Rhetorical Analysis Of Kenneth Burke, Danielle Allen And Mark Backman

Kulsum Pathan

20531570

Thinking Question 4

Kenneth Burke, Danielle Allen and Mark Backman’s conception of rhetoric, all view the perception of ‘the other’ as valuable. Not only valuable but an idea that goes beyond the terminology of us and focuses on a collective identity of we. Allen views rhetoric as a sense of trust building within communities and ensuring that differences don’t create a drift between an us and them and vice versa; especially not a situation where you assume due to differences and create a sense of belonging through similarities. Allen focuses on friendship a lot within the reading and allows us to understand the importance of creating a space where differences are put a side to create an environment that fosters the idea of viewing the interests of others, as being connected to our own interests.

Burke also talks about separating from you, yourself as an individual from others and allowing to trying to create that bond that creates a relationship. For example, building a relationship with a stray cat or babysitting my friends cat, the relationship around the cat and what it does when it misses us and it behaviour towards a new setting. Even building relationships using rhetoric, it depends on your ability to step out and have some fun but undermining the idea of me and us but now looking at the idea of us through the eyes of

the other to build that relationship.
Backman talks about rhetoric as an “intricate relationship between intricate being and social character described in its fullness and complexity in the present paradox of self knowledge.

(Beckman, pg. 28). The whole ideology that Backman talks about is moving beyond the question of wo am I to who are we to understand oneself, oneself needs to understand out collective ways. An example to reflect on Backman’s argument of what rhetoric means, is taking someone else’s experience and trying to understand the argument from the perspective of others and moving beyond the personal outlook and focusing on the collective

outlook.
All three writers talk about rhetoric as connecting with the other to understand yourself. The importance of how valuable it is to understand the collective outlook to help understand your personal outlook. In addition, by understanding this we’re creating trust within a community.
The importance of rhetoric relies back to the concept of ‘Who am I?’ to ‘who are we?’. When understanding the importance of replies, it is important to see who is influenced by the world around them and who isn’t. by doing so we can comprehend who still uses differences to limit their personal and professional abilities whereas, those who demolish those differences and create an environment where the collective view on ideas takes place. This not only builds the trust within the community but also creates an environment where everyone is understood and the conversation continues.
Conversations like the United States elation, are now able to be discussed properly in a section where differences are eliminated and everyone tries to understand the other, in hopes of understanding themselves. The conversation of Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton are both super controversial but if you sit down and try to understand the motives behind certain votes, it allows you to understand why you favour one candidate over another but you also listen to the reasoning behind a certain individual The concept that these 3 writers, Allen, Burke and Backman, are trying to get across is being able to open your horizon so you can understand the world at a different level but also grow at that level and use each experience as something that builds community and enables people to feel secure and builds trust without the use of enforcements.
Overall, rhetoric is something that happens every day of our life and it is in the hands of the future to ensure that we are creating an environment where people’s ideas and beliefs are taken into consideration and the differences within a group are more so appreciated, rather than discriminated, to create a space where people can truly question “who are we”, rather than “who am I?”.