Ehrenreich Parenthesis Rhetorical Analysis

395 Words2 Pages

Throughout her essay, Ehrenreich continuously builds her focus with pathos in her use of parenthesis. Parenthesis is a form of hyperbaton that inserts whole words, phrases or sentences that function as an aside. With her use of parenthesis, she further clarifies and inserts her thoughts about the different aspects about her job. She criticizes how “Managers can sit--for hours at a time if they want” (pg 130). She wonders how many calories she burns doing the menial work she does to keep busy (pg 130). She uses these parenthesis to interject her thoughts and explanations about her coworkers and her time on the job. In the parenthesis, she clarifies a point, interject the own thoughts or to add supporting detail. Ehrenreich does this to help her strengthen her appeal to emotion by inserting different, relatable opinions others may have about their own occupancies. In …show more content…

She uses her appeals to ethos, logos and pathos to convey the relatable experiences that low waged workers have run across while working in similar positions. These struggles that she has seen as a low waged worker run in line with the struggles that she has seen among her coworkers. Ehrenreich developed her focus on the struggles of low wage workers by her use of comparisons, antanagoge, and parenthesis. Through these different rhetorical devices, Ehrenreich revealed the work environment and the various living situations of low waged workers. She revealed true struggles that come along with little salary through her own life or the lives of her coworkers. With the connections to the rhetorical appeals, she is able to present examples that people who has worked as a low waged worker can relate to. Through her experience and what she has observed from her coworkers, Ehrenreich revealed the struggles of the work environment and the living situation that resulted from the low waged