In The View from 80, Cowley claims that aging and becoming an elderly member of society can be a brutal and unforgiving process. In his introduction, he compares aging in our society to the tradition of killing elderly members the Ojibwa tribe with a tomahawk. Cowley uses literary devices such as lists, personal accounts, anecdotes and imagery to convey his argument to the reader. His writing is effective due to the fact that he includes the three vices of aging and taps on the physical and psychological shortcomings that older people are reminded of by themselves and by society. He also admires people who see old age as a challenge.
Before Cowley dives into convincing the reader of his claim, he starts his essay by creating a list of aging ‘symptoms’. Each bullet point in the list provides a vivid description of these symptoms allowing the reader to relate by visualizing their older family members as they continue down the list. Cowley’s imagery allows him to connect with the reader before he even makes his argument. In addition, providing these signs of getting older ensures that Cowley and the reader have the same definition and interpretation of what constitutes elderly people throughout the essay. In effect, this removes the possibility of misinterpretation by the reader and
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Considering my age, it wasn’t a topic that crossed my mind frequently. By the end of Cowley’s essay I didn’t have empathy for older people, but rather compassion and a sense of understanding. Cowley’s ability to familiarize me with an 80 year old’s perspective as a college student was enough to convince me that Cowley’s essay was effective in communicating his point. Cowley develops argumentation through multiple lenses including the personal physical and psychological conflicts as well as societal behavior towards elderly people and how this treatment, good or bad, is perceived by old