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Rhetorical Analysis Of What's In A Name

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Lady Gardner-Wright Elizabeth Trayal English 1010 110 20 October 2014 Rhetorical Analysis George, a common name, has several connotations according to Henry Louis Gates, In his essay “What’s in a name?” he remembers time during the civil rights era when racism was a prevalent he and his father stopped by their local dinner for ice cream and although Mr. Wilson, a local, greeted him knowing his name he called him George, instead. Henry, being young was confused. Gates purpose of this essay is to inform the reader that then even a simple name as simple as George can be derogatory and worse than being called jigaboo which was a common name blacks were called in that era. To express his purpose he uses confused tone, parallelism, and atmosphere. …show more content…

Without this approach the story would not be as effective as it is. Gates used confused tone throughout paragraphs 5-11 starting when his father entered the diner and spoke to the local Mr. Wilson. Gates knew that that wasn’t his father’s name and he was trying to think whom could Mr. Wilson possible be getting his father confused with. If Mr. Wilson had used such a label as “nigger” then George wouldn’t have been as confused. Moreover, parallelism was used in paragraphs 4-10. According to Webster parallelism is the state of being parallel or of corresponding in some way. He uses this when he asks his father “Why did Mr. Wilson call him George?” or “Doesn’t he know his name?” He. Also uses repetition throughout these paragraphs when he tells his father to tell the man his name. Lastly he uses atmosphere. The atmosphere he set was more of a disappointing one. After his father didn’t stand up for his self. In paragraph 12 he sates “ A long silence ensured. It was ”one of those things,” as my Mom would put it.” After he asks his father to tell the man his name and his father lets him know that’s just the name he calls all black people, he was silent as if his feelings were more hurt than confused now. He also had to just get over it and call it just one of those things as if it wasn’t a big

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