America back. Constantly using phrase in the first four pages of the speech such as, “murdered by an illegal immigrant… gunned down in the sanctuary city of San Francisco, by an illegal immigrant… perpetrators were illegal immigrants with criminal records a mile long…” (2). Trump constantly uses words that provide the reader with the comparison and viewing of illegal immigrants as killers.

He is also using the illegality of certain styles of immigration to portray that immigrants are only criminals. Constantly stating that immigration and the principles are illegal is what convinces voters to vote for him and what he plans. He plays the illegality card into building the wall. Trump’s main issue is how the United States needs to build a wall to keep immigrants out. The majority of the language when proving his point compares the process and characteristics of the wall to a prison and the immigrants are the inmates that become enclosed in the new system that the wall would provide.

The bigger picture that the wall stipulates is the 10-step plan he proposes, being the cure for all of America’s problems. Trump uses this 10-step plan causing the comparison of a cleanse-like plan removing immigrants. He states this metaphor when saying, “… Removing criminals, gang members, security threats, visa overstays, public charges. That is those relying on welfare or straining the safety net along with millions of recent illegal arrivals and overstays who’ve come here under this current corrupt administration” (8). Just one statement that Donald Trump uses in the speech showing how removal and the 10-step plan also serve as metaphors for the cleanse that Trump hopes the United States will go through with immigration reform.

Trump finally uses his comparison of Hillary Clinton and the current presidential staff to be corruption. Although his actions and thoughts are justified, he also uses extremely negative

Aguilera 3 metaphors describing Hillary and the administration supporting current immigration reform. He repetitively bashes on Hillary and cunningly adds metaphors that degrade her and issue not only the negative connotation, but the corrupt perspective as well. Statements such as, “… a new special deportation task force focused on identifying and quickly removing the most dangerous criminal illegal immigrants in America who have evaded justice just like Hillary Clinton has evaded justice, OK? Maybe they’ll be able to deport her.” He’s using the deportation metaphor and her corruption to attract the republican voters and put the negative view of immigration reform into the minds of voters.

2. Organizing Principles of the Metaphor: Donald Trump is doing his proper job at using metaphors to pin a group against another. Also being able to perceive immigration reform and the staff currently supporting it, the way that Donald Trump portrays them. I know that this wasn’t a part of the assignment or anything we needed to include in the essay, but whoever writes his speeches makes people really love him or really hate him.

It’s amazing what a metaphor could do to a speech, but even more amazing what the metaphor did to put one group against another. He organizes the metaphors to get his viewpoint across to majority of voters and make the clusters used are completely negative. Trump appeals to the republican mindset and wins the republican nomination with speeches such as these

III. Conclusion: What Trump did in his case was convince the majority of republican voters to vote him in as the republican nominee. He uses speeches that convey similar perspectives of negativity over illegal immigration. He provided countless metaphors to show how negative illegal immigration is and used a new immigration reform plan to convince millions to vote for him. This is where educating the voters would have been helpful, showing them how Trump plays solely into emotions and scaring to win the republican candidacy. He doesn’t know what he’s really doing, so he has to resort to utilizing tools such as metaphors and emotion, making him an official politician. Way to go Trump! You did it! You became a politician and probably America’s most hated one at that. This metaphor criticism allows voters to see what Donald Trump is really

Aguilera 4 doing with his speeches and how his perspective is becoming popular and prominent amongst the republican voters.

Aguilera 5

Works Cited Los Angeles Times Staff. "Transcript: Donald Trump's Full Immigration Speech, Annotated." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2016. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.