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`` Zeitoun, By Dave Eggers : Rhetorical Appeals, Ethos, Logos, And Pathos

Decent Essays

Dave Eggers is the author of many common read books. One of his known reads is a true story titled Zeitoun, about a Syrian-American living in New Orleans, Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina. Eggers uses many strategies throughout this story to involve the audience and get a sense of how people lived through Hurricane Katrina. Consequently, he narrowed into one particular family’s tribulations, and that family happened to be the Zeitouns. Many times throughout the book, Zeitoun, Eggers exhibits the rhetorical appeals; ethos, logos, and pathos in order to support his argument. For instance, Eggers strengthened his ethos, which refers to one’s authority and credibility, by interviewing Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun for their commemoration of events during the Hurricane (Rhetorical Approaches p. 21). By interviewing people who actually experienced and lived through the traumatic events, there is a sense of credibility that can be given to the author. Eggers also added more credibility to himself by including praises at the beginning of the book. The praises offered in the book looks official because they are provided by well-known people and publications. For example, Entertainment Weekly praised the book as “Best Book of the Decade” (Zeitoun), even The New Yorker gave praise stating “Through the story of one man’s experience after Hurricane Katrina, Eggers draws an indelible picture of Bush-era crisis management” (Zeitoun). The New Yorker’s statement about Eggers’ work shows

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