In conclusion

As a wrap-up to my discussion of visual rhetoric, I would like to consider a quote from Jean-Paul Sartre's play The Devil & the Good Lord. The character Nasti says: "My brothers, we have no need of priests; any man can perform the rite of baptism; any man on earth can grant absolution; all men may preach. I tell you truly: all men are prophets, or God does not exist" (18). This quote, while perhaps not entirely relevant to the argument I am making about the inevitability of visual rhetoric and its applicability to today's student, serves as a nice metaphor for the consideration of the rhetor as the one responsible for serving as a "gatekeeper" of meaning. If all students possess the power to construct arguments, if it is not a holy rite reserved only for the elite, then these students must also take responsibility for making sure they are not misleading their audience to erroneous conclusions by setting up arguments based solely on sentimentality and bathos. They must analyze the visuals that they use in such a way that they cohere in a collective way, synthesizing both the mode (visual, textual, or otherwise) with the logical demands of argument. Just as I explored in my discussion of the Triangle Factory Fire, images cannot work alone, but in synthesis, just as any other textual argument must achieve its meaning by its synthesis of parts. No one part can stand alone. They are all necessary, functional cogs in a well-oiled machine