Why Do Cats Love Boxes So Much?

In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, Christopher Boone has very distinct peculiarities due to his autism, one of them being his need for confinement. Throughout the novel, Christopher intermittently displays his need and urgency for confined spaces. For instance, when Christopher is attempting to hide from the police officer on the train, he positions himself in a confined space in order to feel safer, he narrates: “[...]It made me think of the cupboard at home and how it makes me feel safe. So I climbed onto the middle shelf and I pulled one of the cases across like a door so that I was shut in, and it was dark and there was no one in there with me and I couldn’t hear people talking so I felt much calmer and nice” (Haddon 163).

Annie Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” details Dillard’s encounter with a weasel in the wild, and her attempts to come to terms with her feelings about said meeting. Dillard not only goes into great detail about the experience itself, but she also provides a very good background on weasels, as well as others’ experiences with the animal. Through her use of background analysis on weasels, as well as with her own experience, Dillard uses the three rhetorical appeals to argue why we humans could and should “live like weasels”.

Budweiser is known for creating advertisements that convey messages that you wouldn’t otherwise tie with beer. In one of their more popular commercials “Lost Dog”, they attempt to show that your “buds” will always have your back, just as Budweiser will always be there for you. Budweiser managed to relate this life lesson to their notable company and a wide-range of viewers. In the “Lost Dog” commercial they successfully persuade viewers to buy their beer with the use of rhetorical appeals including ethos and pathos, while also lacking in the third appeal logos.

In February 2015, Budweiser released a commercial named “Lost Dog.” Unlike many other commercials, “Lost Dog” tells a story of an incredible friendship between two different animals. This friendship successfully catches the audience’s attention and captures their hearts. The commercial effectively persuades the audience to purchase their beer through the use of pathos, logos, and ethos. Although Budweiser uses the fallacy of non-sequitur, the commercial still works in their favor to prove their point. Through the use of different rhetorical strategies, Budweiser’s commercial was able to triumphantly make their audience feel several emotions in just one minute.

Secondly, Dillard’s work “living like weasels” effectively projects her perspective through the use of her radical comparisons. Throughout the essay, Dillard’s use of comparisons often helped familiarize her audience in connecting complex and abstract concepts together into concrete context. This is first seen as she states “His journal is tracks in clay, a spray of feathers, mouse blood and bone: uncollected, unconnected, loose-leaf, and blown.” Through this, Dillard connects a concept most would be familiar with: writing journals, to describe what goes on in a weasel’s mindset. In addition, she illustrates that not only do weasels act out of survival, but simply that their “journal” is a transcript of their physical actions. Dissimilar to humans, weasels do not render their thoughts nor “write in journals”, but rather react out of instinct. It is often seen through the content of the piece that she also enjoys to contrast and compare through the occurrences of juxtaposition. This can be seen in the phrases such as, “Our look was as if two lovers, or deadly enemies, met unexpectedly on an overgrown path when each had been thinking of something else: a clearing blow to the gut”. Through these lines, the ideas of man vs nature are continuously

Imagine yourself shipwrecked upon an uninhabited island. The experience of being stranded will cause you to pose many questions, with the possibility of only one of those questions to being answered. One answered question is: what is the purpose of literature? Northrop Frye, within “Motive for Metaphor”, uses the analogy of being within an uninhabited island to examines the purpose of literature by connecting it to the purposes of language and their use within the different worlds and levels of the mind Frye sees present.

When telling the reader about the Box Man’s choice to be homeless, Ascher refers to an anecdote where the Box Man encounters the mayor of New York City, “Last winter, Mayor Koch tried, coaxing him with promises and the persuasive tones reserved for rabid dogs. The Box Man backed away, keeping a car and paranoia between them.” When describing this scene, Ascher makes the mayor sound condescending by using words like “coaxing” and comparing the way he speaks to the way one would speak to “rabid dogs”. The way that the mayor treats the Box Man makes the reader feel sympathy for the Box Man and the way homeless people are treated, and the readers feel guilt due to the way they might have treated homeless people like the Box Man. This advances Ascher’s argument and further persuades the reader to reflect on their own actions and thoughts towards the idea of homelessness. Another tool that Ascher uses to help argue that homeless deserve respect is precise diction.

The poem entitled “Curiosity” written by Alastair Reid is a symbolic poem that uses cats as a metaphor for humans. It relates felines to people in the sense of curiosity, and what could be considered actually living life to the fullest. Essentially, this work contradicts the popular phrase, “curiosity killed the cat” by placing it within a broader context. Instead of discouraging curiosity, Reid explains why people should embrace it.

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.

In "Living like Weasels", author Annie Dillard uses rhetorical devices to convey that life would be better lived solely in a physical capacity, governed by "necessity", executed by instinct. Through Dillard's use of descriptive imagery, indulging her audience, radical comparisons of nature and civilization and anecdotal evidence, this concept is ultimately conveyed.

In her essay “Living Like Weasels”, Annie Dillard explores the idea of following a single calling in life, and attaching one’s self it this calling as the weasel on Ernest Thompson Seton’s eagle had. Dillard presents her argument using the analogy of a weasel and how the; “weasel lives as he’s meant to, yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of single necessity” (Dillard). In constructing her argument, however, she often contradicts herself undermining the effectiveness of her argument and leaving the reader confused. Dillard primarily uses ethos and pathos to support her argument and concerning both, the reader discovers; inconsistencies in her character, and conflicts between her perceptions of the weasel’s emotions and its actions. Concerning her ethos, Dillard presents herself as a part of suburbia and then is suddenly, inexplicably overcome by the desire to live wild. Dillard also uses very detailed language throughout the essay in describing her surroundings and thoughts, however; this further undermines her argument and ethos as she is trying to convince the reader that she could simply become as simple and single minded as the weasel she has focused her argument around. With her use of pathos, Dillard begins her essay with descriptions of the weasel’s brutality, yet; she concludes by stating the weasel lives as is necessary. By simplifying her experience and presenting a reasonable explanation for why she wanted to

The text in the image, “What is Monsanto doing to help? Improve lives” (Monsanto), provides an obvious message to the reader that Monsanto is helping people by working to improve lives. This itself is an appeal to the rhetorical strategy ethos, as the fact that Monsanto is helping improve lives shows how the company has the power, knowledge and ability to help make people’s lives better, and that they are a credible company and are capable making these changes that they claim, which is presented as a commitment to making lives better. The text is also included in a stand-alone box that contrasts the rest of the image, allowing the message to almost be an entity of its own and be viewed as the most important, or most noticeable part of the image. This also shows the importance that Monsanto has placed on illustrating how they are helping others in order to change the public’s opinion on it, since the text commands a majority of the attention in the photo. The rest of the attention goes to the bright, cheery image of an elderly man and two young children playing happily. This portrayal of a joyful, assumedly multigenerational family, shows that the image is utilizing the rhetorical strategy of pathos to invoke a sense of

In the short story “Living Like Weasels” authored by Annie Dillard, the role of a small, furry, brown-colored rodent’s life develops an extreme significance as the story progresses. According to Dillard, the life that a weasel lives is care free and passionate. Weasels are very tenacious creatures and what they have their eye set on something they want, they go and get it. Also, when Dillard says “The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice” in “Living Like Weasels,” the words can be deeply felt by the reader; we are able to not only feel Dillard’s passion for this underlying opinion of hers, but readers can also develop their own view on what she is saying and find evidence to prove their thoughts (121). The way that everyday

“Beneath My House” by Louise Erdrich, is a literary essay with an expressive approach. Erdrich narrates the day she rescues a kitten from beneath her house, despite the fact that she does not even like cats. Her maternal instincts take over when she hears the kitten cry, which causes her to do whatever it takes to rescue the kitten. Then, the author analyzes the event and she expresses her emotional response. Through the use of description and narration, Erdrich allows for the audience to imagine the rescue of the kitten “beneath her house.” The overall theme is the act of being born.

television advertisement companies, main intention is to captivate the audience in other to purchase their product that they are portraying. In this essay, I will be analyzing these two ads, “Whale” (Old Spice) and “Susan Glenn” (Axe). These ads are formulated to get their products noticed, along with sparking the interest of the other goods they may offer. Countless methods are used to convince the audience that’s being targeted to buy the product. Therefore, these ads are similar in its ability to gain the attention of their audiences by appealing to pathos. Through this essay I will analyze the rhetorical effects that help bring these commercials to life.