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The Great Influenza John Barry Analysis

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2008 AP english lang question 2 In the passage titled The great Influenza written by John Barry he talks about how scientists conduct scientific research and what it takes to be a scientist. He uses rhetorical strategies such as repetition, allusions and rhetorical questions. In the first paragraph Barry uses repetition numerous times with the words such as “certainty and uncertainty”. This is also an example of compare and contrast, he compares certainty with uncertantiy.By using these words he tells the reader that to be a scientist you need both certainty as well as uncertainty. The first paragraph also includes examples of logos; when Barry says “to be a scientist requires not only intelligence and curiosity, but passion, patience, creativity, self sufficient, and courage”. One can agree that the sentence is an example of logos because it is a logical statement that to be a scientist you have to have all of those traits. The whole passage is about scientists as well as scientific research, Barry writes with a purpose and the purpose is to tell people about scientists as well as what it takes. The second paragraph starts off with a historical allusion to Einstein, And …show more content…

If the rock is impenetrable, if dynamite would destroy what one is looking for, is there another way of getting 45 information about what the rock holds? There is a stream passing over the rock. Would analyzing the water after it passes over the rock reveal anything useful? How would one analyze it?”. His use of rhetorical questions to emphasize his point id done well and it also helps the reader to think about some questions he is asking. Although the typical reader wouldn't be able to know the answer to these complex questions because they are not a scientist it could also be an example of

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Through the use of anaphora, metaphor, and informative figurative language, Barry portrays the work of a scientist as challenging and complex. Barry begins by using patterns of repetition and anaphora in the first paragraph. He does this to strengthen the traditional recognition that certainty is good and uncertainty is bad. Providing these antithetical concepts of uncertainty v. certainty, or good v. bad, also strengthen his claim that the work of a scientist is challenging and complex. Next, Barry complicates our understanding of the nature of scientific research through the use of metaphor throughout the essay.

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In the first paragraph Barry begins by listing the differences of the strength and conviction of certainty with the weakness and fear of uncertainty to better define “uncertainty”. In his second paragraph he starts establishing the direction; He starts with listing the qualities that a scientist should have, ending with an emphasis on courage. Barry does not think courage means “venturing into the unknown,” which is a professional way of saying “jumping off a cliff that you don’t have any idea how high is, eyes closed, screaming” but instead the courage to face the fact that everything you know could be shattered upon the “sharp edge of a single finding.” In his third paragraph, Barry continues emphasis on, is that to be a good scientist you have to reject all that is not fact. This means the total rejection of religion, the afterlife and anything that may be commonly accepted

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At any time, a scientist's research can be torn apart by a new finding or experiment. In line 21 Barry says that "uncertainty requires a confidence

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