Ngozi Nwokeukwu

Dr. Muniz-Villalon

English 15 Section 4

Rhetorical Analysis Paper

The Heather’s Present: Proof of Power in Popularity

The year is 1988. Veronica Sawyer is in her last year of high school and is sickened

by everything she sees. Where is the fun and friendship that she used to experience in preschool?

Now she is living in a competitive social war ground, and she is at the bottom of the barrel in

terms of social standing. Suddenly, a chance opportunity presents itself to her so that she may

change her situation. Veronica uses a forgery to get the most influential group of girls, known as

the “Heathers,” at her school out of trouble; This earns the favor of the popular girls. Heather

Chandler, the leader of the group, gives her a makeover and lets her taste a bit of popularity. She

is then offered to keep living this way, all in exchange for her loyalty and the completion of a

request. This request involves betraying her best friend, Martha, the girl she has been watching

movies and hanging out with since they were in diapers. This being completely unlike

Veronica’s regular kind self, refuses to do a request like that. Heather is someone who always get

her way and not having any control of a situation or person is her call to action. Using the major

elements of the rhetorical analysis, such as the rhetorical appeals, she and her friends try to

persuade Veronica to comply and be loyal to her.

The ethos is presented at the very beginning of the monologue when Heather is basically

establishing the “Heathers” brand. This includes the typical life of a rich and beautiful girl. From

the lines “I like buying stuff that they cannot” to “I like drinking hard, maxing daddy’s credit

card” to “guys fall at your feet, pay your check and help you cheat,” Heather and her fellow inner
circle members are describing their experiences in the life of riches and as the centers attention.

However, they not only highlight their experience, but show that they are different from the

masses and very much above them. They have privileges that others will never have and one

look at them and the way others react in fear and appraisal shows that their power as the hot rich

girls is very real and very prominent at their high school.

The use of logos comes in Heather’s attempts to justify to Veronica why her offer is so

special and a well-reasoned step in the right direction. Heather knows that Martha is one of the

people keeping Veronica kind and faithful to the idea of purity in high school life. Heather say to

Veronica, “That freak's not your friend, I can tell in the end, if she had your shot, she would

leave you to rot.” Although Martha is a good friend, Veronica knows that Martha is on the same,

if not lower social scale than she is (she must be lower to get such scorn from the Heather crew).

If the same offer were to be given to Martha, it would not be surprising if Martha took the deal. It

is a matter of showing to Veronica that the position of a Heather is a power move that no person,

especially in her position, would just refuse. Logically, someone lower than her would move up

the social ladder, so why shouldn’t she? It is almost like a survival tactic, and she needs to look

out for herself and her movement upward, because she would be betrayed in a heartbeat if not.

Heather’s message that calls for obedience explains that popularity is much more useful

than the current friends that keep her from exploring her dreams. Here is an example of Heathers

use of pathos in how much she knows her audience. The lines “Course if you don't care,

fine go braid her hair, maybe Sesame Street is on,” are said to Veronica and this has an important

emotional effect on Veronica because she has this attachment to the kinder days of her

childhood, however, life has not been like that for a while and staying close to her childhood

ways keeps her from experiencing the adventure that she wants in her older years. This coupled
with the fact that the Heathers paint themselves as adults with thrilling and unique lives, for

example in the lines “Or you could come smoke, pound some rum and coke, in my Porsche with

the quarter back,” pushes Veronica even further to believe that childhood innocence is no more

and that there is only fulfillment in drinking, screwing, and taking advantage of others with no

consequences, all the actions that come with following Heather.

Although Heather has this experience that Veronica has been hoping for, the things

Veronica would have to do for Heather to achieve what she wants is one of the constraints when

it comes to her argument. Heather mentions that she is known for scaring other girls and one of

Veronica’s problems with Heather and her proposal is that Veronica is not someone who can be

vindictive and cruel, like Heather. The thing that holds her back is the price that she would have

to pay for the mature experiences she wants to have. This is especially because one of the first

cruel things she would have to do would have to be toward her best friend, who already receives

enough hostility from other popular kids. However, this is where Heather’s resource comes in.

Heather says that, “Or if you prefer, keep on testing me, and end up like her.” This refers to the

prank in which, regardless if Veronica joins Heather or not, is going to happen to Martha.

Heather has power of the whole school, enough to make Veronica miserable for the rest of her

senior year. Veronica is then given the choice of life getting worse than it already is or deciding

to level up and join the group of girls that could turn her and her desperate situation around.

In the end, Heather’s argument was shown to be rhetorically effective. Multiple examples

of the rhetorical appeals were shown. Heather established her power in her ethos and how her

life is extravagant, rule free, and above anyone else’s. Her logos was shown in her justification

of how in the game of popularity, it is eat or be eaten and it would be wise for Veronica to strike

first before she is betrayed. Her pathos was in the consistent emotional appeal to Veronica’s
desire for life that is full of esteem rather than loneliness. Her exigence of wanting Veronica to

yield to her leads to the overall message of dropping childhood innocence in exchange for the

dangerous yet fulfilling episodes of adulthood. And although there were constraints when it came

to Veronica choosing between being bored and virtuous over being mean and adored, in the end

one led to the realization of her dreams and the other meant living worse than the current

desperate social life she was living. And in the end, Heather did get a fitting response. Veronica

put the life of popularity over her friendship and decided to do as Heather said and treat her

oldest friend with contempt and degradation. Anyone in her position would do it, right?
 Work Cited

Lawrence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy. “Candy Store” Heather’s the Musical, Yellow Sound

Label, 2014. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_57ZW9kq1X8