A Rhetorical Analysis Of Get Happy By Walter Mosley

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The article Get Happy by best-selling novelist Walter Mosley is mainly about how Mosley feels that the government needs to be more involved in our lives in order to generate a happier population. In the piece, Mosley uses many adequate examples of literary devices including rhetorical questions, similes, and anaphoras. Each of these devices adds to the theme of the article and helps to clearly develop the writer’s purpose. One literary device that Mosley frequently uses in his writing is rhetorical questions. These are questions that are asked, but are not meant to be answered. They are most commonly used in writing to make a point, persuade the reader, or for literary effect. Mosley uses rhetorical questions because he wants the readers to question whether or not they are satisfied with they …show more content…

We worry about health and taxes and the stock market… [and] We fall for all sorts of get-rich-quick schemes” (Mosley 1). The specific anaphora he uses is the repetition of the word “we” to grab the reader’s attention. Using an anaphora allows Mosley to address not only the problems currently in the government, but problems for the people that can possibly arise from the government. The use of an anaphora successfully allowed for Mosley to grab the reader’s attention and make them think about what he is trying to prove about the government.
Despite America’s promise “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” author Walter Mosley argues that the U.S. government is not involved in the lives of the citizens and does not allow for them to obtain their right of happiness. To express his opinion to the readers, Mosley uses many effective literary devices including rhetorical questions, similes, and anaphoras. The use of a variety of literary devices greatly helped author Walter Mosley get his point across to the