Rhetorical Devices In The Book Thief

The usefulness of rhetorical devices in reviews for The Book Thief
The purpose of any review is for a writer to convince an audience why they should or should not take the time to experience a given text. The style and design of a review’s argument depends heavily on the type of audience they are trying to convince. Janet Maslin’s Stealing to Settle a Score With Life is a New York Times article written for a diverse audience. It looks closely at the critical conversation that surrounded the novel and the other children’s novels that are often compared to it. This article was published in 2006, just a year after The Book Thief was released so it is a more direct response to the text. Maslin’s article looks at The Book Thief in a general and

While her writing is more sophisticated and it delves deeper into the emotions of The Book Thief; the tools she uses are too clouded by her complex sentences for them to be successful. The very first line Chhabra’s review is a rhetorical question aimed at the audience which sets the stage for the rest of the review (Appendix B). A skillful and attention grabbing start, it is then buried under a thirty-eight word sentence. The first stylistic decision to include the rhetorical question was a smart one but after which she undermines. Chhabra also utilizes parenthesis throughout her review to insert more information into her sentences. The first occurrence of parallelism appears in the second sentence of Appendix B. Chhabra inserts information about the publication year and about the main character Liesel Meminger. While this information is in fact grammatically correct, it overload of information in single sentences is confusing. The pace is sped up but a clear direction is lost by these parenthetical interjections. In the first paragraph of the “Death, the Compassionate Narrator” section, the parenthesis by means of apposition is used quite well for the descriptions Liesel’s Papa and Mama. Yet, the fusion of both long descriptions together creates a run-on sentences that leaves the reader