Prejudices and, more specifically, racial prejudices have been a plague on society for an extensive amount of time. Most believe that the worst of racial prejudices are in the past and that society has moved past them; however, Brent Staples argues that society is nowhere near past these prejudices. Staples argues this through his great use of rhetorical strategies to implement credibility and emotion into his essay. The first strategy that Staples uses to convey his message is his use of credibility to appeal to his audience. This is a very important thing for Staples to do, especially considering the prejudices towards young blacks that he makes sure to point out in his article. One way Staples establishes this credibility is through the …show more content…
This is shown through his use of tone and appeals to emotion. Throughout the essay, Staples has definite control of the tone of the writing, and he uses this greatly to his advantage. From his starting hook when Staples writes, “My first victim was a woman - white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties” he immediately sets the beginning tone of this essay. This being a very suspenseful tone that does an amazing job of hooking the reader in at the first sentence. This suspense created so early in the writing gives the reader an impression of not knowing what to suspect, and hooks them in better than the highest point of drama in a soap opera. The reader, at this point, knows this isn’t going to be like most other essays they’ve read, they know that this one is never going to cease to be interesting. This is a great thing that Staples has done to make sure te reader pays attention to every part of his argument, not just to get bored halfway through and stop reading. However, an opposite strategy is seen towards the end of the passage when Staples states how he whistles Beethoven and other classical music to attempt to ease tensions. This little bit of hope with a spin of humor helps to give a bit of positivity to his argument and helps to reader to warm up to Staples’ claim a bit more than they already were before. Another example of Staples’ use of emotion comes in his use of appeals to …show more content…
Staples has a very strong control of the rhetoric of his essay and uses it to his great advantage. This makes his essay very strong and makes it very easy for his audience to get behind his