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The great influenza john barry rhetorical analysis essay
Great influenza guided essay
Great influenza guided essay
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John M. Barry wrote The Great Influenza, where he accounted the 1918 flu epidemic as well as the scientists and their research. Barry’s purpose is to legitimize the work previous scientists have done. Barry wrote this using strong rhetorical devices including: Anaphora, Literary Allusion, and Rhetorical questions. He creates an accusatory tone in order to imply that future scientists will overlook the hard work the current and previous scientists of his time.
Barry opens with a universal truth about life which translated well when comparing the scientists of the past and future. He uses anaphora to convey the battle and Certainty Vs. Uncertainty in the first paragraph, he stated “Certainty creates strength. Certainty gives one something upon
It became apparent in 1918 during a flu epidemic that certain traits were lacking in the scientific community necessary to research for a cure. In a passage from The Great Influenza, John M. Barry implements exemplification, diction, and didactic figurative language in order to depict the works of a scientist and the common obstacles encountered. Barry also characterizes scientists as those who possess the traits needed to accomplish their goals.
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred during the midst of World War I, and it would claim more lives than the war itself. The disease erupted suddenly without a forewarning and spread rapidly across the globe. It seemed as though all of humanity had fallen under the mercy of this deadly illness. Influenza had very clear symptoms as described by William Collier in his letter to The Lancet. After a patient seizes their temperature can run up to 105° or more while their pulse averages at about 90 beats per minute. The high temperature and low pulse are frequently combined with epistaxis (nosebleed) and cyanosis (blueness of the skin). The epistaxis is caused by the high temperature and the cyanosis is caused by a lack of oxygen due to the decreased pulse (Kent 34). The author of Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919, Susan Kinglsey Kent, provides a brief history of the pandemic and documents from the time period. Many of the included documents show how unprepared and unorganized governments attempted to contain and control a disease they had never experienced, and how the expectations of the governments changed as a result of their successes and failures.
One of the most effective methods Barry uses throughout the aforementioned passage, is his comparison of scientists to explorers. The first lines of paragraph four set up the comparison, “All real scientists exist on the frontier,” this furthers the point Barry makes that scientific research is about uncertainty and embracing it, only then will the research that is done yield any answers. Barry furthers the point of uncertainty is the very nature of science with this quote, “There they probe in a
“My daddy died in nineteen ought nineteen of the epidemic flu and I never had a thing to do with it. He was buried in Mount Hopewell Baptist Churchyard.” ( pg 949)
In The Great Influenza, John M. Barry educates citizens of the everyday challenges that scientists face through utilizing rhetorical questions, cause and effect, and contrast. Barry’s uses of the rhetorical strategies highlights the beauty of uncertainty because of failure, scientists can make new discoveries everyday. In relation
Science is a study that can be viewed and interpreted in various ways. Some believe science to be based on facts and specific results, while others believe it to be based on creativity and spontaneity. In his account of the 1918 flu epidemic, The Great Influenza, John M. Barry characterizes scientific research as work that requires creativity, spontaneity, and intelligence through his use of rhetorical devices such as allusions, metaphors, and rhetorical questions.
"As I write I have no idea as to the conclusion of this new drama in world history except that it will have ramifications as large and as lasting as the Cold War."
From the Chelsea Naval Hospital, overlooking the Boston Bay, I sip on a cup of Joe and browse over the Sports Section of the Los Angeles Times. Earlier this month, three Bostonians dropped dead from influenza. In examining the extent of the epidemic, Surgeon-General Blue commented to the Times , "People are stricken on the streets, while at work in factories, shipyards, offices or elsewhere. First there is a chill, then fever with temperature from 101 to 103, headache, backache, reddening and running of the eyes, pains and aches all over the body, and general prostration." I gaze out my window, the sun seems brighter than usual and the town more radiant. It must be the victory, for the threat of death due to influenza is pervasive. Outside, children jump rope. With every skip of the jump rope they chant. "I had a little bird." Skip. "Its name was Enza." Skip. "I opened up the window." Skip. "And in-flu-enza."
The Response to the Influenza of 1918 At the time, the Influenza of 1918 was called the Spanish Flu. Spain was not involved in the expanding great war (i.e., World War I) and therefore was not censoring it's press. However, Germany, Britain, and America were censoring their newspapers for anything that would lower morale. Therefore, Spain was the first country to publish accounts of the pandemic (Barry 171 and Furman 326), even though the pandemic most likely started in either France or the United States. It was also unique in it's deadliness; it “killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century”
“The Influenza Pandemic of 1918.” Billings, Molly. Stanford University Virology. June 1, 1997. retrieved from http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/
...ssor Heather MacDougall, “July – 11 November 1918: Pandemic Influenza on the Battlefield and Homefront,” Lecture delivered 9 November, 2011, HIST 191, University of Waterloo
One new thing I learned after reading this chapter is that William Farr was actually very close in also determining the cause of the cholera outbreak. To my knowledge, as it was taught to me, John Snow was the father of epidemiology and he solved the cholera case. As this is true, William Farr was never regarded while being taught the basics of epidemiology.
He says that it is harder for him to doubt something deliberate, and the idea that he can have opportunities that are up to him to decide that fate of an outcome. He goes on to say that we must be wiser with our principles and start adjusting our theories to our data and avoid tailoring our data to our theories.
Instead of a brief statement that his first thoughts, he details it offers its arguments. he proceeds to claim that scientists should continue to research and explore, but to be aware that every tiny detail that does not match their observations deny their assumptions. That said Barry scientists have a lot of tedious work, but goes on to explain why he calls basic
Kolata, Gina. Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Cause It. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. Print.