Rhetorical Analysis Of The Article 'Good News, Despite What You' Ve Heard

In the article, “Good News, Despite What You’ve Heard” the author, Nicholas Kristof, talks about human rights issues and tries to convey the importance of being aware of these problems happening around the globe. The rhetorical strategies: tone, pathos, and logos are used by Kristof in his article to persuade his readers to care about all people suffering from unfortunate circumstances in different countries.

The article starts off with the story of a young 12-year-old boy named John Brimah. Brimah had leprosy as a child, and was banished from his village, fortunately Brimah was rescued and later in his life became a nurse helping people who have leprosy like he once did.

Kristof use of this story establishes pathos; telling one person's story helps the reader connect with Brimah and others like him; it makes the reader feel

sympathy. Also, it is considerably a inspiring story, for Brimah to be in a almost death situation and grow up to be a nurse is a positive ending most people would not desire because it is not interesting, but in this case, he was a child at the time; it in a way makes you think of all the other children suffering from this same disease and if he could be educated after coming from this experience many others can to.

Moreover, Kristof's uses pathos anticipate counterclaims. Kristof recognizes that there are other things going on in the world such as terrorism and global warming. Critics may

say we need to focus on “the bigger picture”, but Kristof's argues children are affected by the choices we as an societies makes and what we choose to pay attention to. Thus, regardless of what we feel is important they all amount to what we think is best for our children's survival. Additionally, pathos is used later on in the article when Kristof gives statistics on how many children's lives have been saved by vancations, nutritions, and medical treatments. This can be something that is inspiring to people and make them want to be aware of children not getting vacations and care about all the children in the world who have received help and the many others who can be helped.
Rather than make the whole article about sympathy, Kristof constantly uses a positive tone throughout the article to talk about inspiring cases.

Kristof talks about a man named Fanha Konah, Konah lost all of their fingers and toes to leprosy but he managed to become a wood carver. Also, he talks about a 18 year old girl who has never received schooling, but built a three-foot electrical fan out of cardboard and scraps. Kristof uses inspiring stories like these to show that all hope is not lost for people who come across unfortunate circumstance. There is progress that is made by people who survived and live with these disease. This kind of attitude makes the reader have a different outlook and judgment on situations such as these. By telling stories such as these he reminds the reader that this one story can reflect whole millions of stories. Kristof is trying to persuade his audience to care about people as a

whole.
Lastly, Kristof uses logos to persuade his readers by using statics. Kristof states that, “leprosy has dropped 97 percent since 1985, and it’s easily treatable and he states that leprosy could become preventable and in 2020 “ Thus, in time, children may not even have leprosy. This static proves to the reader that there are improvements happening to lesson the cause of this disease. Kristof also states that, nine out of 10 Americans say in global poverty has stayed the same or worsening; to counterclaim this he says “more than 90 percent of the world population lived in poverty plunging it into less than 10 percent.” He uses logos to counterclaim and show how it went down to prove to his audience that he is credible in what he is saying.
Also, Kristof uses a personal experience and says that when he was a boy adult had also been illiterate and now more than 85 percent can read. Not only is he becoming relatable by mentioning this, but he is also showing that change happens over time. Things get better as we progress in time and this reflects on the poverty ratings going down and people getting better.
Furthermore, Kristof states that journalists and aid organizations need to realize the backdrop progress of poverty because if we do not it will seem as if nothing is changing. The point is that you have to be fair to both sides and cover everything because there's a change happening. The main things we should focus on is getting children to not suffer from poverty, disease, and deprived education.
Kristof, also mentions that we should take a pause and look at the positive things in life. Rather than worrying about historical events such as president Trump or terrorism. We need to worry about all the positive outcomes America has had. In his case, he believes that positive outcome is our children staying healthy and surviving. This last paragraph makes the reader not only think of those individuals he mentions in the article specifically, but everyone as a whole.