Stephen King Rhetorical Analysis

Recently, scholars have analyzed King’s (2003) chapter You’ll Never Believe What Happened is Always a Good Way to Start, with the intent to discover King’s rhetorical techniques and overall purpose. At the time of his speech, the world was “predominantly scientific, capitalistic, Judeo-Christian” (p.12). Firstly, Cassandra Plettell (2017) found that King utilizes ethos to demonstrate how stories may alter an individual’s perception (p.2). Similarly, Emma Murphy (2017) found that King uses ethos and pathos that “portrays the idea that stories have the ability to greatly impact individuals’ lives” (p.2). Then, Ajodeji Edna Adetimechin (2017) found that King uses ethos, pathos, and logos to convince his audience of the influential power that stories “have in shaping perspectives” (p.2). In general, they have found that King’s purpose is regarding the influential powers of stories with the use of ethos, pathos and/or logos. In addition to Plettell, Murphy and Adetimechin’s finding, I would like to go a step further and argue that King’s overall purpose is to persuade the audience that the Genesis creation story has formulated a culture that lacks forgiveness, compassion, and unity (King, 2003, pp.24-27). Inclusively, I will argue how King utilizes his personal experiences with stories, emotional appeals, and writing arrangement in order to gradually persuade his highly intellectual audience.

Ethos is basically the authors credibility, the reader must decide if the author of the writing is trustworthy and believable. Pathos is how to author appeals

Her knees entered the ground. Her moment had arrived. Still in disbelief, she started to dig. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t- Within seconds, snow was carved

The “Climax” is the moment of greatest emotional intensity and/or the turning point in the story for the main character. The climax of The Book Thief is when the planes bombed Himmel Street while everyone was still asleep. It was the moment of greatest emotional intensity because Liesel had that kindness that spread around with those she meets, she cared deeply for Hans, Rosa, and Rudy, and when they died, you could feel the emotion that Liesel had, it was all too much. “In disbelief, Liesel buried her head into Rudy’s chest. She held his limp body, trying to keep him from lolling back, until she needed to return him to the butchered ground.” “She took a step and didn’t want to take any more, but she did. Slowly, Liesel walked to her mama and

Markus Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, displays several ways to help readers analyze the story. He uses diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax which allows his audience to master the content in the story.

In part four of ‘The Book Thief’, there is a flashback to when Hans was in World War 1. In the chapter ‘The Accordionist’, Hans, Erik Vandenburg (Max’s father), and many other soldiers were stationed in France. One day, the sergeant asked who the best writer was. Because of the first incident in which a soldier had to clean the restroom with a toothbrush, none of the soldiers wanted to volunteer. Finally, Erik Vandenburg stepped up and proclaimed Hans as the best writer. The sergeant then told Hans he had to write a couple dozen letters, because the captain couldn’t, while the rest went into a battle. None who were involved in the battle came back.

Jonathan Edwards is one of the leaders of the “Great Awakening.” Before reading the text, determine the historical context through online research. In one or two sentences, briefly define the historical context of Edward's’ speech. What does Edwards hope to accomplish with this sermon? Define his purpose.

Thesis: King brilliantly applies rhetorical strategies such as pathos, logos and ethos that are crucial in successfully influencing detractors of his philosophical views on civil disobedience.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner is an action, adventure, science fiction book. It is about a teenager named Thomas, who arrives in an enclosed environment with no memory of his past. He lives with other teenagers, all boys. Everyday, they try to figure out a way to escape the maze, and seek freedom, but Thomas figured a way out. All of the gladers (the nickname of the people, due to them living in a place called the glade) ran out in the maze, most of them were killed by grievers (monsters that live in the maze), but some of them survived including Thomas. The survivors escaped the maze.

In his article “Reading to Write” Stephen King uses various rhetorical strategies to persuade his audience that reading is necessary to writing. Rhetorical strategies are used as tools to strengthen an argument. These literary tools could be used to establish credibility, create emotional ties, or maintain a connection with the reader. Throughout his article “Reading to Write” Stephen King uses multiple rhetorical strategies and literary tools such as his unique use of diction, personal anecdote, and rhetorical questioning to persuade his audience that reading well is imperative to writing well.

Authors use literary elements and techniques as tools to convey meaning. These devices are the means by which authors bring richness and clarity to a text. They express moods or feelings that allow the reader to connect with the writing. In On Writing, the author, Stephen King makes use of literary elements to tell his story. The techniques King uses are effective in portraying vivid images and feelings in the reader’s mind.

The Kite Runner focuses on the journey of Amir as he struggles both mentally and physically to make up for a horrible wrong that he committed in his past that continues to haunt him to this day. He encounters many difficulty, fear, and happiness. Hosseini teaches his readers that it is necessary to channel one’s guilt into a means of redemption because although forgiveness may not be granted right away, as long as moral actions are taken, atonement will eventually ensue.

King utilizes ethos and pathos effectively throughout his book “On Writing” in order to progress his thoughts and experiences to make his argument stronger. The author makes some notable points in each section of the book by implementing rhetoric to accomplish the purpose, which is to get across to the reader’s minds what they must do in order to better themselves as writers and become successful in the writing world. King’s paramount argument was that writing isn’t about the materialistic rewards you will receive, such as money, getting famous, etc.; it is about bettering yourself and inspiring others who read your work as well as yourself as you journey the wonders of your mind.

After days of fixing his steamboat while traveling up the Congo River, Marlow allows himself to interpret the environment that is surrounding him. He heard the sound of chants, drums, and howls in which he identified as a “kinship” with the native and view them as “inhuman.” As he heard the sound of the natural environment, Marlow described his trip in viewing the native’s village as he and his crew traveled towards the Inner Station. His viewed his journey upriver to been consisted of disturbing and strange sceneries. He took glances towards the native Africans and their lives in which distorted him due to his “kinship” with them, however has only the chance to see them as “inhuman.” Marlow reflected his own perception of being narrow minded where he is classifying the native Africans to be considered as a historical versions of his own self and to not be potentially equal. Joseph

Sometimes whats ideal in a situation is not what the truth of the situation and can cause your ideals to be lost. In William Golding’s novel, “Lord of the Flies”, he demonstrates a shift in some of the characters from the thought of idealism to the reality and truth of the world. Ralph is a good example of this shift, he starts out thinking the island will be a fun place and they’ll have fun waiting to be rescued, but soon he realizes that there is going to be more hardship and struggles to keep up the moral and hope of rescue. In the book Ralph wanted to keep everyone safe and get them off the island, but Jack wants to be a leader and messes up his plans, making it so that Ralph is alone in his plan to get rescued.