Topic
Arnold Schwarzenegger focuses on three main topics in “Call me Arnold”: his personal story, achieving your dreams, and America as the best country in the worl…
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Schwarzenegger’s story and achieving your dreams
The two topics are connected throughout the interview, as Schwarzenegger uses his story of success as an example of following and achieving your dreams. As such, through telling his story, he is also indirectly giving his readers advice on how to achieve their dreams.
At the beginning of the interview, Schwarzenegger tells readers about his life and dreams. He suggests that he achieved his dream of being the best-built man in the world through a constant focus on his dream and hard work: “It was not only a dream I dreamed at night. It was also a daydream.” (…) It took me five years of hard work. Five years later, I turned this dream into reality and became Mr. Universe” (p.19, ll. 26-32).
His focus on his dreams is brought up again as he tells readers about his mindset: “The bottom line for me was: Arnold…
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America as the best country in the world
In the interview, Schwarzenegger describes America in an exclusively positive way. His dream of being an American started when he was only ten years old. Although he did not know much about America, he wanted to go there because he knew that “it was a wonderful country.” (p. 19, ll. 75-76)
After he moved to America, his opinion did not change – for him, America is better than any other country in the world:
It is the country where you can turn your dream into reality. Oth…
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Argumentation
Most of the interview is characterized by direct argumentation, as Schwarzenegger generally expresses his ideas in a straightforward manner and gives arguments for his views. However, indirect argumentation is present as well, because Schwarzenegger uses his personal story of success as an example, indirectly giving readers advice on what to do to achieve similar success.
We find one example of indirect (or hidden) argumentation at the beginning of the interview. Schwarzenegger tells readers about how he dreamed day and night about being the best bodybuilder in the world: “It was not only a dream I dreamed at night. It was also a daydream. It was so much in my mind that I felt it had to become a reality.” (p. 19, ll. 26-29). Beyond being a personal detail, this…
