TOW #9

      Jesse Wegman employed subtle symbolism in his editorial piece, ‘The Doll in the Blue Pantsuit’ to convey how Hillary Clinton supporters showed such interest and commitment soon after she announced she would be running for her chance to become the 45^th president of the United States, although not long after that her supports lost interested which ultimately cost her the election. This piece was thoughtfully composed by Jesse Wegman, editorial writer on law and the Supreme Court for the New York Times and previously the managing editor of The New York Observer, days after Donald Trump was announced the president elect in the 2016 presidential election. In his article, Wegman talks about how his daughter once idolized a doll depicting Hillary Clinton, then discarded it until the day of the election. The doll was used by the author as a symbol of Hillary Clinton and his daughter’s ephemeral amusement was used to depict that of Hillary’s supporters. Wegman writes about his young daughter’s time spent playing with the doll, stating, “For a while, Sami loved the doll; she called it Blue Baby, and when her language got better, Hilly Kinton. Then she lost interest” (Wegman 3). Many people, mostly democratic voters in support of Clinton, blamed poor voter turnout on the account of liberal youth as the reason she lost to her seemingly incompetent opponent. In this text, Wegman uses the symbolism of his daughter’s doll to express to his readers how many people supported Hillary in the beginning of her campaign, then forgot about the ongoing election for a few months in between, only to regain interest in the last minute. Wegman later reveals in the article that he and his wife were devastated by the result of the election thus Wegman used his writing and employed various rhetorical devices to subtly intertwine his thoughts into his work. I found this symbolism to be powerful, although very hidden. If it was more pronounced, I feel like it would be much more effective in achieving the author’s purpose.