The artifact I chose was titled “Live and Learn” from foundmagazine.com. The picture depicts a long letter written in a little kid’s handwriting. I chose this artifact because children always have the funniest things to say, and I could tell that this would be adorable. The rhetor is a little boy who tells a melodramatic story of when Matt Johnsan cut in front of him in the lunch line at school. The audience he is writing to doesn’t seem to be specific, just to anyone who wants to read about his experience. He clearly was tired of dealing with this guy Matt and finally does something about it. After a snarky remark from the line-cutter, the boy decides to dump his lunch tray all over Matt Johnsan’s “dirty little scalp”. The rhetoric he writes with is made clear through his spelling, dialect, and use of exclamation points. The innocence and truth that he writes with is so endearing and reminds me of when I was his age and learning to write. His realization at the end of the letter is relatively profound for an elementary-schooler. When the boy was in the principle’s office, he overhears a radio talk show host say “you live and you learn”. The boy makes the connection and comprehends that he just lived and learned, and because of this he notes that he won’t ever do it again. Deep down he’s proud that he stood up for himself and made the whole cafeteria laugh, despite the consequences he was later faced with.
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