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Reject Syrian Refugees Gayle Lemmon Analysis

Decent Essays

Persuasive or Poor Argument? America has admitted 2,152 Syrian Refugees out of the estimated 4 million refugees that have left their home country, Syria. This caused conflict with Americans citizens. Some Americans do not think any Syrian refugees should be let in, some think only certain refugees should, and some think all refugees should. In the attempted-pursuasive text “Rejecting Syrian Refugees goes against American ideals,” author Gayle Lemmon uses guilt, shaming, and patriotism to try to sway the reader towards her opinion on this subject. This is not a well written pursuasive article. The author begins the theme of guilt by informing the reader on the House vote to stop bringing in any more refugees into the U.S. Next she re-tells selected parts of America’s history, “For the United States, a country thats a symbol of freedom and liberty worldwide, this marks a erosion of the America whose citizens are bound by ideals and aspirations to forge, as the founders said, ‘a more perfect union.’” Calling out America’s ‘erosion’ puts doubt or guilt into the American reader, making them feel like America’s problem is their personal problem. If the reader was previously against letting …show more content…

Gayle Lemmon uses quotes from President Ronald Reagan and builds him up as someone to be trusted. Many people think he did very well during his time as president so using quotes from “none other than President Ronald Reagan” could give the reader patriotic pride. The author confirms that “Reagan was right.” This is depending on the reader’s opinion of Ronald Reagan and America in the first place. The author also begins an annecdote within the article starting with the topic of September 11. This makes the reader think back into America’s negative past with terrorists which contrasts to the author’s point. This could get a patriotic response from some Americans, but not a positive one in favor of letting Syrian people into

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