“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? (79)”, this quote is from the book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
In Florence Kelley’s speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she brings to light the issue of child labour in a serious and somber tone. Using pathos and persuasive rhetoric, Kelley skillfully manipulates her fellow women to become motivated to gain the right to vote in order to take action against the evils of child labour. Kelley’s speech is filled with pathos, attempting to persuade her audience to realize the magnitude of the issue of child employment to pull the heartstrings of women. She introduces the problem as “two million children under the age of sixteen years old who are earning their bread,” showing the large number of young people currently working to earn money to make a living.
Compared to now, the early 1900s can be seen as an assault to the basic rights we are familiar with in the United States. From the horrid meat standards, to women’s disenfranchisement and child labor, it would take the Progressive Era to end these practices, bringing the United States closer to the one known today. In 1905, more than a decade before women were granted the right to vote, Florence Kelley spoke before the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Speaking on behalf of child and female workers, she passionately opposes the exploitation of children. Using various rhetorical strategies, Kelley crafts an argument on her insight on child labor and her true goal of women’s suffrage.
When people are not aware of where their energy comes from, it threatens their values and ideals. Aldo Leopold discusses these dangers in his essay, Good Oak, suggesting solutions to prevent them and improve the environment in the process. Energy powers many of the things key to life. As pollution and environmental destruction become a more imminent threat, humans must control their use of energy, preferably making sure not to use more than is necessary to sustain them. People who do not fully control the sources of their energy may take it for granted and waste it, however if they make changes in their lifestyle, these dangers can be avoided.
Mark Twain, an 18th century humorist, was known for his critical and satirical writing. In one of his most famous essays, “ Fenimore Coopers Literary Offenses” Twain addresses Coopers inability to realistically develop a “situation” and his failure to effectively back up his stories in order for them to be more plausible. To dramatically convey his unimpressed and sarcastic attitude, he applies biting diction, metaphors and hypophora throughout this work . By continuously using biting diction, Twain develops a mocking tone towards Fenimore Cooper’s incapability to create even the simplest of storylines. In the title of the work a sarcastic tone is evident; the word choice is utilized to reinforce the argument stating how Coopers work is an offense to the world of literature.
Literature is composed of both a plot and the writing itself. While many consider the storyline to be the most telling of how a character feels, the intentions of the author and the purpose of the writing, it is the writing itself, with its many rhetorical devices and strategies and basic elements, that tells more of the story—each element of writing unlocks more about the characters, the author’s intention and purpose of the text. This case especially holds true in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Based on the passage from the text, “Another View of Hester,” Hawthorne makes clear Hester’s negative feelings toward her purpose and outlook on existence, and that of women in general, through the use of clear, deliberate diction, accomplished
Unconventional Storytelling The way a story is written, allows the reader to see not only events, but also character growth, and plot outcomes. Most stories are told in such a way, that the reader is exposed to what happens in a sequential order, so that little confusion or doubt will occur. This type of storytelling was not the case when William Faulkner, wrote “A Rose for Emily”. Faulkner’s use of non-chronological events has led many to theorize about why he chose this method.
Well-known author, William Faulkner, in A Rose For Emily, recounts the life of a woman named Emily. Faulkner uses various rhetorical strategies to convey his dark and dreary theme regarding Emily. These strategies include tone, characterization, and foreshadowing. Faulkner’s effective use of these strategies dramatically intensify the reader’s understanding of his theme regarding Emily’s isolation and resistance to change. Faulkner uses characterization to exhibit Emily’s isolation and resistance to change.
Richard Louv, a novelist, in Last Child in the Woods (2008) illustrates the separation between humans and nature. His purpose to the general audience involves exposing how the separation of man from nature is consequential. Louv adopts a sentimental tone throughout the rhetorical piece to elaborate on the growing separation in modern times. Louv utilizes pathos, ethos and logos to argue that the separation between man and nature is detrimental.
The United States is made up of some of the most diverse and interesting cultures in the world. Jamila Lyiscott proves this by showing her different dialects and how they are all equally important. Lyiscott believes that the way she speaks towards her parents, towards her friends, and towards her colleagues are all one in the same. Throughout the entirety of her speech, Lyiscott changes up her vocal patterns and dialects so that the audience can understand first hand what each of these dialects are. When she talks about her father, Lyiscott uses her native tongue, when she talks to her fellow neighbors and close friends she switches it up to a more urbanized dialect, and when she is in school she masks the other two dialects with a professional sounding language.
John Milton’s Paradise Lost describes Hell as social, bearable, and escapable. First, Milton makes Hell social. In Book II, all of Heaven’s fallen angels hold a meeting. The audience is so big, Milton compares their cheering to “the sound of blust’ring winds, which all night long Had rous’d the sea” (II.286-7). This social “Hell” expressly opposes Biblical truth.
In the essay, “The Death of the Moth”, Virginia Woolf uses metaphor to convey that the relationship between life and death is one that is strange and fragile. Woolf tells the story of the life and death of a moth, one that is petite and insignificant. The moth is full of life, and lives life as if merry days and warm summers are the only things the moth knows. However, as the moth enters it’s last moments, it realizes that death is stronger than any other force. As the moth knew life seconds before, it has now deteriorated into death.
'Alice in Wonderland ' by Lewis Carroll is a novel that criticizes the way children were brought up during the Victorian society. Carroll presents the readers with the difficulties these offspring must endure in order to develop their own personalities/egos, as they become adults. For Alice, Wonderland appears to be the perfect place to start this learning adventure. A way to see her story is compering it to the world as if being upside-down. The first lesson Alice must learn in this peculiar journey through Wonderland is to achieve separation from the world around her and to stop identifying herself through others, in order to discover who she really is and who she wants to become in the future.
“If any one of them can explain it,” said Alice, “I’ll give him sixpence. I don’t believe there’s an atom of meaning in it.” In the book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, a little girl named Alice follows a White Rabbit through a hole into a topsy turvy chaotic world where she has many absurd adventures. From the March Hare, Dormouse, and Mad Hatter’s tea party to the game of crochet with the Queen of Hearts, Alice meets many strange characters. Finally, at the end of the story Alice wakes to find all her adventures was a dream.
seen in her dreams. It’s been thirteen years since Alice has been to Wonderland and she can’t quite remember it. She meets the Hatter, the Dormouse, the Dodo, the Talking Flowers, Tweedledee and Tweedledum (characters from the second book) and Absolem the Caterpillar. The story continues as Absolem predicts that Alice is the only person that could free Wonderland from the hands of the evil Red Queen on Frabjous Day in which she will slay the Jabberwocky.
