Just Walk On By Analysis

Society plays a huge role in helping us believe what is thought to be right vs wrong or good vs bad. The author, Brent Staples, writes in his article, “Just Walk on By,” gives an insight of what society is really like. Staples shows how much the U.S. has changed and what has stayed the same. Staples does this by appealing to emotions and using ethos as a way to connect to the audience. The author uses this to explain his message which is that he believes that society affects the way we see people and makes many people immediately assume that someone is a particular thing based on how their appearance. The author, Brent Staples, appeals to emotions as a way to prove to the audience his point of how our society views certain races, genders, etc. Staples uses

It may be a cheesy but the statement “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” is correct. This statement can also be seen in another point in the article. The author has to change his appearance by “whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi” (544) which gave people the idea that this person is more sophisticated or educated. Another way that Brent Staples appeals to emotions, such as fear, is by using diction. Brent Staples’s use of diction is incredible because of how he uses it. A great use of diction in “Just Walk on By” would be the word “victim” (542). The word victim in the beginning of the article makes audience see the author as a criminal. This is because the author uses the society’s belief of the word to make audience believe that he is a horrible person. This hurts his credibility a bit because the author is already creating the idea that he does not seem like a good person but as the story goes on the word actually has a different meaning. The word victim shows that people who have feared him rather than people who were harmed by Staples. The use of victim is strong, even if it creates a bad impression, it creates the belief that the author is