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Michael Levin's 'The Case For Torture'?

1897 Words8 Pages
To quote Wilson Bentley, “No two snowflakes are alike.” Similarly no two articles or writings are alike. Every author has his or her own unique style and tone. Some authors make use of divine diction while others focus on sensational syntax. Furthermore no two articles are equal in content or caliber, theme or message, vocabulary or devices. With this in mind, Mr. Grant, I have determined based upon their individual writings how to divide up the $5000 between Michael Levin, Mike Ryoko, Marcia Clarke, and John F. Kennedy. All author displayed exceptional writing and made valid points. However, Michael Levin’s “The Case For Torture” is far and away the best essay among these authors and warrants a bonus of ___. In second comes John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech earning a bonus of ____. Third is Marcia Clarke’s “Selling Your Organs: Should it be Legal? Do you own yourself?” with ____. Finally Mike Lyoko earns ___, for “A Noble Sacrifice for the right to bear AK-47s.” Michael Levin’s “The Case for Torture” is the first article up for discussion. Overall Levin outclasses his peers in terms of writing, argumentation, and rhetoric. First off he utilizes a plethora of rhetorical devices. His essay contains anadiplosis, alliteration, hypophora, parallelism among other devices. For example, an effective use of anadiplosis resides in paragraph seven: “I am not advocating torture as punishment. Punishment is addressed to deed irrevocably past.” By ending one sentence with the word
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Mahatma Gandhi, the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement states “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.” This is important because torture is brutal on the body and mind. The article “Torture’s Terrible Toll” by John McCain is more convincing then the article “The Case for Torture” by Michael Levin because McCain provides more logical reasoning, he adds his own personal experience of being a captured prisoner during the Vietnam War, and he creates an emotional bond with people around the world. Through more logical reasoning McCain Argument is more valid than Levin.

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In Samuel Johnson's writing concerning men sent to debtor's prisons in England, he used many rhetorical strategies to help impact the emotions of the people of England. He tried to convince the leaders of the nation (omitted words here) to not have debtor's prisons. He uses logos, pathos, and many other rhetorical techniques to impact his writing for his cause. Samuel Johnson did an amazing job appealing to people’s emotions. An example of this is how he is not afraid to state “...if the whole were seen together, would shake us with emotion.”

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In the letter Abigail Adams writes to her son while he is on a voyage to France with his father, she inserts many different rhetorical strategies in her writing. She uses different strategies such as emphasis and changing the reader's attitude, in a way that will help her son follow the right path in life. Adams' message to her son is clear, the journey to becoming a well rounded man takes a extensive amount of effort. Adams uses the rhetorical strategies to ensure her message is understood.

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In Michael Levin’s “The Case for Torture”, he uses many cases of emotional appeal to persuade the reader that torture is necessary in extreme cases. There are many terms/statements that stick with the reader throughout the essay so that they will have more attachment to what is being said. Levin is particularly leaning to an audience based in the United States because he uses an allusion to reference an event that happened within the states and will better relate to the people that were impacted by it. The emotional appeals used in this essay are used for the purpose of persuading the reader to agree that in extreme instances torture is necessary and the United States should begin considering it as a tactic for future cases of extremity. One major eye catching factor of this essay is the repetitive use of words that imply certain stigmas.

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In the essay titled “Police Brutality”, Danna Hernandez uses rhetorical devices to declare that police brutality is dreadful. She utilizes anecdotes to support her claim, pathos to persuade the audience to agree with her argument by producing an emotional response, and imagery to illustrate her hardships caused by police brutality. Danna does this in order to make the general public realize that police brutality is a significant issue that should not be treated as a trend. Danna Hernandez uses anecdote to support her argument. The vast majority of the essay is an anecdote that tells of the tragic death of her son due to unjustified gun usage by a police officer(which constitutes as police brutality) and the emotional consequences that followed.

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Rhetorical strategies are a variety of parts that make up an essay. The strategies include everything from explaining a process, to structure of writing. Whether the author 's purpose is to entertain, inform, or persuade, ultimately these strategies will strengthen not only the author’s purpose, but also the writing itsef. Typically when authors use these strategies, they are very precise to how they use them, and when deeply analysing a piece of writing, this is very clear. In Bell Hooks’ “Understanding Patriarchy”, she used rhetorical strategies to convey her purpose.

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While analyzing “The Torture Myth” and “The Case for Torture”, it is very clear to see the type of rhetorical appeals used to persuade the audience. Anne Applebaum, the writer of “The Torture Myth” --in context of the decision of electing a new Attorney General--would argue that torture is very seldomly effective, violates a person’s rights, and should be outlawed due to the irrational need upon which physical torture is used. On the other hand, Michael Levin strongly argues that physical torture is crucial to solving every imminent danger to civilians. Levin claims that if you don’t physically torture someone, you are being weak and want to allow innocent people to die over something that could have been simply done.

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An example in the text would be, “Isn't his like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock?” (Paragraph 26). This quote uses alliteration by repeating “Isn't this” through rhetorical questions providing an example of logic. The result of mentioning real-world scenarios and backward logic relates his cause to others who have been wrongfully convicted.

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He does so specifically with examples that resonate with the audience. For instance, as he attempts to persuade listeners to consider revolting against the government, he uses a real-life example: All men recognize... the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution Of '75... when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole

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Rhetorical strategies don't just convey a piece of writing under a certain category, but place them in a way that truly affect how a reader sees them. Author’s opinion can allow for a reader to connect directly with the tone of work that Roberts is trying to display. Lastly, personal comparisons can make a reader learn from their mistakes by using the information given in the text. All Roberts wants to do is better any writers willing to seriously try, and by following the steps in “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words,” the task becomes much simpler. I have already grown so much from just reading what he has to offer.

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In the speech he has used several rhetorical devices to make the delivery so insightful. He used anaphora when he began three sentences with forget in the beginning to make the team think about each player. Then he used epanalepsis in a section where he pointed at the players and stated that the only one who can control effort is you and you. When he did this he is putting major emphasizes by stating the word you twice with a pause between them. Lastly he used hypophora by asking all the questions as the introduction.

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One example of this in the reading was when he used this to describe the beauty and view of a horizon. He stated that so many people have come and go, limping on crutches or dieing, and were heroes from many wars. Then while stating the different wars, he uses this device to empathize the amount of people who came and went by listing the many wars with the conjunction or in between each one, such as, the Pacific or Europe or Korea or Vietnam or the Persian Gulf wars. A third use of a rhetorical device that I noticed throughout the reading was the author's use of euphemism. This is when the author substitutes a word for another that is more pleasant so that he or she does not come off as rude and can avoid conflict in with the readers of the story.

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