Rhetorical Techniques In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer

     Personification is a literary mode used when the author gives an inanimate object a human quality. This also helps Roethke to create his imagery. He even gives the dirt on the basement floor life:

Personification brings animals and objects to live by giving them human characteristics. George William Russell says in the poem “A Call” “Earth renew the music sweeter”. He makes the earth come to live by implying that the earth is singing. In this excerpt from the poem, the earth is pleasant. He uses personification in a number of other poems for example the poem, “Alter

Personification is a figure of speech where human qualities are given to animal, objects, thoughts or ideas (Literary Devices). Personification is a literary technique that draws attention to the humanistic characteristics in which make non human objects become symbols for humanistic characteristics. Personification interpretation in Greek mythology suggests that the Gods should be viewed as symbols for humanistic traits rather than actual

Symbol - A symbol is a graphical, written, vocal or physical object which represents another, usually more complex, physical or abstract object, or an object property.

Greg: A syllogism(rhetorical device that starts an argument with a reference to something general and from this it draws conclusion about something more specific)!

“Treat Others How You Want to be Treated” “It takes change to make change” – Anonymous. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, authored by Mark Twain, is about Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher who live in sleepy St. Petersburg who originally are careless kids but turn more compassionate among other traits. Mark Twain persuades the reader to know using colloquialisms to prove that change is possible. Foremost, Tom changes from a mean bully to a caring soul. For example, when a new boy moves into town, Tom sizes him up and they exchange a few harmless words, however Tom yells, “I can lick you!”

Personification, specifically anthropomorphism, has evolved within the English language over the past millenniums. Personification, defined as “the practice of representing a thing or idea as a person” by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, was first used over 30,000 years ago in prehistoric works of art and within various forms of mythology. These art forms and fictional creatures utilize anthropomorphism, a sub-category to personification that deals exclusively with human-like animals. Later in the 1900’s, anthropomorphism became a common practice within children’s stories such as The Cat in the Hat and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. During its course, personification has become a part of everyday language typically while describing nature and the world around us. Demonstrating the regularity of personification, “the storm raged on” exemplifies how the literary device has become so commonly used that many people forget that they are even using it. Before the evolution of the literary device during the prehistoric age and within children’s stories, personification was primarily used to help humans empathize and connect with or even characterize objects. Now, the development of personification has authorized individuals to view the environment as a scapegoat, diverting blame away from themselves and instead placing guilt upon the inanimate object.

Rhetoric is a tremendously powerful tool from the past that we still use today. By definition, rhetoric is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing. Especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. Aristotle once said “Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion”. In this, Aristotle is giving us the definition of rhetoric. The main use of rhetoric is to convey the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a different perspective. There are three main elements to rhetoric. These elements are ethos, logos, and pathos. Brutus uses all of these during his speech at Caesar’s funeral.

            The Creation by James Weldon Johnson also uses personification to give his poem more life and to tell a story. Johnson tells the story of creation from the Bible. He says as the trees were formed they would stretch out their arms and point their finger to the sky. Both poems

Can a cat cook a meal? Is it possible for a dog to lead a team of animals? Of course not! Personification is a type of figurative language. When author’s use personification, they give human qualities to a non-human item or animal. Personification can make an image must more vivid for the reader. It can also give a reader an idea of how an author feels about a specific topic.

Personification: Giving human characteristics to nonhuman objects. Example: “Those hours, that with gentle work did frame” (line 1) “…For never-resting time leads summer on to hideous winter and confounds him there.” (line 5-6) Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 5.

In one example T.S Eliot uses personification by saying “Until her teeth were accidental stars with talent for a squad drill” he is personifying her teeth and the stars by saying they could be a “squad drill” (“Hysteria”-poemhunter.com).

“All animals are equal but some are more equal than others” [George Orwell, Animal Farm]

Emotional appeal through pathos plays a strong role due to the natural emotions as humans. This is why analyzed side by side, it is more exciting to read through Lauren Alexanders essay rather than Rose’s writing. Humans crave reading about drama and writing entangled with emotion, because it makes the writing intriguing and more personally touching. This is exactly why news channels and many advertisement companies take complete advantage of this trait within humans. Finally, be challenged to look around society to deeply analyze the use of pathos throughout society, because it surely plays a critical part in the

4. Synecdoche is a figure of speech showing the use of part for the whole. Synecdoche