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Abstract
Post Civil War Texas saw enormous immigration, particularly from the Southeastern United States, since the population was displaced and seeking economic stability. The new arrivals sought to build homes that used inexpensive local materials, but also fit the new life they wished to establish in Texas. The Texas Rock house grew out of necessity and a spirit of home and family. The architectural style is influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement Bungalow, which featured the use local materials. This essay uses Michael Osborn’s theory of rhetorical depiction as an analytic base to discuss the Texas Rock House as a metaphor for the stability and permanence that the builders wished to communicate with the house and in the family.
Keywords
Texas, rock house, rhetorical depiction, visual rhetoric, Michael Osborn
“Contemporary rhetoric seems dominated by strategic pictures, verbal or nonverbal visualizations that linger in the collective memory of audience…" says rhetorical critic Michael Osborn as he begins his seminal essay on “Rhetorical Depiction," (79) The contemporary conceptualization of visual rhetoric (Barthes, Foss, Hill, Innis) helps us to understand the value of the visual in our constructions of central values and the way we use language to communicate about those values. The “home" is a cultural value as well as a symbolic construction that can be depicted in language as well as in the visual. It is essential to the understanding of the concept of “home" to study the relationships among values, beliefs, material structures, depicted structures and the language used to talk about “home."
Osborn asserts that the ease of recognition of meaning, whether that is a concept or value, comes from the use of depiction within the narrative, spoken or visual, that stands for the concept or value. If rhetorical depiction works then a culturetype is formed, that is, a rhetorical construction that stands for that entire category of concepts or values. Osborn suggests culturetype “signifies timeliness and specificity of its power in contrast with the timelessness and cross-cultural power of archetypal symbols." (82) In looking at the conceptualization and value of “home" it is important for a culture to understand the value of the visual in our constructions of central values and the way we use language to communicate about those values.
The purpose of this essay is to critically examine the rhetorical message of the Texas Rock House using the method of Michael Osborn’s Rhetorical Depiction and illustrate this essay with relevant examples of this style of building. The central question guiding this essay is “How does the Texas Rock House depict the cultural values of permanence and attachment in the symbolic conceptualization of “home"? In order to clarify this central question this essay will base its perspective on three key definitions: rhetorical depiction, home and the Texas Rock House. Rhetorical depiction is the “synchronic, multiple, simultaneous meanings" (Osborn 80) that are evoked from the images presented either in the actual visual presentation or in the imagery of language. Home will be defined in its symbolic and material conceptions: home as the value of family in a place, and that place as a symbol of family. The Texas Rock House will be considered as a vernacular structure built of mismatched flat rock, usually indigenous to the area surrounding it, placed vertically, rather than horizontally stacked.
The Texas Rock House
The Texas Rock House is the product of necessity and linked historically to the Arts and Crafts bungalow which featured the use of local materials. Figure One is an example of this type of house.
Figure One
Post Civil War immigration from the Southeastern United States picked up as the twentieth century neared. “GTT" was posted on many doorways as southerners in search of a new start proclaimed that they had “gone to Texas." (Campbell) Low cost land and wide open spaces meant that this trans-south migration continued into the twentieth century. When they arrived in their new state and began to build new “homes" they used materials at hand Rock was quarried locally, quickly and cheaply from river and creek beds or from the stony fields and pasturelands. The resulting structures were made of mismatched colored stones stacked vertically, in order to save time and materials. The result was a freckled house resembling a pinto horse (also called a paint horse).
The building method, although quicker than most stone work methods, produced an attractive and durable structure. This stone work can withstand the ravages of time and weather hazards of the Southwestern United States. Figure Two shows a close up of the wall of an abandoned structure using this style of building that still stands after the wood and trim have burned away.
Figure Two
This building has two layers of rock: the colorful, large, flat stones on the outside, and smaller stacked stones on the inside. This created an insulated structure to assist in heating and cooling in a region that can have very hot summers and dry, cold winters. Notice the fossil of a shell fish, an ammonite (Lehmann) in the upper right quadrant of the figure
Osborn’s Rhetorical Depiction and Culturetype
Osborn’s perspective is founded on the perspective that the depiction of the object, or person, or idea in the narrative, then it stands for the basic concept or value. If rhetorical depiction works then a culturetype is formed. A culturytype is a rhetorical construction that stands for that entire category of concepts or values. Osborn suggests that culturetype “signifies timeliness and specificity of its power in contrast with the timelessness and cross-cultural power of archetypal symbols." (82) In looking at the conceptualization and value of “home" it is important for a culture to devise narratives that support the vision of home. Osborn outlines four qualities that constitute the rhetorical power of the culturetype.
First, the culturetype brings a sense of specificity to the lived narrative in the community(82). The story of home is a lived narrative, a spoken narrative and a visual narrative. Therefore, the actual house that contains the living “home" is essential to the values associated with the concept of “home" as those values are acted out. A culturetype literally stands for those values. The success of the culturetype depends on the community perceiving and believing the depiction and aligning it with the values that are held within that community, making it a type of community metaphor. Hermine Feinstein said of metaphor that. “… once regarded solely as an ornamental linguistic device, [metaphor] is now considered to be an essential process and product of thought." (45) From this viewpoint the culturetype provides the community a way of identifying the connected and shared thoughts within it. This metaphoric construction and the narrative becomes a part of the broad living story we share with the community. This shared community story is called mythos and is valuable in the rhetorical process in order to take a short cut to identification with and among the community or audience.
The obvious shared meaning communicated by this indigenous structure is the sense that the house is solid, like a rock, and permanent. The shared meaning is that homes, in the value sense, should be solid and permanent. Since the rock is a sturdy and enduring material for the visual concept of home, then the value oriented and emotion oriented meaning is that the home is sturdy and enduring. The early builders of this style of house had moved to a new region, leaving behind all those ties to the southern communities that had influenced them in the past. The new place held attraction for financial stability and the building of a house that looked solid visually sent the message of stability for the home of the family that made its place inside.
Another quality of culturetype is the ability of the audience to relate to all the aspects of the life represented. This might not include just recognition of the specifics of the shared narrative, but the qualities of the spirit of the narrative. (82) This is especially true of the metaphor relating to the hardness of the rock. Not only is the rock “solid," but it is also “hard" to the touch. This connects with the emotional perception that life in the rural and small town Southwest was going to be hard on the home. The areas of Texas where this style still persists are difficult farm lands, full of rocks, and open prairies. This style also persists in the rather dry ranch land west of the Brazos River and east of the Llano Escatado. The house was intended to withstand the “hardness" of life that would beset the home.
The third quality within culturetype is the ability to function with the narrative in ways that communicate the mythos, such as language, structure and visual depiction. (82) The visual message that the Texas Rock House is important to the living narrative of life of families that settled during difficult times in the American Southwest. This is especially true considering the number of such homes that were built between 1920 and 1950, the years during and surrounding the very lean economic times of the Great Depression and World War II. During this time, families across the United States used a variety of catalog companies that sold all the components with which to build a house at lower cost. Two of the largest of these firms were Sears, Roebuck and Company (4) and Montgomery Ward Company (12). These companies assured the public that money could be saved while a strong, well designed home was built. The family could order only the plans, or everything to make the home complete. One way to save costs, especially shipping costs, was to purchase the exterior siding locally. Most of these homes were of a bungalow style with easily accessible entrances, porches, and traffic patterns to allow free family movement through all rooms. The Texas Rock House typically has one or one and a half floors, a centralized plan for traffic flow, and a dining room, as well as an eat-in kitchen. This approach is certainly in support of the community vision that a home is welcoming and that the family within the home gathers, whether in the living room, dining room, or kitchen.
Figure Three
Last, culturetypes are “sources of rhetorical energy from which one can draw to activate processes of rhetorical demonstration" (82). This means that we believe the action represented, giving us the ability to judge the story and the action in the story. The living story of the community depends on its visual components to make the story real for the community members. This gives the quality of specificity to the value of “home" within the story of “home" in the specific place of “home". The Texas Rock House is the visual symbol that connects with the thought and then to the verbalization, “this family is here to stay." Osborn connects culturetype to the ability of the narrator to bring about rhetorical depiction, or a sense of “seeing" the story. This provides the community with a “benign moment of sharing, as rhetors overcome abstraction to disclose the world as it is revealed to them" (80). The community sees a substantial, sturdy, rock house and connects the visual to the conceptualization of the permanence of the home itself.
Functions of Rhetorical Depiction
“Out of signs and symbols we weave our tissue of reality," said Suzanne Langer in Philosophy in a New Key (280). The reality of the Texas Rock House is dependent on the community of symbol users to feel strength deeper than a “tissue." Ogden and Richards used the semantic triangle to show the relationship among the elements of thought or reference, the thing itself or referent, and the symbol which is the word or representation (244-45). In rhetorical depiction, Osborn attempts to show the functioning of the active metaphors in a rhetorical community in their shared mythos. He lists five functions of rhetorical depiction: presentation, intensification, identification, implementation and reaffirmation.
Presentation is the constructed presence and context of the shared narrative. This draws us into the scene using culturetype to connect us to the action in the community mythos. There are two types of presentation, repetitive and innovative (82). Presentation forms a sort of rhetorical history, because it helps to form images that help form reality (86). Repetitive presentation relies on what we already know and accept. Rhetorically, this type of presentation hopes to reinforce what we already accept, but it makes us more aware. The rhetorical community, those who share symbols and rhetorical experiences, understand that the physical, visual, material house stands for “home" that is the abstract idea that exists within and without its walls. We already know that where there is a house there is a home and family. The connection is made because home only exists with the rhetorically constructed concept of family as viewed by the community. Our vision of what a family looks like changes just as our vision of what a house should look like for said family. “Home" is even more abstract because there is more emotion given to the idea of “home" than to the idea of “house".
Innovative presentation comes about when the mythos relies on metaphor to disturb our expectations (83). That is, the community narrative relies on the Texas Rock House to push the community members in their thinking about what house and home actually mean. In Figure Four we see another example of the sturdy, solid, welcoming dwelling.
Figure Four
This particular house is located on the north bank of the Paluxy River in Somervell County, Texas. Literally, the stone was quarried from banks and riverbed located in front and behind the house. Our expectations are disturbed in the sense that this house does more than just connect the home to the “area" in the general meaning, but to this particular, specific place. There is an attachment of the house to this one place and therefore the family to this particular home place. The place, the house, the home and the family become the woven conceptualization of symbols and signs that make up the whole metaphor for this specific home.
The second function of rhetorical depiction is intensification, that is, the feeling in the rhetorical community is heightened by the visual and emotional nature of the Texas Rock House. One very important aspect of the intensification of feeling relies on the actual material quality of the referent: the rock itself. Many early homeowners selected the stone for the building themselves. The choice and placement of the stone is important to the character and visual “feeling" of the home. Figure Five is a close view of a selected stone.
Figure Five
It is a river stone that has small fossils embedded in it bringing a sense of history to the house, even as it was being built. The stones around this one help set it off so that the family and their guests would notice and enjoy the past life of the tiny creatures that lived so many millennia before. (Lehmann) Petrified wood was another popular stone to be included in the mix. Here in Figure Six the top of this abandoned gas station is outlined in vertically placed petrified wood. There is enough space at the back of the structure for living quarters.
Figure Six
Figure Seven shows the top of the chimney from Figure Six outlined in vertical petrified wood. The colors of this type of stone varies dramatically even within geologic sites, and certainly from region to region. Besides the uniqueness and individuality this design brought to the gas station/house, it also brought an intensified sense that this was a one of a kind home, just as the family was a unique group of unique individuals. This strongly intensified the shared feeling of unique connection of the family to the structure itself, and the structure to the location.
Figure Seven
If intensification and presentation are successful, the depiction will bring about identification, “the sense of closeness or oneness that can develop among those who participate in social communication" (89). In the case of the Texas Rock House, presentation and intensification are reliant on the actual material structure. Identification within the rhetorical community relies on the connection between the feelings drawn from the community’s relation to the structure or structures and the values held by the community. Stability, identified with the solidness of the stone structure, is a more obvious value held by the turn of the twentieth century immigrants. Steadfastness, loyalty, perseverance all are qualities needed to be successful in an environment that is new, challenging and rugged. These solid bungalows were built to last, even though they were built of the cheapest local material, especially in the prairies of Central and West Texas, where lumber was expensive and the stone was usually free. There is a value that is broader than these, however. Because there was a need for these new Texans to belong, the use of local materials exemplified a pride of place, and a keen sense of belonging to the land itself and to the wider state community. Although most of the rock quarried was local, some home builder/owners would travel to find special colors and types. Some rocks brought from their former homes were incorporated. Even quartz pieces were added. Figure Eight shows an example of this identification with the value of Texas citizenship worked out in the pattern of the stone.
Figure Eight
The pinkish granite is called Town Mountain granite, fondly referred to by the home owners as Llano Pink, from Marble Falls in the Llano Basin, west of Austin. (Cooper). This piece and several others in this house in Walnut Springs were taken from the cast-off pieces after the Texas State Capitol building was entirely finished in Town Mountain granite. The family that built this house had great identification with the value of being in their location and being a part of the state (Uloth).
If identification with the values is connected to the culturetype and the mythos surrounding it, then from this identification comes what Osborn calls implementation, or resolution to sustain action (93). Typically, implementation refers to the ability to take action after acceptance of a plan presented rhetorically. In the sense of visual rhetoric, or depicted rhetoric, we must look at behavior in the larger social communication definition, which includes response, as well as overt action taken. Although their study focused on actual pictures, Gallagher and Zagacki’s point concerning the function of pictorial rhetoric applies to the visual image of the Texas Rock House. It “… is the evocation of humanity by moving beyond abstract or idealistic categories to depictions of social experience that are recognizable to common audiences and that add moral import to the decision or developments before them" (183). First, in the aspect of social experience, it is key to note that the areas where the Texas Rock House is most prevalent have communities that form conservative political and religious bodies. Although these communities have embraced diversity during the second half of the twentieth century, even with differences of race and religion, early migrants were mostly protestant white Southerners. The various sub-groups tended to be interested in strong families and stable homes. This is exhibited in their voting and religious activities.
The second point key to understanding implementation, or acting on the identification with values, is the strong religious influence connected to the living metaphor of the Texas Rock House. Since so many of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century immigrants held strong Protestant beliefs in the Christian faith, those values were carried into their new homes. There is an overlying metaphor that is a depiction from the writing of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:6-7. In this passage Paul was saying that the treasure of the light of Christ we keep in earthen vessels, or common clay pots. (Holy Bible 224) This metaphoric construction was originally meant to show that true faith in Christ, which is treasure, has to be kept in the imperfect weak human body. The contemporary theologian, Dallas Willard, proposes that often in today’s world, the vessel and the treasure are confused, because we spend so much time and effort on the vessel (our outward selves), while forgetting the important treasure (faith) (236). This can apply to the way the rhetoric of the Texas Rock House is implemented. Although the strong rock walls of the house are stable, long lasting and seem permanent, it is only the vessel, while the treasure is the"home" living within it. The implementation of the value of home can only be worked out through the action of the people who make up the family within the home that materially lives in the house.
After implementation, Osborn asserts that the final function of successful use of culturetype and mythos to form rhetorical depiction is to reaffirm identity (95); It is in his description of the need for reaffirmation that Osborn best links the culturetype with our need to understand the influence of the Texas Rock House:
Reaffirmative depiction attempts to maintain the structures of society against the ravages of time, the erosion of memory, and the decay of commitment… reaffirmative rhetoric seeks to regenerate vital culture- types and appropriate archetypes through stylistic innovation. It is novelty engaged in the cause of con- tinuity that distinguishes that art of reaffirmation. Reaffirmative depiction guards the sacred fire around which a nation or a subculture gathers periodically to warm itself in recognition of its being. (95)
Living in a house that presents itself as unique while being grounded literally in the locale brings a sense of belonging and intensified attachment to the place. More than mere visualization of abstracts, the Texas Rock House symbolizes the determination to make family and community work in a difficult environment while clinging to values that had been deeply ingrained in a people long before they came to the prairie. Most of these homes were originally built with fireplaces round which families not only gathered for physical warmth, but also for emotional warmth as well. The chimney and the interior fireplace and mantle were also built of the variegated rock. Here was, and still is, a family gathered focus around the visual symbol of stability and security for the family, even as the diverse shapes and colors symbolize the changes that map the life of the family. The vivid colors and textures remind us that the white Protestants who came from across the South to make a home in Texas have been incorporated into a very diverse community that are mortared together, just like the rocks, into a community. The success of the community in its diversity rests on the ability of each family member and each family to act on the values of stability and the value of a connected, mortared community. The human being has a need to be reaffirmed in the commitment to family and community.
Conclusions and Implications
Most civic rhetoric has been studied in its verbal state in the speeches of advocates. However, there is growing scholarly interest in visual rhetoric and its influence in populations that grow more visual in their symbol use. Hariman and Lucaites pointed out that “… abstract forms of civic life have to be filled in with vernacular signs of social membership." (365) The Texas Rock House is a very interesting vernacular sign of the meaning of “home" and a connection to the values of the community. The need for signs of permanence is most appreciated in times of change. In the post World War II flurry of change and social, political and economic uncertainty families protected their rock bungalows, their own symbol of stability and “rock solid" steadfastness that must be valued if the home was to survive. The home is not the house, but the house symbolizes the values that are acted on by the family living the conception of home.
Although there is a growing body of scholarship concerning visual rhetoric, there is vast room for study in the sub topic of the visual messages of house style and the choice of material to symbolize the values within. Scholarship based in rhetoric is focused on the effectiveness of the message, more so than semiotics; therefore rhetorical scholars should pursue the implications of the symbolic evidence of how families live to understand the effectiveness of communicated values.
The central question guiding this study, “How does the Texas Rock House depict the cultural values of permanence and attachment in the symbolic conceptualization of ‘home’?" can be answered based on the application of Michael Osborn’s concept of rhetorical depiction and its chief functionary, culturetype. First, the Texas Rock House can be seen to depict the cultural value of permanence in its presentational quality of solidness and the emitting sense of stability. The structure itself is materially solid and long lasting. This connects, or as Ogden and Richards suggests, forms the referent of the semantic triangle to connect the thought/reference to the symbol “home." This brings about a strong identification of house to home to family. Since these three are related by real space, they are also related by the rhetorical constructs that empower the symbol user in the effectiveness of communication about home and family, which have less material substance than “house."
Second, there is strong attachment to the value of home and family within the actual place of home and family space. This attachment is not just the attachment of ownership, as in “home owner," but in the attachment to the material space, the house, the emotional space, the family, and to the social space, the community. The nature of the attachment can be seen in the pride of place and community. In this case community can be extended to mean the state of Texas, since great pride is taken in the selection of the actual rock that makes up the outer walls of the house. Figure Nine shows the Uloth home in Walnut Springs, with its beaded mortar and highly variegated rock, including Town Mountain granite.
Figure Nine
It is a snowy winter day, rare in Central Texas, but the snow makes the house seem very real, yet unique, and settled into its environment, with a large one hundred year old pecan tree watching over it. The pecan tree is the Texas state tree, possibly the Rock House is the characteristic Texas house. Langer would say that the rock making the walls of this house symbolizes our woven, textured past and future for the rhetorical community’s values. Osborn would say that these rocks ring the “sacred fire" around which the family celebrates its existence and gains light to move into the future.
References
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About the Authors
Mary Evelyn Collins, Ph.D., Florida State University, is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX. A version of this paper was presented at the ACA and ICA sponsored Congress of the Americas, August, 2006, in Lima, Peru. Professor wishes to thank her readers for their helpful comments, the students of her Twentieth Century American Public Speakers class for their vision of rhetorical depiction, and the home owner’s who proudly care for their Texas Rock Houses.