A Situational Analysis of “I Can Die Now”

Isabella Schlicker
Sep 17, 2018
9 min read

Updated: Oct 24, 2018

My artifact is a seven minute and twentynine second long video of a lady telling a story. Her ‘stage name’ is Aryana Rose, created to protect her privacy, and she told her story at The Moth, a place for storySLAM based in New York City. I first stumbled across the video on Facebook one evening, and the caption caught my attention: i fell in love with a man a decade younger than me. I decided to give the video a watch. Rose’s story blew me away, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I watched the video. She tells a story about a man she loved who was more than a decade younger than herself, and how she ultimately had to let him go. Her story embodies several rhetorical messages such as: selflessness, selfishness, friendship, strength, and letting go. The story has a different meaning for each person who listens to it; some may think it is just a story of star-crossed lovers, and others may feel that it is a story of comprising one’s own happiness for the happiness of another. Some larger issues that this artifact reflects, considering our current societal tensions, is the importance of genuine friendship, healthy relationships, and self-love.

What is interesting about this artifact is that Rose tells her story with such a raw and graceful rhetoric; her tone reflects the pain of her story. Her story is not one that is so easily discussable, however she made it that way. Her speech topic is typically one that has a “tight rein” (49). Also, it is interesting because not many people would have been as selfless as Aryana Rose considering her situation, yet not many people are as selfish as her either. What I mean is this: she was selfless in thinking about his happiness over her own, and she was also selfish in that she loved herself so much that she was able to love him even more. This brings about the worthiness of the artifact: Rose’s speech-act is worthy because it reflects current societal tensions of the self, it reflects the importance of healthy relationships, and it reflects the liberation of letting go. There is evidence of the universal in this particular artifact, and as a critic I will be sure to examine all of the embeddings with respect (24-25). I believe that several terms could be applied to her speech-act, such as enlightening, shocking, and teaching, but the term inspiring actually fits the artifact more appropriately; Rose taught many lessons throughout her story and she shocked her audience, but the overall sensation that the audience receives at the end is inspiration. Through her story and her rhetoric, Aryana Rose inspires each of her audience members to be a better version of themselves.

Media Variables

Hart said, “We are aware of the very different rhetorical possibilities of speaking versus writing,” and this is why I chose the media variable for the artifact because the speech-act is rhetorically powerful due to the modality being in video form (52). Although the setting and the topic variables present effective ways of criticism, the media variables are more appropriate for the speech-act because the modality is a primary reason that the story is so rhetorically effective. The original medium is an audio recording posted on The Moth’s website, and I would have never stumbled upon Rose’s story if someone had not videoed Rose and posted it on the web. Her story became viral because of the video and it reached numerous sub audiences, had sponsorship effects, and made an important social statement. “Speech is personal and intimate,” and Rose embodies all of that intimacy in her rhetoric and the way she presents her speech-act (52).

Social Statement

The rhetor, Aryana Rose, made a strong social statement by delivering her message via speech-act. By delivering her story in the modality of a video, Rose became a viral sensation due to her incredible example of selflessness and selfishness. She turned a rather undiscussable topic into one that is being talked about all around the world; people tend to avoid the conversation when it comes to putting other people’s happiness before one’s own. In a society where the self is under constant pressure and persecution, Rose makes the social statement that loving oneself is extremely important, not only for yourself, but for the people that you love because once you love yourself with the intensity that you give others, it makes loving them all the more selfless. Often times in life, loving someone means letting them go.

Modality Enhancement

Through the modality of a video, the audiences can see and hear Rose’s passionate rhetoric; the audience can see that letting the man she loved go still causes her pain through her body rhetoric, and they can hear her pain from the tone of her voice. But, the audience can also see and hear that she is not bitter about it, that it brought her joy in giving the man she loved what he truly desired in life. The modality enhances the rhetor’s message because if her message had been written instead of spoken, then the rhetoric would not have been near as effective due to her powerful visual and oral rhetoric; Rose’s body language and tone gave her story the powerful influence that it has had on thousands of people.

Audience

The size of the audience that the medium can reach presents many important rhetorical possibilities. Due to the modality, the size of the audience does not have a restriction other than it can not reach those who don’t have access to internet. Since the size of the audience is hundreds of thousands of people, the important rhetorical possibilities could include persuading people to become more selfless, persuading people to indulge more in self-love, or persuading people to re evaluate their relationships to ensure that their loved ones are fulfilling their dreams.

Sponsorship Effects

There have been a few sponsorship effects associated with the messages presented via the medium. The Moth in New York City being the first sponsorship since the speech-act was recorded and performed there; before watching the video on Facebook, I had no idea that The Moth even existed. The Moth has been operating since 1997 and was founded by George Dawes Green. The first story was told in Green’s living room, he said, “We have really everything that we need. We have a wonderful audience. We have the heat. And we have, I think, wonderful storytellers” (The Moth). Now, The Moth has themes for each story to be told/crafted in, and the stories are told on a mainstage; The Moth hosts events at different cities across the country as well. Due to the medium of Rose’s story, The Moth has received sponsorship. Another sponsorship effect of the medium is that it inspired a web-only opera: “the Houston Grand Opera’s community company, HGOco. “Boundless,” the pilot episode in a series of short opera films about star-crossed love” (Falkenberg). Through the modality of Rose’s speech-act, and the fact that it became viral, HGOco was inspired to create an opera and therefore received sponsorship.

Personality & Persuasion

Rose’s story became a viral sensation through the modality of video format. Her story would not have been such a sensation if the audience was not able to see her tell her story because her visual and oral rhetoric is so persuasive. The medium chosen for the speech-act permits Rose’s personality to become an important force of persuasion because the audience can see how she reacts to her own story, and the audience can hear the emotion in her voice and that is what makes her story so extremely powerful and inspiring. Her message would not be anywhere near as effective if it had been in text form only. At the different parts in Rose’s story, the audience can feel her pain or her joy in the way she uses her inflections in voice. Some people do not have the voice or the art of storytelling, but Aryana Rose is not one of those people. She is the most captivating storyteller that I have heard thus far, and by listening to her story, “I Can Die Now,” I was inspired and persuaded to become a more selfless person, to love myself more, and to be more aware in my relationships.

Sub Audiences

The original audience of Rose’s story was the crowd that was at The Moth on the night that she performed, since then a video of her speech-act was posted on Youtube and then shared to Facebook amongst other places. Due to this sharing, several sub audiences have been created, and exist, because of the medium chosen for the message. Not only have sub audiences emerged from the sharing on Youtube and Facebook, but audiences from those sub audiences have been created from the hundreds of thousands of people viewing, sharing, and tagging their friends in the video. Also, since the video inspired a web-only opera, yet another sub audience has been created from that. There have also been several bloggers and journalist who have interviewed Rose, or just watched the video and wrote about it: hence creating another sub audience. The modality of Aryana Rose’s speech-act has created, and will continue to create, endless sub audiences.

Consideration

Rose was persuaded to tell her story by her friends, so she told a journalist from the Houston Chronicle, and she “never imagined the response she’d get from all around the world” (Falkenberg). In the interview, Rose explained that she had no idea that her story would become a viral sensation and she explained that she didn’t see herself as being selfless as she told the interviewer, “Selflessness would have been to have given him children, to find myself raising children that I didn’t really want. That would have been self-sacrifice” (Falkenberg). There is not textual evidence that Rose considered all of the factors above when framing her message, she was not aware that her story would be an inspiration for thousands of people, and she did not know that her speech-act would persuade numerous people to tell their own stories of love. As the interviewer described Rose, “she understands in a way she didn’t before the deep human connection that can only come from the telling of a story.”

Conclusion

Aryana Rose performed her speech-act, “I Can Die Now,” at The Moth in NYC. Her friends had persuaded her to do so, and as a result her story became a viral sensation and inspired a web-only opera. Her story is about loving a man and ultimately having to let him go; she was able to see that she was not what was best for him, even though he tried to convince her that she was. Rose’s story embodies several rhetorical messages such as: selflessness, selfishness, friendship, strength, and letting go. By selfishness I mean she had the ability to love him with such unconditionality because she loved herself just the same. Once a person is able to practice such self love, it makes loving other people easy; it creates a sense of peace to where selflessness is easier to omit. Rose’s story is many things such as shocking, teaching, and enlightening, but the term that best describes it is inspiring because her story inspired, not only myself, but hundreds of thousands of people to share their own stories, to become more selfless, to explore self-love, and to create healthier relationships.

Rose’s speech-act is worthy because it reflects current societal tensions of the self, it reflects the importance of healthy relationships, and it reflects the liberation of letting go. Her powerful and graceful rhetoric allowed the audience to feel the depth of her pain and her joy. Rose’s visual rhetoric reflected the several emotions that the audience would not have been able to experience if her story had been simply text. The inflections of her oral rhetoric gave that same raw emotion so much power as well. The medium of her speech-act truly gave her message the power and inspiration that it so abundantly holds. I would have never stumbled upon Rose’s video if it had not been posted on Facebook, and that is why the media variables are more appropriate for the speech-act because the modality is a primary reason that the story is so rhetorically effective.

Rose taught many lessons throughout her story and she shocked her audience, but the overall sensation that the audience receives at the end is inspiration. Through her story and her rhetoric, Aryana Rose inspires each of her audience members to be a better version of themselves. Her decision to tell such a personal story is an inspiration within itself, and after watching and listening to Rose tell her story, “I Can Die Now,” people will want loving someone to mean that they are able to choose themselves and that their loved ones are able to as well.

Works Cited

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Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 4 June 2017,

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“The Art and Craft of Storytelling.” The Moth, themoth.org/.

Falkenberg, Lisa. “Houston Woman Stunned Love Story Went Viral, Inspired Opera.” Houston

Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, 18 Apr. 2018,

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