Sydney Chen Mrs. Dahlke Pre-AP English 9 4/17/24. Rhetorical Analysis Essay: Challenged Books The dystopian world of George Orwell’s “1984” threatens to spill from its pages and into our world now as within just the past year, the American Library Association found that 4,240 titles were targeted for removal or restriction from school libraries in a myriad of targeted attempts. Of course, the U.S. is not a totalitarian society in which citizens are deprived of their fundamental liberties, but, it would not seem as though we are far enough from such a reality through continuous censorship. In an analysis of two juxtaposing articles, the first, written by Sherman Alexie, titled “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood” he details the absolute …show more content…
Gurdon begins by detailing the experience of a mother of an adolescent reader. She describes having been appalled by the grotesque, and daunting, content that ostensibly dominated the shelves. Gurdon exploits and dramatizes the account of this mother to emphasize the apparent dangers of YA novels. “It was all vampires, and suicide, and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff” (Gurdon, Para 1). Through this, Gurdon utilizes an amalgam of pathos within a highly melodramatic anecdote to instill a sense of concern and urgency within a reader. This serves the purpose of essentially ‘making something out of nothing’ by failing to consider the vast majority of scenarios in which said YA novels are benign in nature. Through the utilization of this anecdote, Gurdon primarily highlights the most detrimental possible outcomes of unrestricted access to literature to further justify how book censorship would be benevolent, without adequate consideration toward how the teenagers themselves (whose ‘development of character’ she is ostensibly concerned for) are detrimentally impacted by the lack of access to the representation contained within these ‘controversial’ books. Gurdon …show more content…
She essentially hypothesizes that the complexity of the issues discussed in these books may be malicious to adolescents. So much so that the depictions of mental health challenges may somehow become ‘contagious’, intertwined with a similar myth of ‘contagious suicide.’ Through the propagation of such myths, it becomes internalized that somehow, the mere discussion, or mention of such topics will inspire adolescents to engage in the same behaviors. Gurdon writes, “[F]ocusing on pathologies.may spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might’ve otherwise not considered such extreme measures” (Gurdon, Para 12). She again, makes a disgusting oversimplification of how the issue of book censorship should be addressed. In her line of reasoning, she doesn’t consider how a vast majority of teenagers are at least somewhat aware of the complex issues within these books. The ‘unpleasant’ or ‘dark’ content Gurdon believes to be pernicious are issues that teenagers themselves have lived experience of, and thus, are ones that cannot be nearly as shocking as Gurdon would have her readers believe. Throughout the entirety of her arguments, she takes a condemnable, naive, and frankly, ignorant approach to defining what teenagers can and cannot
It is well known that books read by adolescents are somewhat inappropriate in certain ways such as language and the types of actions done by the characters. Some books consist of drugs, sex, and violence which obviously isn’t very appropriate nor does it consist of positive values. It is easy to see why some books ar...
Soon after launch on January 28th, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart and shattered the nation. The tragedy was on the hearts and minds of the nation and President Ronald Reagan. President Reagan addressed the county, commemorating the men and woman whose lives were lost and offering hope to Americans and future exploration. Reagan begins his speech by getting on the same level as the audience by showing empathy and attempting to remind us that this was the job of the crew. He proceeds with using his credibility to promise future space travel. Ultimately, his attempt to appeal to the audience’s emotions made his argument much stronger. Reagan effectively addresses the public about the tragedy while comforting, acknowledging, honoring and motivating his audience all in an effort to move the mood from grief to hope for future exploration.
“People who had incurred the displeasure of the party simply disappeared and were never heard of again.
Scientists are constantly forced to test their work and beliefs. Thus they need the ability to embrace the uncertainty that science is based on. This is a point John M. Barry uses throughout the passage to characterize scientific research, and by using rhetorical devices such as, comparison, specific diction, and contrast he is able show the way he views and characterizes scientific research.
Conroy expresses both negative and positive diction to juxtapose the brutal realities of life with the wonderful possibilities in books. He describes books as “dazzling” and “magnificent”. While conversely describing the parents and school boards as “know-nothing” and “cowardly’, which gives the audience a comparison between the two. Since Conroy uses diction to contrast the positive and negative, the audience sees how banning the books makes the parents and school board look like “teacher haters”. The image of teacher haters appeals to the audience’s emotions. This is how he gains their trust. Conroy also uses “grotesque” to describe the violence in his book about the
In order to succeed as an admired and respected leader of his country, Ronald Reagan’s voice is inspiring and patriotic yet able to reach a strong sense of compassion, which assures his people that he will guide their nation to prosperity. During his administration, Reagan had a pellucid vision for his country and for the direction he hoped it would move towards. Reagan’s rhetorical style is crucial in characterizing him as a president. Not only does he present his own voice in his speeches, he speaks for his nation. Reagan displays strong will and integrity in his character, all while being capable of connecting and empathizing with his audiences. He establishes a relationship with his people by giving them his respect and showing that he
Imagine the world we are living in today, now imagine a world where we are told who to marry, where to work, who to hate and not to love. It is hard to imagine right, some people even today are living in the world actually have governments that are controlling their everyday life. In literature many writers have given us a view of how life may be like if our rights as citizen and our rights simply as human beings. One day the government may actually find a way to control and brainwash people into beings with no emotions like they have in the book 1984 where they express only hate, because that’s what they have been taught by the party.
After hearing a brief description of the story you might think that there aren’t many good things about they story. However, this is false, there are many good things in this book that makes it a good read. First being that it is a very intriguing book. This is good for teenage readers because often times they don’t willingly want to read, and this story will force the teenage or any reader to continue the book and continue reading the series. Secondly, this is a “good” book because it has a good balance of violence. This is a good thing because it provides readers with an exciting read. We hear and even see violence in our everyday life and I believe that it is something teenagers should be exposed to. This book gives children an insig...
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.
A rhetoric analysis can be defined as the breakdown of components used to make a persuasive argument or judgment on a particular subject or topic. The ability to make a conclusion or decision on a given thought or idea in a moment of seconds is a result of rhetorical analysis. “Because media rhetoric surrounds us, it is important to understand how rhetoric works. If we refuse to stop and think about how and why it persuades us, we can become mindless consumers who buy into arguments about what makes us value ourselves and what makes us happy”. In Carroll’s essay “Backpacks Vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis”, she discusses the nature of rhetorical analysis, how it affects our everyday lives and explains the role context plays.
Lastly, there is censorship that involves someone who is part of an organized campaign, whether of a local or national group, and who goes in ready for a fight and wants to make a broader political point” (Miner 1998). Although there are many other ways that a piece of literature could get censored, most censored works are asked to be removed from classrooms and school libraries. There are four motivational factors that may lie behind a censor’s actions. Those factors include family values, religion, political views, and minority rights.... ... middle of paper ... ...2003.
Director Steven Spielberg and auther Markus Zusak, in their intriguing production, movie Saving Private Ryan and book The Book Thief, both taking place during World War II. However , in Saving Private Ryan Spielberg focus on a lot of complications that occur during war , but guilt was one difficulty that stood out to me. Zusak, on the other hand , showas that having courage during war can be a advantage and also an disadvantage depending on the situation. Both director and author grabed the audience attention with emotional and logical appeal.
For more then 200 years, the right to choose what we read has been one of our most cherished freedoms. Permitting restraints on literature sets the stage for attacks on all expression that is artistically or politically controversial or that portrays unpleasant realities of life. The ideas and information absorbed from these banned books topple the walls of hate and fear and build bridges of cooperation and understanding far more effectively than weapons. George Orwell's classic 1984 painted a bleak picture of a mind-controlled, book burning society in which creative thinking was forbidden. If the censorship in school libraries
Retrieved December 2, 2002 from Lexis-Nexis/Academic database. This article addresses some of the reasons that censors attempt to remove books from the curriculum: Many censors feel that works are not age appropriate for students. Staff, Wire Reports. (2002 October 3). Book banning spans the globe.
So when discussing unilineal groups and nonlineal groups, something that one has to keep in mind is what cultures each descends from. Unilineal groups consist of lineages, clans, phratries, and moieties. Lineages are a form of lineal descent from an ancestor, ancestry, or pedigree. An example of lineage are people who have the same relatives from 100 years ago. Clans are a close-knit and interrelated families, and an example of this can be found in families in the Scottish Highlands. Phratries are a kinship group constituting an intermediate division in the primitive’s structure of the Hellenic tribe or phyle. Moieties consists of one of two units into which a tribe or community is divided on the basis of unilineal descent.