The Fringe Benefits Of Failure, And The Importance Of Rhetoric

Cigarettes are everywhere. These tiny objects that are held between the cusps of ones fingers hold unknown danger. They hold addictive substances and can lead to both immediate and long-term damage. Cigarettes used to be romanticized and glamourized by the media, but modern day campaigns have begun to reveal the truth about their dangerous effects. Through graphic imagery and audio choices, The Real Cost Campaign reaches out to young adults in order to demonstrate these consequences and render an emotional response of fear as well vanity by revealing an ugly side effect of smoking; distortion of skin.

Today’s society has been formed to follow a strict set of expectations and requirements. Anna Quindlen is a supporter of individuality and finding one’s self. In her speech, Quindlen uses the appeal of ethos, tone, and rhetoric devices to effectively persuade her audience to set aside the society’s expectations in a fight to become your own person. Within her speech, Quindlen uses the appeal of ethos in order to gain a sense of trust and credibility with her audience. Quindlen makes a point to mention her time working at New York Times and as a full-time novelist and how she, herself, faced the judgement of society when she decided to quit to be a mother.

Charlotte rejects her mother’s ideology from a young age, and has the perspective to see past the illusions of perfection her mother creates, and Miss. Hancock gives her the weapons to fight her mother. In seventh grade, Miss. Hancock teaches Charlotte about the metaphor, sparking the creativity within Charlotte her mother shunned. The metaphor becomes a symbol throughout the short story, but it also develops into something deeper. The metaphor becomes an allegory of Charlotte 's rebellion against her mother’s influence, and her future. Writing is an outlet, an opportunity for Charlotte to express and understand herself. The form of expression was a gift from Miss. Hancock, who arms her with the power of creativity. “‘My home,’ I said aloud, ‘is a box It is cool and quiet and empty and uninteresting. Nobody lives in the box,” Charlotte says in seventh grade. She has a complex understanding of herself, and is able to articulate her frustrations through metaphors. After graduating out of Miss. Hancock’s seventh grade class, the story picks up introducing the reader to Charlotte as a

Reyna Grande is a successful and amicable novelist, How did she get this way? It is inspiring to see someone from such an unfortunate background and can achieve so much in her life. Outliers: A Story of success by Malcolm Gladwell speaks about how one can be fostered into success. Not only has she mastered the art of writing, she has also used her hardships in her life, to light a fire in her heart that has continued to help on her journey to success. Gladwell examines the theory of the 10,000 hour rule, as well as the Matthew effect. Grande has gone through a lot in her life, and that is why the successes that Grande was able to achieve are truly inspiring. Reyna Grande’s external successes came from her ability to capitalize on Gladwell’s rules of success, like the 10,000 Hour rule, the Matthew effect, and grit.

Our Life is a matter of choices. Live well and have faith and it will never go wrong. Our lives can be full of crazy ups and downs that shape our views on how life should be lived. With a similar ideology, author Flannery O’Connor’s depicts her own life struggles using different aspects and details throughout her novels and short stories. O’Connor lived by the basis that life must go on no matter the hardships. In her novels she represented various characters who made wrong choices and due to those choices suffered extreme negative consequences. Despite her struggles, O’Connor made the choice to continue on in her life yet many of her novels contradicted that same idea by having characters in her novels and short stories suffer consequences for making the wrong choices. Because the

Distinguished Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, in his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”, discusses the effects indifference has on one’s humanity in both? societal and individual terms. Wiesel’s purpose is to illustrate the plight of those who suffer because of indifference and to appeal to the audience's consciences. He adopts a sympathetic, haunting, and accusatory tone in order to convey to audiences that society had not learned and many victims have and will continue to suffer injustices because of indifference. Ultimately, through the means of syntax devices such as juxtaposition, anaphora, diction, and rhetorical questioning, Weisel bolsters the supporting logic of his claim that indifference is a grave malady of humanity and to amend such an ailment one must look no further than the self. Wiesel’s comprehensive speech, “The Perils of Indifference” can be divided into three definitive sections: the contextualization of the suffering that occurs both past and present, an explication of “indifference”, and lastly Wiesel's earnest undertaking and rhetorical questioning of why we practice indifference.

Figurative language is a main component in showcasing the emotions the characters reveal. An example being when the author writes “ The children huddled up to her and breathed like little calves waiting at the bars in the twilight.” This portrays the children's emotions with more emphasis and really shows how they watched everything Granny Weatherall did with precision. This type of writing really helps the reader understand what is going on within the characters and their actions. The author also displays figurative language in the way she describes how John would be in the situation of them still being together. She describes him as being more of a child, rather than taking a parent role.

A rhetorical device is defined as, “a technique that an author uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective, using sentences designed to encourage or provoke an emotional display of a given perspective or action.” The speech, “The Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel, given on April 12, 1999, contains many rhetorical devices. The speaker, Elie Wiesel, born in 1928 in Romania, is a Holocaust survivor and a Nobel Laureate who met suffering and torture firsthand when he was taken to Aushwitz concentration camp as a teenager. Throughout the speech, Wiesel recalls his enslavement and hunger at Aushwitz to emphasize the purpose that the audience

Hundreds of students, parents, and faculty members gathered and created an audience to witness J.K Rowling’s speech at Harvard University in 2008. J.K Rowling is a well-known author, famous for her Harry Potter book series, and much more. Rowling’s speech was well thought out, and delivered excellently, with three main points she addresses throughout the speech. The three points being: failure can lead a person to success, never give up hope on your dreams and aspirations, and lastly Rowling emphasizes the importance of imagination. Sometimes we fail to see that the obstacles in our life help shape the road to our success in the future, and Rowling points out to us that failures and obstacles is what helped us become successful , and to never ignore that.

During the course of a person’s life, a decision is made as to which direction their life should follow. Most people are encouraged by their loved ones to make this choice for themselves. When Kelly Cherry was twelve, she announced to her musically devoted, string quartet violinist parents that she was going to quit piano lessons and become a writer, in response, “[her] mother said that she would rather kill [her] than have [her] turn out like [her] big brother, a beatnik. She ran to the kitchen to get [a] butcher knife” (“Kelly Cherry”). Needless to say, she was not supported in this career path. Throughout the course of her early writing career, she would hear that she “had no talent for writing” (“Kelly Cherry”). Still, she continued to write, occasionally quitting again and again, like a smoker, only to pick it up again (“Kelly Cherry”). Continually she told herself, “You are not a writer” until one day she revised this to, “If you don’t write your books, no one else will” (“Kelly Cherry”).

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.

When trying to persuade someone, there are many ways one can approach the task, and appealing to the audience's intellect as well as their emotions are two very good ones. Indeed, in Emily Bronte's 19th century novel Wuthering Heights, the protagonist, Catherine Earnshaw Linton shows her ability to customize persuasive appeals according to her intended audience. At times, she can display impressive emotion. She usually employs this tactic for Nelly, her housemaid. During one explosive scene, however, she uses the same in her interaction with Edgar, her intended husband. Each person has an opinion of Catherine's emotionally persuasive style. And, Edgar and Nelly react quite differently to her changing modes.

Within Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling the selective use of language accentuates various ideas and notions, demonstrating the capability words have in manipulating perceptions. It is the strategic placement of double-entendres on behalf of DeFlores that greatly affect consequences, as disguising his lustful intents as honesty aids in the damnation of himself and Beatrice. Although deceiving in nature only to Beatrice, through the insertion of asides, only the audience remains knowledgeable of these entendres, causing troublesome irony. Furthermore, it is the manipulation of language that really accentuates the effects of Beatrice’s ignorentia, causing her to descend the social order, and, incite her objectification. Hence, it is

Nearly all writing exhibits rhetorical elements to convey the writer’s message in a meaningful way. These techniques assist the readers in connecting with the author to fully understand the message and can also be used by the writer to influence the audience to feel a certain way about a topic. As Doug Downs said, “Some people learn to be rhetorical experts who can take those underlying principles shaping human interaction and finesse them in specific activities,” (460,1).Using rhetorical elements to appeal to an audience’s emotions have always been a foolproof way for urging people to pay attention to what you have to say and is almost the most persuasive technique. However, many other rhetorical techniques can also be used to prompt an audience to really adhere to what the writer is trying to convey. Such devices are beautifully displayed in J.K. Rowling’s commencement speech, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”, to Harvard University’s 2008 graduates and in George Saunders’ speech, “Congratulations, by the Way”, to the Syracuse University 2013 graduates. J.K. Rowling and George Saunders use many rhetorical elements in their speeches, such as identification, motivational aspects, and the use of story-telling to gracefully convey their personal experiences and wisdom to the audience of young adults. Both speeches were influential and powerful; However, I feel as though J.K. Rowling’s speech was more effective in terms of delivery, because of

Using imagination and creativity, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has defined literature as transformative. In this seven-book series J.K Rowling imagined and creatively pieced together a fantasy world of muggles, wizards, tyrants, and heroes to symbolically share with readers problems plaguing modern society. Similar to Shelley’s work of the past, never before have readers in the modern era seen teenage and adult mania surrounding an 11-year-old wizard. Some will argue that J.K. Rowling’s young-adult series lacks depth or wants to twist young minds by using magic and evil, but through close examination it is evident that