Rhetorical Analysis Of Why Millennials Will Save Us All

“Why Millennials Will Save Us All” Analytical Essay
It is self-evident that society sees those born into the large generation of millennials as self-centered, lazy, and shallow. In the article, “Why Millennials Will Save Us All,” Joel Stein establishes this sentiment using a mix of logos and ethos, before cleverly defending the millennials by conveying his argument through a conversational tone and ethos. His initial use of statistics paints a biased picture of the typical millennial, a person on their smartphone, who lacks important social skills, the ability to make intelligent decisions, and is narcissistic to an unimaginable degree. This picture captures the millennials in the perspective of the generations before them, luring the target

audience in advance to discovering Stein’s true opinion, that millennials are “not a new species; they've just mutated to adapt to their environment” (31).
In the first half of the article, Stein reports all the negative aspects of the millennials using the two rhetorical devices, logos and ethos.

A mixture of logos and ethos results in a sensible tone and case that the target audience, older adults, will find credible and worth reading. He states statistics, studies, surveys, and other sources that all affirm society’s view on the millennials, a generation consisting of 80 million people, is factually sound. Those older than the millennials were validated because their generalization of these human beings were true. In their perspective, all millennials are narcissistic, fame-obsessed, and incapable of becoming mature, self-sustaining adults. By quoting esteemed professors, authors, and experts using ethos, Stein explains that the narcissism is a result of technology and parenting techniques from the 1970s and proceeds to say that an effect of narcissism, entitlement, is another famous negative aspect of millennials. Stein

quotes a professor at Emory, who states that the influence of peers creates people who are feeble-brained because those who only interact with peers their own age, have no experience relating to older people and older things (29), to claim that millennials never grow intellectually because they do not interact with the outside world. While using these rhetorical devices, he provides structure to his ideas by introducing his points and then explaining them. Stein delivers his points through quotes that either introduce the idea or affirms it and inserts his own interpretation as an explanation. The placement of those elements allows him to convey his ideas in a rational manner with an appropriate informative tone. Stein’s intelligent use of logos and ethos in the majority of the first half of the article creates an image of an individual who is narcissistic, stunted, and a pain to have in the workforce. This image confirms all the suspicion that older generations have, thus, successfully luring them into reading the rest of the article.
With that in mind, Stein’s actual position begins when he writes about himself, using a casual tone, and then proceeding to state his claim and defend it, using ethos.

To offer more perspective on the subject of narcissism, Stein ridicules his own faulty characteristics, “... I'm aware that I started this piece--in which I complain about millennials' narcissism--with the word I… [and] it was impossible not to remember, the whole time I was accusing millennials of being lazy, that I was supposed to finish this article nearly a year ago” (30). These personal accounts of his own traits introduce the fact that the characteristics attributed to millennials can be seen throughout history. It also forces the readers to acknowledge their own flaws. He shows the credibility of his statements by providing an example from the Reformation when people decided that they did not need the church to talk to God. After emphasizing this idea, Stein establishes his view, writing that millennials are, “not a new species; they've just mutated to adapt to their environment” (31). To defend his point, Stein demonstrates that every aforementioned flaw is also a positive aspect, citing professors and other experts. For example, Stein proves that entitlement is an adaptation to an abundant world. Millennials are better-connected people with more options, so their sense of entitlement helps them reach goals and do new, innovative things. Furthermore, millennials seem narcissistic because they have

many social outlets that are used to broadcast lives. After countering the flaws, he asserts that psychologists all agree that millennials are nice and more accepting of differences. Stein cites Tom Brokaw, writing that the millennials embrace the world with caution and that they are ready to change the world. Stein paints a better picture of the average millennial as he starts concluding the article, “so here's a more rounded picture of millennials than the one I started with. All of which I also have data for. They're earnest and optimistic. They embrace the system. They are pragmatic idealists, tinkerers more than dreamers, [and] life hackers…” (34). This convinces the audience that having millennials in the workforce is beneficial, a vital reconsideration with the increase of working millennials. Therefore, Stein’s clever use of tone and ethos to add perspective to the millennials’ characteristics and to defend his clear arguments, successfully persuades older generations to rethink their conception of millennials.
To put briefly, society’s current views on the millennials are not flattering. As millennials enter the workforce, these common misconceptions of a self-centered, useless human being need to be corrected. Joel Stein has successfully corrected them by first reporting those generalizations in a logical, credible manner, using logos and ethos, and then establishing his own view with the use of relatable experiences and credible sources, using a conversational tone and ethos. All in all, logos, ethos, and a conversational tone are in constant play as Joel Stein defends and provides a better, well-rounded image of the millennials.