Compulsory Reading Rhetorical Analysis

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In Alison Bechdel’s comic “Compulsory Reading”, she creates an image of how she feels about the world of creative writing. Bechdel mentions different authors and well known titles like “Beloved”, Romeo and Juliet”, and Charles Dickens. She also mentions her distaste to novels as well. Bechdel uses media and design, rhetorical patterns, and tone to communicate how she feels about literature. The author uses media and design to enhance her idea of how not reading enough can make people feel. One of the first few scenes are of Bechdel in the library and she is ripping novels off the shelf and piling them in her arms. “How is it even possible that I haven’t read beloved?” She question adding more books to the pile in hand (Bechdel). The drawing is depicted to look as if her arm is moving so fast to …show more content…

The tone also plays a big part because it is the only way the read knows how the author feels. Bechdel expresses her dislike for many novels by using tone. She was given a list of novels to read, and she “forced” her self to read the titles from the “grim list”. A lot of the words have a negative vibe to them, and the reader can easily assess that Bechdel is not happy. Bechdel also uses positive words to describe the books she enjoys reading or is glad that was not forced to read. Bechdel even wrote the state “I had discovered a kind of reading that was infinitely more compelling”. Words like “compel”, “infinitely”, and “discovered” hold more positive tones compared to words like “forced”. The comic “Compulsory Reading” expresses the way Bechdel feels about “must read” literature by using media and design, rhetorical patterns, and tone. The graphic novel is used to help get the best imagery and explain how Bechdel feels. The rhetorical patterns allow for the read to know why she feels that way. As well the tone also contributing to the way Bechdel

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