Aspen Kesler

Rhetorical Analysis

ENGL 1010

Dr. Stephen Haslam

Word Count: 1054

Rhetorical Analysis of “Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents?” by Isabel Fattal

On January 4th, 2018, Isabel Fattal published the article “Why Do Cartoon Villains

Speak in Foreign Accents?” to ​The Atlantic ​online database. Fattal is an assistant editor for ​The

Atlantic ​as well as a graduate of Wesleyan University. She describes herself as “a writer and

editor in education, politics, and religion” on her website, ​IsabelFattal.com​. Her purpose behind

writing the article was to add to the conversation about how poorly children are taught about

diversity through one of their most influential sources: television. She intended to reach parents

of school-age children because this age group of children is the most influenced by television

and its messages. Fattal effectively convinces her audience that children’s television is harmful

to a child’s perspective of diversity through her combined use of literary devices, text-to-world

connections, and counter arguments in her writing.

“Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents?” is an in-depth article that

analyzes many different children’s cartoons, but finds one common theme throughout all of

them; that the “bad” characters never speak with a typical American-English dialect. Some

examples of this are that ​The Lion King​’s antagonist, Scar, speaks with a British accent and

Phineas and Ferb’​ s villain, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, has a German(ish) tone to his words.

These shows are directed at American children and the effect of these shows portraying the

character who speaks differently than them as inherently villainous is harmful. They’re being

taught to expect that someone who speaks with an accent is a bad or scary person. This is
skewing children’s perspective on diversity in a negative direction. While these problems aren’t

industry-wide, they are a common theme in the entertainment industry itself.

First, Fattal’s use of literary devices in her writing adds to the overall effectiveness of the

article. An example of this is seen in the first paragraph, “…the final ‘r’ in his declaration floats

up into a sky bursting with lightning…” (Fattal). This sentence is an excellent example of a

personification. The letter “r” doesn’t actually float in a burning sky, but the exaggeration helps

the reader understand how the word the author was referring to was said. Another example of an

effective use of a literary device is seen in paragraph seven, quoted by sociologist, Calvin

Gidney, “Speakers of British English are portrayed dichotomously as either the epitome of

refinement and elegance or as the embodiment of effete evil.” This quote uses a larger range of

vocabulary to plant a scene of imagery in the reader’s head. The combination of these two

literary devices, as well as many more seen throughout the text, add to the overall effectiveness

of the text because it gives Fattal’s words personal feeling. Fattal’s audience would respond well

to feeling like they’re reading a person’s actual words and not some text on a screen. The

author’s use of connections to the real world heightens her sense of personality, as well.

Next, Fattal’s ability to connect her text, and the text she refers to in her writing, to the

real world makes her article easier to read and, therefore, more effective to her audience. An

example of a text-to-world connection she makes can be found in paragraph five, “…this

correlation of foreign accents with ‘bad’ characters could have concerning implications for the

way kids are being taught to engage with diversity in the United States,” (Fattal). She manages to

draw the connection between American children and their animosity towards diversity. It’s hard

to deny the fact that children naturally fear, and stare at, people who are different from

themselves and different from what they are taught normal people are. This is so controversial
because all people should be viewed as normal people. Fattal believes that the root of this fear

comes from what these children are seeing on TV. These connections between her textual

sources and the real world are inviting to her readers. Also, Fattal was able to find which accents

were most popular amongst TV villains and where these biases mostly likely came from. “…the

use of German, Eastern European, and Russian accents for animated villains is likely reflective

of America’s hostility toward those countries during World War II and the Cold War,” (Fattal).

World War II and the Cold War are topics that are common knowledge for all adults, so drawing

this connection for them adds to the effectiveness of the author’s words. However, Fattal’s

effectiveness isn’t only accredited to her connections and literary knowledge. Her ability to

pander to those who might disagree with her argument makes her an even more effective writer.

Finally, Fattal spends an effective amount of time on her counterargument to help

convince her critics of her argument. She first quotes that, “Dobrow and Gidney noted that

stereotyped uses of language aren’t an industry-wide norm,” to inform her audience that,

although language stereotypes are a problem in the entertainment industry, there are some

exceptions to this bias. Fattal mentions that the problem is getting better as time goes on to give

her readers some hope for the future. However, she continues to push that there is still a lot of

work to be done. Proof of this is seen in paragraph eleven, “…many of the shows that Gidney

and Dobrow have studied in recent years feature a broader array of ethnicities or more females in

traditionally male-dominated roles than do older shows,” (Fattal). Giving your reader hope for

the future while also calling them to action is an extremely effective writing strategy. Fattal

demonstrates this strategy in depth in the conclusion of her article which is smart because she

leaves her audience with the mentality that they can be a product for change. Her intended
audience is, again, parents of young children and, typically, these parents are actively looking for

ways to improve the world for their children.

In conclusion, the article “Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents?”, written

by Isabel Fattal, is very effective for its intended audience because of the author’s use of literary

devices, text-to-world connections, and counterarguments in her writing. The text gives plenty of

examples to support the author’s claim from well-known stories, such as ​The Lion King​ and

Phineas and Ferb​, and is very easy to understand. These strategies, amongst countless others, are

what make Isabel Fattal an effective writer and unique storyteller.

Works Cited

Fattal, Isabel (2018, January 4). ​Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents.​

Published by The Atlantic. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/why-do-cartoon-villains-speak-in-f

oreign-accents/549527/

Fattal, Isabel (2019). ​Isabel Fattal.​ Published by Squarespace. Retrieved October 29, 2020,

from ​https://www.isabelfattal.com/