Rhetorical Analysis Of Brent Staples The Myth Of The Latin Woman

The rhetorical strategies and stylistic choices used in paragraphs one through three of Brent Staples’ essay, “Just Walk On By,” and paragraphs nine through ten of Judith Ortiz Cofer’s essay, “The Myth of the Latin Woman,” are all used to describe the authors’ experiences with racism. However, the individual methods they use differ in the scope and the detail of the events they describe. Staples describes his experiences with racism he had over an entire year, while Cofer describes a single event in much greater detail. This difference results in readers of Staples’ essay gaining an understanding of how widespread of a problem racism is, and readers of Cofer’s essay gaining an in depth understanding of how just how awful dealing with racism can be.

This allows him to provide the key details which make the events meaningful, while still allowing him to cover a large number of events and demonstrate the scale of the issue. While describing one night, during which he frightened a woman who he happened to be walking behind, he takes time to describe his appearance and how it likely affected the woman’s actions. Though this detail is not essential for him to tell his story, it allows the reader to achieve a deeper understanding of the events by placing themselves in both his shoes, and the woman’s. Rather than simply stating that the event happened, he expands his points by guiding the reader through the thought process of the people he encountered. This allows them to achieve a much deeper understanding of the causes of the problem he is attempting to address, all without significantly decreasing the number of encounters he is able to