Such Such Were The Joys Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis

English novelist and essayist, George Orwell, in his essay, “Such, Such Were The Joys” describes his youth at St. Cyprian’s, a private school. Orwell’s purpose is to share his experiences at the school and tell how it shaped his life, “At eight years old you were suddenly taken out of this warm nest and flung into a world of force and fraud and secrecy, like a gold-fish into a tank full of pike”(Orwell 14). He focuses on the many negative experiences of his schooling. His use of rhetorical devices throughout the essay explains his struggles at St. Cyprian’s and paint the picture of his life.

Eric Arthur Blair used the fake name George Orwell, keeping his identity unknown. George Orwell deserves to be called one of the top English writers of his time, for his novels such as “Animal Farm”, “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, and “Down and Out Paris and London”. Orwell received the Prometheus award for two of his books, “Nineteen Eighty-Four” in 1984 and “Animal Farm” in 2011. George Orwell has also received the Retro Hugo Award for “Animal

Farm” in 1996. Orwell was an exceptional writer who is also acknowledged for his impressive journals and essays. Orwell was infatuated with politics, which he portrayed through his journals and essays quite often in “Politics in the English Language.” When a writer becomes successful through their work, they usually write tips on becoming a better, more profound writer. Thus Orwell created “The 6 Rules of Writing”. The article was ahead of its time period, even today's writers use it as a backbone for better writing.
Logos isn't quite as evident in this story as Pathos or Ethos but there is some hidden examples within the story. For an example, as inhumane as it might sound the logical reasoning behind St. Cyprian’s head master beating Orwell, is that he was trying to instill good values into him. Even though that might not be the real reason the headmaster beat Orwell, that's just the logic he had behind it. There were also some points in the story were young Orwell used Logos to make decisions. For instance, when Orwell punched Hale in the face he said it was a “strategic moment”, he used logic to calculate his attack so that the much stronger Hale would be stunned and unable to fight back. This shows that Orwell was able to recognize that Hale was much stronger and would probably win in a fair brawl. St. Cyprian had another tactic which was to force the boys to recite history, “I recall positive orgies of dates, with the keener boys leaping up and down in their places in their eagerness to shout out the right answers, and at the same time not feeling the faintest interest in the meaning of the mysterious events they were naming.‘1587’‘Massacre of St Bartholomew!’‘1707?’‘Death of Aurangzeeb!’‘1713?’‘Treaty of Utrecht!’‘1773?’‘Boston Tea Party!’‘1520?’” (Orwell 6). The logical reasoning behind making the students recall these events was to improve their intelligence to have a better chance to receive a scholarship for the school. He makes this into a game that he plays by challenging himself to try to keep up with the wiser and more intelligent boys.
He establishes pathos by describing the many occurrences of him being punished. He connects to the reader’s emotions by describing in great detail what was going through his mind at the time of him being punished. St. Cyprian’s instilled values through lectures and beatings. George was lectured for things he didn’t commit, and things that he didn’t even know of, “I had learned early in my career that one can do wrong against one's will, and before long I also learned that one can do wrong without ever discovering what one has done or why it was wrong”(Orwell 15). This is a reference to when he was beaten and called out in front of other students for doing a “dirty thing” which was masturbating. Orwell's use of the rhetorical device pathos is apparent throughout the entire essay.
The introduction of the essay immediately hits the reader with emotion. George states that after a week or two he begins to wet the bed. For an eight year old it is very common for things like this to happen, especially since he was miles away from his family and friends. However at St. Cyprian’s it is completely frowned upon and unacceptable. His bed wetting problem became worse so George began to pray to God. “Night after night i prayed, with a fervour never previously attained in my prayers”(Orwell 2). He had been warned that if he kept wetting his bed, he would be beaten by “the Sixth Form,” which were the older boys. George would continue to get beatings since wetting the bed was an uncontrollable event. This shows the reader just how cruel his new surroundings were.
Many aspects of school are affected by how wealthy the students’ parents are.

The rich kids were favoured in many aspects. “The rich boys had milk and biscuits in the middle of the morning, they were given riding lessons once or twice a week, Flip mothered them and called them by their Christian names, and above all they were never caned”(Orwell 5). Readers can relate to how hard it is growing up and not quite fitting right in their environment. The other school boys would laugh at him for not having the things they had, or even the things their parents owned. Orwell states that he was accepted in St. Cyprian's as a boarder, half of the tuition, in hope of gaining a scholarship to make the school look good in the public view. Orwell believes that his training derived from beatings, something that the wealthy kids did not experience. The saying “money rule the world” (Gucci Mane) is clearly evident at St.

Cyprian’s.
Orwell uses many visual elements where he describes the many authoritarian figures in great detail. In the beginning, when he first arrives at school, he describes Flip. “She was a stocky square-built woman with hard red cheeks, a flat top to her head, prominent brows and deep-set, suspicious eyes”(Orwell 1). Officially Flip is addressed as mum. How vividly he describes his memories establishes credibility with the reader. He also goes into great detail describing events, one in particular of him being beaten. The reason he went into great detail to describe this beating was because it scarred his memory for life. The authorities in his school had great impacts on his life. He seems to still have vivid memories of how they treated him, and even the way they looked at him.
Orwell uses amplification when he is recalling memories of when he first arrived at school. The thing was occurring, and he was ordered to report to the office. When he wrote this into in the essay, he wrote it in all caps and he also wrote it twice. That was an example of amplification, the repetition of words, and/or phrases. Readers can relate to being told to report somewhere knowing punishment is imminent.
Orwell uses epanalepsis within the essay a few times, such as when he is describing the school. “St Cyprian's was an expensive and snobbish school which was in process of becoming more snobbish, and, I imagine, more expensive”(Orwell 4). It emphasizes how expensive and snobbish St. Cyprian’s is. This makes the statements of the more wealthy children being favoured more credible.
Orwell uses Enumerated in the beginning of part III. Enumeratio is when you make a point with details, one of the many rhetorical devices known to our English literature. Orwell used this device in an elaborate way to describe his passion for keeping caterpillars, “And there was the pleasure of keeping caterpillars — the silky green and purple puss-moth, the ghostly green poplar-hawk, the privet-hawk, large as one's third finger”(Orwell 11). After he points out that he likes to keep caterpillars, he goes into detail about the various types he owns.
The author also has a intelligent way of using analogies throughout his essay in ways such as comparing being yelled at by the master to a dog being jerked by a leash when he said, “coming across something of fascinating interest and then being dragged away from it by a yell from the master, like a dog jerked onwards by the leash”(Orwell). He is comparing the two because they correlate in a way beyond the standard way of thinking. The reader can imply that the master is taking away his joy and freedom as a dog owner would take away the freedom of a dog when they pull on its leash.
The dramatic gap between the wealthy and not as fortunate became more obvious in the school yard. From the different forms of punishment, addressing by names, and celebrations of birthdays. “If a boy were the don of rich parents to whom the saving fees was not all important, Sambo would gaol him along in a comparatively fatherly way, with jokes and digs in the ribs and perhaps the occasional tap with the pencil” (Orwell 7). Compare this with the narrator's story that he was beaten so badly that the handle of the riding crop broke mid way through his punishment. The severity of the punishment is quite clear between the two classes. Another example is with the addressing of the pupils by their christian name or their regular name. The narrator was in a difficult predicament because he was a “poor but clever boy” where his intelligence was worth more to the school than his parents’ possible funding contribution. “I never had such a cake, though my parents would have paid for it readily enough” (Orwell 8).
Overall, Orwell wrote “Such, Such Were The Joys” as a way to get some of the past events off of his chest, and also realize some of the unnecessary emotional burdens he was carrying. After describing his final memory at St. Cyprian’s he forces the reader to think about everything they just read. He discredits his stories by asking, “ How would St Cyprian's appear to me now, if I could go back, at my present age, and see it as it was in 1915? What should I think of Sambo and Flip, those terrible, all-powerful monsters?”(Orwell 28) He then makes a statement saying that he would see them as silly. This discredits many of the stories within his essay. Showing that he may have exaggerated the memories, and even the descriptions of Sambo and Flip.