Rhetorical Analysis: The Spoon Theory

Having been diagnosed with Lupus and other chronic illnesses since she was 15 years of age, for over 18 years, Christine Miserandino did not let her chronic illnesses hinder her from life but instead have used her experiences with it to fuel her role to be an advocate for everyone who’s also diagnosed and are suffering. She is an award winning author. A speaker who has founded the “Spoon Theory” which is also published in her website ButYouDontLookSick.com. She is an active member of various groups that aims to raise awareness on the illness by helping as much people, not just the families and friends of the diagnosed but also including Physicians and other medical professionals understand what it’s like to suffer from it to gain an advance

understanding in regards of the condition.
“The Spoon Theory” is effective because she was also able to emphasize her first-hand experience with chronic disease, she was able to deliver the passage in an organized manner, used an effective metaphor to explain the issue, and she was able to get the audience to imagine and understand the experience.
When her friend asked about what it felt like to be in the author’s shoes while dealing with the disease, the author stated how “She [her best friend] came to doctors with me, she saw me walk with a cane, and throw up in the bathroom.

She had seen me cry in pain...” (“The Spoon Theory”. Par.2). Using the Ethos appeal, Emphasized her first-hand experience with chronic disease which makes her credible to discuss what it is like to suffer from Lupus. By using Ethos as an appeal, it makes the audience feel the validity of her writing because she is not just writing about it from stories that she heard or saw somewhere, but she knows and understand the situation first

hand.
Even though, as she explained that her best friend have been with her through every struggle, she still needed to apply a different approach to which not only her best friend but to the rest of the audiences to be able to relate better on the issue. By using Logos as an appeal and analogy as the strategy, for example how she used a metaphor of the spoons as she states “I quickly grabbed every spoon on the table; hell I grabbed spoons off of the other tables. I looked at her in the eyes and said “Here you go, you have Lupus”. (“The Spoon Theory”. Par 5.) By using the spoons to symbolize her energy and what she is able to handle for the day, her best friend and her audiences were able to relate on how debilitating it is and to feel limited having to suffer with a chronic illness.
Being able to develop “The Spoon Theory”, the author not only was able to have the audience relate and have a better picture, but now that she was able to use that analogy with the spoons she was able to deliver a structured and a well-organized explanation of the issue.

With that delivery, the audiences are able to put the logic together with the metaphor simulation.
The simulation that she did with her best friend with the use of the spoons as an analogy it triggered an emotional reaction to her best friend, which involving that story in the piece it made an even deeper connection not just with her best friend but also to the readers. As she explains,
“She had tears in her eyes and asked quietly “Christine, How do you do it? Do you really do this every day?” I explained that some days were worse than others; some days I have more spoons then most. But I can never make it go away and I can’t forget about it, I always have to think about it. (“The Spoon Theory” Par.

13).
That part of the passage tapped the empathetic if not the sympathetic side of the audience. It makes them feel as though they now have an idea on how it ‘feels’ not just hear or read the story but rather reveals a very vulnerable side from reading the passage.
In conclusion, utilizing all three of the classical appeals, which are Ethos, Logos and Pathos makes this piece a very persuading composition. It not only let the readers have an idea on how debilitating having to suffer with a chronic illness can be but they are able to understand it more in depth and feel the vulnerability of what it’s like. Not only people with chronic illnesses did the author able to connect but she was able to share the disease with a deeper understanding to various groups of people from families and friends to medical professionals and other strangers who do not know how disabling the disease is. The author did a splendid job delivering a simple but yet a clear explanation of the issue.