Rhetorical Analysis Of The Company Man By Ellen Goodman

According to Richard Lanham, Rhetorical Man is identified as actor whose sense of identity depends on the support of “daily histrionic reenactment.” I see this kind of person as lively as well as dramatic. By identifying as an actor, Rhetorical Man, I assume, can adjust themselves to any ‘character’ they put on. This is not to say that they do not have their own characteristic. They do. However, their nature selves are not rigid. They are fluid to adapt to the situation they have. Moreover, this person is believed not to dwell in a single value structure for they have several which change constantly. Therefore, they occupy a complex and dramatic reality. Rhetorical man is also perceived as an explorer of resources.

How many times have you dropped those swimming classes? When was last time you put off in getting that enrollment for the gym? “Unlimited” ads campaign by Nike, appeals to its audience by showing people who even having certain difficulties, go after what they want and push their limits as much as they can, which is not a little. The ads feature a grown Sister competing in a triathlon, a transgender who runs with the National men’s team and a climber with no extremities. Nike didn’t choose these actors for its ads by accident, they are source of inspiration for all those athletes that always put the best of themselves in whichever the activity that passionate them is. People who would be the main target for this campaign.

In “The Company Man” by Ellen Goodman, throughout the passage Goodman illustrates her feelings of distaste and anger toward Phil, as he in her mind represents Corporate America: routine, indifferent, almost robotic. Goodman uses numerous rhetorical strategies to convey her attitude toward Phil, including tone, repetition, the use of statistics, sarcasm, anecdotes, differing syntax, and irony.

Our teacher, Mrs. Hetrick, provided the answer to our question: “These essays could have easily been generated by a computer program. They tell me nothing about yourselves; why in the world you are telling me all of this? You need to make me care about the message you are conveying, otherwise, your writing is useless.” She then told us that while we were all communicating in the proper format, we had failed to take into consideration whom our audience was. In order to truly persuade and influence our audience, we had to do more than place complicated ideas into a grammatically immaculate sentences; we need to show the audience why they should care about our writing; otherwise, they will just lose interest. I realize now that this experience provided a stable foundation for what I consider to be an example of passionate rhetorical ability, which helps me reflect on what authors Wallace deems as “good” through their rhetorical strategies.

What it did mention though – his “survivors” – served to arouse pity and mourning for his death. However, their statements only ironically reinforce Phil’s meaningless. His “ ‘dearly beloved’ eldest of the ‘dearly beloved’ ” child researched about his father the day before the funeral in a frantic and futile attempt to get to know him. Phil’s youngest child, his favorite, once said that “my father and I only board here,” distancing Phil away from him. Nobody, not even his children, cares about Phil, even on his deathbed. The final nail in the coffin is when his wife fails to “look [the company’s president] into the eye” and honors her husband’s death. Instead, she values preserving her relationship with the company president who will “straighten out the finances – the stock options and all that.” Phil leaves behind no legacy. His life, full of numbers, devoid of meaning, is just like every “company man” - and just like every “company man,” he will be

The first passage reveals the parallel suffering occurring in the lives of different members of the family, which emphasizes the echoes between the sufferings of the father and the narrator. The narrator’s father’s despair over having watched

Joey Franklin makes masterful use of rhetoric in his essay “Working at Wendy’s” to construct an entertaining and compelling argument in favor of recognizing that the workers of the service industry are more than just undistinguished drones, but rather complicated people, each with their own desires and stories. To this end, the author utilizes the effective rhetoric device of pathos, logos, and ethos. Franklin demonstrates an excellent use of imagery that serves as a conduit for empathy, which is vital for the use of pathos, the emotional appeal. In reference to logos, the appeal to logic, he paints the picture of a hard-working father that needs to provide for his family. This is a clear representation of common logic and ties into ethos, which is the rhetorical appeal to authority and ethics, in the sense that many people can relate to caring about and working to support family. For ethos, he establishes himself as your everyday working man — part of the working class. This shows that he’s clearly apt for speaking of the position he’s in, and allows the audience to relate to him through pathos.

Joey Franklin makes masterful use of rhetoric in his essay “Working at Wendy’s” to construct an entertaining and compelling argument in favor of recognizing that the workers of the service industry are not just undistinguished drones, but rather complicated people, each with their own desires and stories. To this end, the author utilizes the effective rhetorical device of pathos, logos, and ethos. Franklin demonstrates an excellent use of imagery that serves as a conduit for empathy, which is vital for the use of pathos, the emotional appeal. In reference to logos, the appeal to logic, he paints the picture of a hard-working father that needs to provide for his family. This is a clear representation of common logic and ties into ethos, which is the rhetorical appeal to authority and ethics, in the sense that many people can relate to caring about and working to support family. For ethos, he establishes himself as your everyday working man — part of the working class. This shows that he’s clearly apt for speaking of the position he’s in, and allows the audience to relate to him through pathos.

Florence Kelley, an active social worker and reformer of the 20th century, rants over the horrendous working conditions kids must endure. She presents this in her speech before National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, which provides context and credibility for her argument. Kelley argues clearly of the terrible conditions and work hours kids suffer to bring about her message of, “enlisting the workingmen voters.” This is essentially to free the kids from the disastrous issue through her usage of credibility, empathetic tone to strike the audience, and her usage of examples of their conditions and state rules to support her message and purpose.

In an essay described about Ellen Terry, the author depicts this widely talented individual by using metaphors, juxtaposition, and rhetorical questions. This author portrays Ellen Terry in a positive light as a writer, author, and actress. Ellen is not only praised for her natural talent, she is also most widely recognized as one of the first to be completely original in her endeavors. The author compares her to famous actors and writers, such as Shakespeare, to help sway her intended audience to grasp the vast range of talent that Ellen embodies. She mentions that Ellen’s talent is so great that she often surpasses the works of these well-known writers due to her ability to set herself apart from all others.

Going through the “significant parts” of Phil’s life, Goodman stays away from going into detail about Phil’s relationship with family and work life. She explains a conversation said at the funeral: “... the sixty-year-old company president told the forty-year-old widow that the fifty-one-year-old deceased husband had meant much…” Calling the people by their age and titles, names, and not including exactly what they say. Goodman approaches Phil’s situation with an emotionless and bitter attitude by labeling the people in the passage with very little

Corporation life consists of putting work and your career in front of everything else, and author Ellen Goodman uses her writing to warn others of its downsides. In the passage “The Company Man”, Goodman uses many rhetorical devices to illustrate her displeasure and irritation towards Phil. Goodman incorporates a unique style of diction, repetition, and anecdotes in her writing to achieve her emphasis on Phil’s lifestyle and to caution the reader about prioritizing work over personal health and family. In the brilliantly written piece of satire, "The Company Man", Ellen Goodman discreetly attacks the atypical hard-working middle class men in the 1980's society, who tend to be blinded by the illusion of wealth and prosperity and forget what is truly important – their own families and their own values. It seems that almost everyday on the news there is a new death mentioned of someone taken far too soon. There are always different stories behind them

Rhetoric is a course in which students are taught the values of persuasion. And yet, behind this course is the utmost power to corrupt the world, changing it into a world of our own policies. This power, even though seldom discussed, has lead to many intriguing discoveries. One such discovery is how people are able to shape the world they live in simply by choosing the right words. Therefore those who would want the world to be a better place must protect this power. If in the wrong hands this power could cause serious damage. Several authors have striven to protect rhetoric and its power. Few agree on the matter of defining rhetoric, but they know that they must protect rhetoric from dark souls. A single definition of rhetoric must maintain a simplistic nature while incorporating every aspect of rhetoric. However, I argue that rhetoric is a means of persuading audiences of a situation and a particular reality through language and personal appeal. In order to prove this definition I will discuss how rhetoric creates a situation, the shaping of a different reality, the audience, the use of language, and the personal appeal. Finally, I will demonstrate the absolute need for rhetoric.

In The Rhetorical Situation, Lloyd F. Bitzer argues that what makes a situation rhetorical is similar to that which constitutes a moral action as he writes that, “an act is moral because it is an act performed in a situation of a certain kind; similarly, a work is rhetorical because it is a response to a situation of a certain kind”.(3) By defining the rhetorical situation in this way, Bitzer further contends that rhetoric is a means to altering reality. (4) It is through the use of discourse that one is capable of changing reality through thought and action. (4) Bitzer then elaborates upon the nature of a rhetorical situation by explaining that rhetorical discourse enters a situation when: providing a response to its state of affairs;

When he had gone as far as the meeting-house, he looked back and saw that she was still looking after him – with a melancholy air. He chided himself, “What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand!” Yet he, in his prioritizing, gave her a back seat to his wishes and continued on his way. When into the dense forest, he met the “grave” man who berated him lightly for his tardiness; Goodman defended himself by blaming it on his wife, “Faith kept me back awhile.” There was no pause to reflect on the uprightness of his actions; he quite naturally and unhesitatingly blamed Faith for something for which she was most