Barbara Ehrenreich Rhetorical Analysis

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Barbara Ehrenreich describes to us what she believes today’s world thinks about the definition of civility. Her purpose is to argue about the misconception of civility. She believes that “competitive gratitude” is not what having etiquette is about and that it is absolutely absurd to be forced into fake politeness. Ehrenreich uses satire and irony to clearly differentiate between civility and unnecessary flattery. In her second sentence, Ehrenreich uses the oxymoron “heck-no” and “with all due respect” together to mock the critics that claim that America needs a little more civility. She then advances on to ridiculing the anchormen on TV by describing one of them as retaliating the other one by thanking them. This use of irony and