Grace Hancock Reflective Post #2

In Kristine Fleckenstein's essay titled Incarnate Word: Verbal Image, Body Image, and the Rhetorical Authority of Saint Catherine of Siena, Fleckenstein defines the term "image event" as being: "a visual performance, scripted or spontaneous, that carries persuasive power." Fleckenstein goes on to write; "I deliberately refer to Catherine's image event rather than image events to emphasize that the saint's entire body of work- her visual discourse across all of her writing and preaching, her service to the poor, and her physical acts of penance- combine to shape an image event of her life." Fleckenstein sees the saint as being the image event. From what I can understand from Fleckenstein's words, the author means to say that Saint Catherine "not only talked the talk, but also walked the walk," as the saying goes. It is therefore because Saint Catherine lived what she preached that her message was so powerful and still is impactful today. Since Saint Catherine's way of living what she preached was an act of persuasion in a way that it persuaded others to follow her teachings, and rhetoric is often associated with the act of persuasion, I think it is therefore safe to say that how Saint Catherine made herself into an "image event" was in itself a practice of rhetoric.

There are many examples of people using Saint Catherine's practice of rhetoric, "living what you preach," today. Those who have social media accounts like Instagram or Facebook probably have seen ads from companies that sell environmentally-friendly products. These ads I speak of often depict some kind of sea creature choking on some sort of plastic or trash, and these companies promise its potential consumers that in buying their products the consumer will be helping prevent more sea creatures from choking on plastic or trash. These companies selling environmentally-friendly products are successful in bringing awareness to man-made environmental issues by (1) playing to potential consumer's emotions, and (2) playing into today's consumer culture by selling a product.