The Running Man Rhetorical Analysis

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‘The Running Man’ by Michael Gerard Bauer is an award-winning 280-page book. It goes through the many different themes of life, one being ‘how we perceive others’. The novel successfully brings us through the theme of ‘how we perceive others’ through different possible situations and scenarios, as well as short stories with meaningful morals. Tom Leyton is a mysterious 60-year-old man, who for 30 years, has remained hidden inside his cocoon of self-guilt and poison. His stereotyped attitude influences the reader to abide by the author wanted perception on Tom Leyton. Mystifying and receptive to the snare. In this analysis, I will be guiding you through the three areas of which Michael Gerard Bauer has positioned us, as the audience, to view …show more content…

He has been the main topic around the suburbs and neighbourhood of Ashgrove in Brisbane for many years, due to his peculiar attitude and his lack of personality. “We’ve all heard stories,” says Laura Davidson, implying back to his old job as a teacher, which didn’t last very long, and as a Vietnamese veteran. Because of this, we are stereotyped to see Tom Leyton as an unpleasant person who couldn’t possibly have any good intentions because the reader is set to judge Tom as an unorthodox man, but with only one true side: evil. There are a lot of language features put into this book. On page 7, Tom Leyton is compared to “a huddled figure like an apprehended criminal in the passenger seat”, as well as “an accepted unknown, like the dark interior of a house” by Joseph. These similes collaborate to let the reader visualise and comprehend the meaning of these comparisons better to observe Tom Leyton as the cruel, cold-hearted character that he is portrayed to be. Therefore, Tom Leyton is depicted as wicked and dishonourable in these 5 chapters. This fits with the theme of how we perceive others as we are brought to believe by the author that Tom Leyton is a heartless …show more content…

We begin to understand that Tom Leyton is not such an evil person, but just misunderstood. Instead of showing this side to everyone, it is only revealed to his sister, Caroline Leyton, and even more towards Joseph. His 14-year-old next door neighbour. He recalls stories from his memory with deep morals, as well as his personal anecdotes as a child. We first hear Tom Leyton speak on page 67 “His reply, when it finally came, was brief and without emotion. ‘I don’t know.’” From this sentence, we can tell that he has experienced too much. On page 142, this is proven to us when Tom Leyton says “’Yes.but he didn’t make it back.’” This direct speech uncovers that he hasn’t just lost both his parents, but also his best friend, Mick. As we begin to uncover more on Tom Leyton, we begin to learn more facts about his personal life. We are once again reminded of the theme of ‘how we perceive others’. Throughout page 220 chapter 5 to the end of this book, we can finally understand the true pain that bottled Tom Leyton and kept him distant from the reality of the world. We begin to understand what he has had to go through throughout his 60 years of

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