Rhetorical Reading Analysis Of Dorothy Allison's 'Context'

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his bold novel, The Scarlet Letter tackles a variety of themes that include: sin, guilt, redemption, postfeminism, and organized religion's abuse of power. Hawthorne spoke in a somber and grim tone, designed to arouse a sense of suspense for his readers. The audience in which he was addressing would have been conservative Christians and women suffragettes, all of whom reflected the ideologies during this time period. By instilling clever diction, Hawthorne exposes hypocrisy in Puritanism and objects against the religion's superfluous punishments; which force individuals to endure unnecessary and extreme suffering.

Florence Kelley delivered a speech to the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1905. Her speech is a plead for improving the existing child labor laws and working conditions. Throughout her speech, Florence Kelley utilizes many rhetorical strategies to convey her message about child labor laws, these strategies include: appeal to logos, parallel structure, and anecdote.

In the middle of the speech, Florence Kelley states the situation regarding the legality of child labor in many states, using firm facts, doleful repetition, and ironic diction to arouse within the audience a sympathetic response to want the children removed from their harmful situations along with the logical response of wanting to repeal the laws associated with allowing children in damaging manufacturing industries. Kelley employs several examples of different laws in different states allowing children to work long hours at young ages. One example given describes even the lack of restrictions on child labor whatsoever. “In Georgia there is no restriction whatever! A girl of six or seven years…may work eleven hours by day or by night.” Utilizing

Many Minorities have been faced with constant stereotypes throughout their lives. Not only has this always been an issue for an extreme amount of time, but it has also negatively affected many people and how they live their lives. Judith Ortiz Cofer beautifully encompasses how Latin Women experience these stereotypes in an informative way by using specific rhetorical devices. However, her main purpose is to expel the negative experiences that she has with stereotyping, so all can understand the impact of it. Some of the rhetorical devices Cofer uses in her essay are ethos, pathos, and anecdotal evidence.

In the passage, The Horizontal World, Debra Marquart states, “Driving west from Fargo on I–94, the freeway that cuts through the state of North Dakota, you’ll encounter a road so lonely, treeless, and devoid of rises and curves in places that it will feel like one long-held pedal steel guitar note” (Marquart 1). Debra Marquart, along with several others, share a great passion for the Midwest. The Midwest is an area that is truly full of the unknown, as much of its qualities are not known to society. The Midwest can easily be viewed as bland and insipid, yet also overly structured and undisclosed. It can be exceptionally difficult for one to fully understand the Midwest due to its size and variation. Although, all in all, it most certainly can be described as an area, whose positives are not know by all. In Debra Marquart’s writing, The Horizontal World, she utilizes comical satires and evident allusion to characterize the land of the upper Midwest.

In 1905, in the United States, some children as young as six years old are working in factories and women aren’t allowed to vote. Florence Kelley is a fiery and inspiring child labor activist and also a suffragette. On July 22, 1905, in Philadelphia, she gives a speech to the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to try to rally them to assist her in her main cause which is fixing the child labor system. In her speech where she doesn’t hold back, Kelley lets the audience know why the child labor system is atrocious and why they should get involved. She also tells them the steps that they should take to try to right these wrongs, in convincing their husbands to vote for child labor

Eliza Stacey attempts to persuade her father-in-law to help her family once again. Her husband, George, has been arrested for an unpaid debt. Stacey’s family does not have enough money to pay this debt off. To make the situation even more complicated, Stacey has had to ask her father-in-law for help in the past. However, the author is able to make a compelling case. In order to accomplish this, she uses many rhetorical strategies such as the three appeals and repetition.

Jane Addams’ speech explains her stance of George Washington's legacy as a soldier, statesman, and a Virginia planter. In this speech, Jane Addams references George Washington’s accomplishments in his past, including how things would be if he is to be present today. The most significant uses of rhetorical devices in this speech include hypophora, rhetorical questions, enumeratio, distinctio, and metaphors.

Willa Cather has a great understanding of diction and thoroughly displays it in My Antonia. Anton Jelinek, a newly arrived immigrant from Bohemia, still calls Italians, “Eytalian … kawn-tree … we was showed in” (69) and mispronounces country and does not yet understand English grammar. He comments that, “I make my first communion very young,” (71). Jelinek’s informal dialogue fits his character because he is an immigrant and has just barely started to learn English. Therefore, his bad grammar, his accent, and mispronunciations make sense for who he is and where he came from, especially when taken into account where he is in his life. In contrast, Jim, who grew up in America and is native to the land, has a highly developed vocabulary and comments on how things are, “taciturn … [or] queer,” (72) and notes that Krajiek, “shrunk along behind them,” (75). He describes the, “bluish air, full of fine eddying snow, like long veils flying,” (76) and uses the words, “propitiatory intent” (77). Jim has a more formal language and is more educated that the immigrants of the towns. It is logical because it is written from the view of Jim as an adult looking back. As he looks back, he finds more complete words to describe situations that when he was actually in them. Jim’s vocabulary enlarged over time, so changes in how he describes his memories or reasonable.

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.

Individual rhetorical analysis of the selected readings by Olaudah Equiano, Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Beecher Stowe are necessary to arrive at a collective analysis of the most effective strategies.

In the year 1990, a war between Iraq and Kuwait created numerous problems and hardships for many individuals including those who were not even affiliated with the region. An example of one of these problems is between an American mother, Mary Ewald, and her son Hart Ewald, who had been taken hostage by military forces under the leadership of the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Mrs. Ewald uses several rhetorical strategies and devices scattered throughout her letter in order to achieve a convincing and thought provoking plead. These strategies include effective and elaborate usage of logos pathos and ethos, and a very professional and intelligent tone.

“Girl Unprotected”, by Laura Robinson, was published on May 11, 2008. In this essay, the author informs the reader about the dark side of hockey culture in Canada. Serious, formal, and objective tones are used throughout this essay in order to create a negative tone without using negative forms of diction. This technique is used so that the writing shows no bias, however, has the ability to sway the reader's opinion. In doing this, the author keeps an objective, unwavering stand on the issue yet plays with the reader's sense of pathos and ethos. Pathos and Ethos are used in the essay as successful forms of rhetoric. Robinson begins with a second person point of view, connecting with the reader and enticing them to continue reading. Although, as we move forward in the text, the author takes on an objective, the first-person point of view on the court cases later described. The essay takes on an inductive form of reasoning and argumentation. This is proven in the way that the author discusses the issues of a small town hockey team and moves forward to discuss the coaches and players of the much larger NHL organization.

In her work, “This is Our World,” Dorothy Allison shares her perspective of how she views the world as we know it. She has a very vivid past with searing memories of her childhood. She lives her life – her reality – because of the past, despite how much she wishes it never happened. She finds little restitution in her writings, but she continues with them to “provoke more questions” (Allison 158) and makes the readers “think about what [they] rarely want to think about at all” (158).

In her essay, “Context” (1994), Dorothy Allison explores the feelings of fear and shame she experienced as a child that continue to affect her as an adult. Allison recounts the fear she struggled with prior to having her lover come meet her family for the first time, and then she describes how her lover’s reaction to the family triggered in Allison a similar memory from her childhood. Allison examines the childhood memory and the adult circumstance, in order to show how these two different experiences, stir up in Allison the same feelings of fear and shame. This essay serves as a reminder to all readers, that one should be sensitive to the feelings of people who are related anyone who communicates in a way that seems strange or coarse. I can relate to