Rhetorical Analysis Of The Great Influenza By John M Barry

Major Paper #2

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. Barry utilizes exemplification by providing specific scenarios to identify the presence of obstacles in the world of experimentation and to describe what was necessary to overcome those obstacles. When describing the creativity needed to defeat common impediments, Barry uses the concept

While discussing the unknown frontier that scientists must endure, Barry describes a “wilderness region” that is unfamiliar and new. He continues to say that scientists venture “through the looking glass” into a new frontier. These devices help to create familiar ideas that the audience will understand in an unfamiliar situation. A simile used to compare research to a “crystal” by explaining that “probing” was to “ precipitate an order out of chaos,” much like a crystalline structure forms an ordered structure. Finally, Berry implements a metaphor in order to describe what follows a discovery. He describes “a flood of colleagues” that “ pave roads over the path laid.” This metaphor describes how science continuously changes, one discovery after another while ultimately communicating the patience and curiosity a scientist must have. The culmination of these figurative devices teach a new way of an audience that is unfamiliar with the author's theme. Barry successfully conveys the many traits that scientists will endure in their work, and the qualities essential in order to be successful by using three effective rhetorical devices-- exemplification, powerful diction, and insightful figurative language. He uses his experience with the flu epidemic and rhetorical strategies to prove his claim that there is much more to science