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Rhetorical Strategies In Dave Egger's Zeitoun

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If there was a way for the Mills student body to write significantly better while learning about rhetorical strategies, would you turn it down? The answer is clear, and your answer is Dave Egger's 2009 best-selling book Zeitoun. The book Zeitoun depicts Abdulrahman, the main character, as a man who lives as an average American citizen with a successful life but then struggles during Hurricane Katrina when he becomes wrongly accused of being a terrorist and lives through social injustices brought to him by the government’s enforcement. As a former reader of this book, the successful imagery and credibility that shows Zeitoun’s experience made me connect to Zeitoun on a emotional and serious level. Zeitoun is truly being portrayed as a hero in Egger's Zeitoun. However, there are more allegations to this justification. Before the Hurricane, Kathy claims she was regularly beaten by Zeitoun that has caused utterly painful bruises and a divorce after Hurricane Katrina. Since the divorce with …show more content…

In Zeitoun, Eggers does not only promote awareness of social injustices but uses pathos: an appeal to emotion, ethos: an appeal to credibility, and logos: an appeal to logic, to show Zeitoun’s experience during Hurricane Katrina and post-9/11. When Zeitoun is being imprisoned at Camp Greyhound because he was accused of being a terrorist, Eggers specifically described by using powerful imagery the horrible conditions that took place such as the forced strip-downs, being sprayed with toxic gas, and being abused by the soldiers. Eggers also uses ethos to show Zeitoun's credibility in his neighborhood by helping stray dogs, saving lives of many people on his street, and his excellent work performance. Reading this book, anyone can immediately develop a connection with Zeitoun and feel utter sympathy for him without the knowledge of the true felonies he has been charged

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