Rhetorical Analysis Of Compassion, By Barbara Ascher

Barbara Lazear Ascher writes a well formed essay on the concept of compassion. Compassion is something that we do for others out of the kindness of our hearts. She focuses more on the poor, just how we show them sympathy, why do we do such things. Is showing empathy from our hearts or just for them to go away. I enjoyed this essay due to the fact, that she gives humanistic reasons on why people are compassionate, she doesn’t sugar coat anything, and lastly she breaks down the compassion that she sees everyday.

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss (...) These people have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen” (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross). Compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern make mankind beautiful, but it also makes it defenseless . When one has concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others, he takes sacrifices, risks, and lives with uncertainty. When man is compassionate, he lives a vulnerable life. Love and compassion bring out the beauty in mankind, but they can also bring out its weaknesses. Because of man’s compassion, he

Compassion is a feeling that humans portray towards others, but you also have to act in some way to aid them and to decrease their suffering. Barbara Lazear Ascher's purpose “On Compassion” of her essay was to distinguish emotions that people feel towards homeless people. She posed the question of whether or not people feel compassion or pity towards homeless people. The thesis

Ascher uses compassion to make us feel sad for the homeless man at the end of the story by showing us a great deal of pathos. This is when she really starts to get you thinking. She says “Could it be that this was the response of the mother who offered the dollar, the French woman who gave the food? Could it be that the homeless, like those ancients, are reminding us of our common humanity? Of course, there is a difference. This play doesn 't end- and the players can 't go home” (3). Following this, she is trying to get us to understand where these people really trying to do acts of kindness or were they just trying to get this poor man out of their heir. She makes you think how their expressions and actions tie into this and if they are a trying to get him out of the way, why? We need to help them. Another way the author makes us feel bad for the homeless is by saying “His hands continue to dangle at his sides. He does not know his part. He does not know that acceptance of the gift and gratitude are what make this transaction complete. The baby, weary of the unwavering stare, pulls its blanket over its head. The man does not look away. Like a bridegroom waiting at the altar, his eyes pierce the white veil.

The tone of Ascher’s essay can best be described as thoughtful and reflective. Ascher is able to achieve this tone in her quote, “He wears a stained blanket pulled down to his

“And yet, it may be that these are the conditions that finally give birth to empathy, the mother of compression. We cannot deny the existence of the helpless as their presence grows. It is impossible to insulate ourselves against what is at our very doorstep. I don’t believe that one is born compassionate. Compassion is

Later in the story Ascher starts talking about the “Soup lady”, a lady who hasn't yet accepted loneliness. She orders soup every night and is so lonely that she “Drags it out as long as possible”(Ascher 9). The author then throws in some Imagery by saying “Fall from dry fingers and burst onto the soups shimmering surface”(Ascher 9). We get a visual of the lonely old soup lady. Ascher explains to us she is miserable and has no family whatsoever. Ascher states “ no memories linger there”(Ascher 9). As she explains her life, us the readers begin to feel bad for the soup lady. Ascher portrayed the rhetorical strategy “Pathos” while giving us this example.

“A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal”. This quote by Steve Maraboli may be hard to understand, but the Holocaust texts: Night by Elie Wiesel, “A Three Year Old Saves His Mother” by Peter Gorog and “Jakob's Story” by Jakob Blankitny are great examples of where compassion is necessary to fight the despair in heartbreaking situations. In each work, compassion shows up from unexpected sources, helps motivate people to survive, and creates greater unification.

By using precise negative and positive imagery to display the way homeless are seen and should be treated, Ascher argues that homeless people should be respected. Ascher describes the nightly activities of the Box Man as he runs down the street, Ascher writes, “His collar was pulled so high that he appeared headless.” By depicting the Box Man as headless, he is seen as a monster and therefore loses

Barbara Huttman’s “A Crime of Compassion” has many warrants yet the thesis is not qualified. This is a story that explains the struggles of being a nurse and having to make split-second decisions, whether they are right or wrong. Barbara was a nurse who was taking care of a cancer patient named Mac. Mac had wasted away to a 60-pound skeleton (95). When he walked into the hospital, he was a macho police officer who believed he could single-handedly protect the whole city (95). His condition worsened every day until it got so bad that he had to be resuscitated two or three times a day. Barbara eventually gave into his wishes to be let go. Do you believe we should have the right to

Compassion, by definition, is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. In our modern society, compassion plays a major role in the act of kindness. Many people believe that doing a good deed is a selfless act since they do not get nothing in return. Others believe that doing a good deed to make you feel good about yourself is selfish. It is a theory that causes you to ponder on the purpose of compassion. In Barbara Lazear Ascher’s essay, On Compassion, she contemplates this theory. By using a variety of writing techniques, Ascher is able to share her views on compassion in way that speaks to the audience.

Where we are is the grand culmination of hundreds of years of cooperating as a species to make for a grander environment that appeals to “all.” Despite our constant effort to improve the quality of life on earth, however, an increasingly tremendous problem pertaining the same subject has been growing “right below our noses”: homelessness. We, the common people, typically place those in such plight into great disregard; push them not off the streets but to the far back of our heads. In the article “On Compassion”, former NEW YORK TIMES columnist, Barbara Ascher, teaches us the ignorance of our denial and the importance of the helpless’ presence, and she does this through the heavy use of contrast, figurative language, a good quantity of rhetorical questions, and some very clever wording. She suggested that the presence of the homeless helps teach us compassion. Afterall, “compassion is not a character trait like a sunny disposition. It must be learned.”

Ascher believes observing the adversity of homelessness is a necessity in learning compassion because “Compassion is not a character trait. . .It must be learned, and it is learned by having adversity at our windows” (Cohen 42). Ascher believes we can learn and grow from others' adverse experiences without being a part of it. Although Ascher would have us believe we can learn compassion simply through observing adversity at our windows (homelessness), Eighner would likely disagree because he has struggled in adversity and learned the importance of true sentiment first hand, not through observation. Eighner writes of the importance of having an intimate connection with adversity in his own homelessness, “Once I was the sort of person who invests material objects with sentimental value. Now I no longer have those things, but I have the sentiments yet. . . .The things I find in dumpsters, the love letters and ragdolls of so many lives, remind me of this lesson” (Cohen 157, 158). Eighner has grown and holds sentiment in those lessons because he had those experiences, not because he has simply observed others. Ascher gives us a lesson in learning from adversity but does so from an outsiders' point of view while Eighner's personal experience contrasts to shows us that much can be learn from experiencing adversity more intimately.

Compassion has little to no boundries. In almost every great story there is a specific character or a group of characters that help the protagonist because they feel bad for them. Compassion is the most important aspect of a functioning society; therefore, Elie Wiesel’s Night, 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose, and the generosity of spirit shown by the average citizen after the recent shooting in Las Vegas are all perfect examples.

Compassion represents an “acknowledgement of another’s suffering and is accompanied by the expression of a desire to ease or end that suffering.” (Van der Cingal, 2009, p. 124) This is a fundamental characteristic usually found in health care workers and nurses especially. In one twelve hour shift, a nurse’s job can change from taking vitals and administering medications to performing life saving measures