Rhetorical Analysis On Joan Didion

The first question tests the reader’s ethics by making them think about how serious a child’s death is to them, and if they could think of anything worse. The second question uses pathos to invoke desperation and sorrow for those who have experienced a situation where they were helpless and could not protect someone, specifically an innocent child. Hunter’s word choice, such as “heart-wrenching” and “absolute helplessness” help to convey this feeling. He successfully captures the reader’s attention by beginning the article in this way.

A Rhetorical Analysis of “The Education of Dasmine Cathey” Writer, Brad Wolverton, in his article “The Education of Dasmine Cathey” first appearing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, conveys the journey of a former University of Memphis football player who was poorly educated and how he struggled to be academically eligible. Wolverton’s purpose is to illustrate the widespread of educational shortcomings of NCAA athletes and the complicated ways athletes struggles gets brushed under the proverbial carpet. (Wolverton) In this article Wolverton utilizes a straightforward tone by using pathos to appeal to the readers with Mr. Cathey’s difficult situation also utilizing logos and ethos etc. to help make a presentable argument to which I will be analyzing.

In America’s history, child labor was fiercely criticized. Many activists of child labor laws and women’s suffrage strived to introduce their own viewpoints to the country. Florence Kelley was a reformer who successfully changed the mindset of many Americans through her powerful and persuading arguments. Florence Kelley’s carefully crafted rhetoric strategies such as pathos, repetition, and sarcasm generates an effective and thought provoking tone that was in favor of women’s suffrage and child labor laws. Florence Kelley uses pathos continuously throughout her speech.

The Prison Door In this Chapter from The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne introduces the setting of the book in Boston. He uses a gloomy and depressed tone in the beginning of the chapter. He is able to convey this tone using imagery while describing the citizens, the prison, and the cemetery. However, as he continues to discuss the rose-bush, he uses parallelism to shift the tone to be brighter and joyful. To create a gloomy and depressed tone, Hawthorne uses imagery.

In her dreamy half essay half-diary entry “On Keeping a Notebook”, Joan Didion weaves together stories, associations, reflections, and suggestions to reveal the personal value of using a diary or notebook. While the reader cannot be sure whether the essay is written for anyone else to read, Didion makes her ideas highly compelling through the use of ambiguity, anecdote, circular narrative, stream of consciousness, a casual structure, and subtle self-exemplification. The result of this is an artistic and thought provoking journey into the mind of a notetaker. The drive of the essay is often that of confusion which slowly evolves into interest, a clever strategy to intrigue the reader. Rather than begin any boring old thesis, Didion jumps directly into the action with a diary entry which is intentionally ambiguous, “ ‘That woman Estell - is partly the reason why George Sharp and I are separated today.

In Los Angeles, there is a well known stormed called the Santa Ana that often occurs during the colder months. Joan Didion writes an essay that discusses what the storm is and how it affects the Los Angelenos. Although primarily writing for everyone’s knowledge, being she is a fellow citizen, she directs her thoughts towards Los Angeles’ people She gains a connection with her audience and their emotions. After doing this she selects specific words to help enhance the intensity of the storm. She also uses long sentences to further describe the intensity of the storm through her writing techniques, but towards the end of the essay she uses short sentences to provide information and to show she is knowledgeable to the audience .

Rhetorical appeals reveal the hidden message the character is trying to convey. The rhetoric also highlights the character’s emotions, feelings and the significance of the text. It allows readers to gain a better understanding of the characters. Arthur Miler, the author of The Crucible, highlights the importance of mass hysteria through rhetorical appeals. John Proctor, the tragic hero is a loyal, honest, and kind-hearted individual.

In this passage, Ezekiel Cheever responds to John Proctor’s curiosity about what a needle in a poppet signifies and why his wife Elizabeth is being accused of using witchcraft against Abigail Williams. Cheever’s response explains his knowledge of how Abigail was afflicted, his possession of strong evidence against Elizabeth Proctor as a court official, and both his and the town of Salem’s tendency to turn to superstition to explain mysterious events. As Cheever explains how Abigail was afflicted by the needles from the poppet, he utilizes a simile when he states that Abigail fell to the floor, after being stabbed, “like a struck beast” (74). Cheever says this to emphasize the abruptness and intensity of the situation and how significant it is that there is no visual perception of anyone

Joan Didion uses rhetorical words in her essay “Morality,” to explain her reasons why she viewed morality as social, and established expectation. Didion starts her essay, by presenting emotional appeals to her particular setting. “As it happens, I am in Death Valley, in a room at the Enterprise Motel and Trailer Park, and it is July, and it is hot (Didion 106).” The significance in describing the setting is that it helps create a tone, such that it, evokes emotions of isolation, despair, and loneliness. After describing her setting, Didion states, “A word I distrust more every day, but in my mind veers inflexibility toward the particular (Didion 106).”

Puritan’s harsh beliefs represented the beginning of the Nineteenth Century in the newly colonized America. Their community ruled with an iron fist: unforgiving, pitiless, stern. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses his disagreement with puritan priorities by revealing the hypocrisy widely practiced throughout their community. Hawthorne’s utilization of dim diction aids in the establishment of his scornful tone, while inclusion of symbols and intricate juxtaposition all serve to accentuate the Puritan’s duplicity. All these factors combine to develop a critical tone which rebukes puritan society.

In July of 1988, Dorothy Ann Willis Richards, the Texas State Treasurer at the time, gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. The room was filled with democratic supporters to whom Richards emphasizes the need to for American politics to "do better." Her speech was intended to persuade the audience to vote for the Democratic party in the upcoming election, rather than the Republican party. Richards attempts to persuade the audience through her use of humor, repetition, and personal anecdotes. Richards kicks off her speech with the humorous statement ,"After listening to George Bush all these years, I figured you needed to know what a real Texas accent sounds like.

Doritos were first introduced in 1968 by Frito-Lays. From 1968 until now Doritos have used many advertisements to promote their product. Over the years, Doritos has become a successful company and is known for their different flavors chips. During 1995 and 2013, Doritos created two different Super Bowl commercials that are broken down between their target audience, historical context, media choices/composition of advertisement and rhetorical appeals. In these commercials there are three rhetorical appeals being presented: logos, ethos, and pathos.

To Suffer or Not to Suffer As human beings, we try to eschew from the suffering and adversities that plague human morality. Nonetheless, society remains drawn to the surplus of tragedies in plays, movies, and literary works. Not only do these works provide an escape from our own hardships, but suffering and tragedy is a significant aspect to the development of human society. Personally, I have experienced my own share of sorrow, trauma, and difficulties in life. While they may not be as severe as those faced by the characters in A Doll’s House and Never Let Me Go, a pervasive theme still manifests in the presence of suffering.

Within the speech delivered at the convocation of Douglass College at 1977 by Adrienne Rich, one is able to identify how Rich appeals to her audience emotionally through pathos, when she states, “Responsibility to yourself…means insisting that those to whom you give your friendship and love are able to respect your mind” (Rich). Here, Rich conveys how the student must demand appreciation from others in order to develop academically. The quote engages the reader emotionally as Rich enables one to contemplate whether one truly appreciates his or herself as well as if one considers others dependable, when respecting his or her mind. Therefore, the reader is able to comprehend that if he or she truly appreciates their loved one, he or she would

Home is My Life Burden Home. An alternative life kept from the outside world. Behind closed doors, it can be filled with tension but others may see happiness. Life outside my home is my escape from the anxiety that’s built from within the walls of what is called my home. But now, it’s not fully a family with just me and my mother.