City Of Broken Dreams Rhetorical Analysis

Segregated Education in Milwaukee

The Milwaukee educational system has failed to stabilize working/low-income and colored college students financially. In the essay “City of Broken Dreams” author Sara Goldrick-Rab explains how she, and a team of researchers, gathered evidence to study the college costs of working-class students at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Sara Goldrick-Rab is a professor of sociology and medicine at Temple University. While she was at the University, she found devastating news and decided to take matters into her own hands. She describes Milwaukee as “...one of the poorest and segregated cities in America” (Goldbrick-Rab 241). From there, the author interviews three students and explains multiple details

Throughout the essay, she compares Milwaukee to other cities in Wisconsin, whether it is about college costs or graduation rates. Her essay consists of her personal experience while interviewing students, facts, and statistical data that she has researched. Goldbrick-Rab's purpose for this essay is to give the readers a background insight into how racial and financial segregation has affected multiple students. She accomplished her purpose through her extraordinary use of rhetorical devices consisting of ethos, pathos, and logos.

At the beginning of this selection, Sara Goldrick-Rab uses personal experience to explain to the audience how she feels about Milwaukee. She does this by using the rhetorical appeal ethos. Throughout the essay, she shares individual opinions and experiences on how she feels about the city and

The author successfully uses pathos while describing each student and their difficulties with segregation while at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. The author first talks about Alicia, whom the author explains is an African American student at the University. She explains how Alicia would spend 7.5 hours in class, and 4 hours caring for her child all while working 30 hours a week, to get enough financial support. At the end of Alicia’s section, the author stated, “We were able to confirm through administrative records that though she spent eight semesters in school, by 2014 she had not earned a degree” (Goldrick-Rab 246). The author using this statement shows she was reaching out to the student's years after the interview. The author implied that Alicia had less financial aid than when she first started due to her low income. The next student she interviewed and spoke about was Jose, whom the author states has always dreamt of becoming a part of the Milwaukee Police Department. Goldrick-Rab stated, “Too often, researchers trying to understand problems in higher education fail to recognize that challenges created by the health and human services systems and the criminal justice system also affect college graduation rates” (Goldrick-Rab 257). According to this claim, the author explains that there is more than one effect on