A Rhetorical Analysis Of Alzheimer's Fragments From The Long Game

“Fragments from the Long Game” Rhetorical Analysis

Alzheimers causes family and friends to watch as their loved one slowly fades away into the past. This disease causes people to lose the life they are living while they slowly deteriorate into knowing nothing and no one except for their old memories of the past. Kate Carroll De Gutes wrote the essay “Fragments from the Long Game” portraying the view of losing her mother to Alzheimers and how it affected her view on life which is displayed through the format and fluidity of her writing. Periodically throughout this essay, Kate offers themes and experiences in which others can relate to which allows the audience to understand her new view on life and living in the present. Regardless of having

Kate and her mother are both sobbing heavy tears as they cry about the option of assisted suicide as a cure for her mother’s Alzheimers. As a segway, the author states “Oh Alzheimer’s, your gift to my mother is forcing her to finally live in the perpetual present tense.”(pg 1). She uses this to explain her thought process to the beginning of her argument by showing how she felt in that moment. This gives an emotional appeal to the audience. As the reader delves further into the story, this statement begins to make more sense. In the quote, Kate describes Alzheimers using the word “gift” which evokes emotion with the reader and causes them to be intrigued because society terms Alzheimers as no gift for the victim or those around them. Kate explains how, in the past, her mother was always too focused on what the future might hold, but she has finally been forced to live in the always changing present moment of life. This catches the reader's attention as Kate begins to give her reasoning for using a pleasant word with a tortuous disease. This introductory narrative helps the audience understand and feel what it is like to be in a situation around Alzheimers. It digs deep into Kate’s emotions behind this story and her reason behind writing it. This makes the reader feel more connected to and understanding of Kate’s perspective before

Kate writes, “Just as my mother’s Alzheimer’s forced me to stay present with her, make no plans, this plan also insists I live in the moment.” (pg 6). Through her mother’s “gift,” Kate is starting to realize that it is not possible to predict and plan her future. The worry and the anxiety she has for the future doesn’t change what is to come. She shifts her mindset towards living in the present and having a good life now rather than later. Kate explains, “I must continually pull myself back to the present…. remembering to be in the ever-present now—not the past, not the future—... not viewing the constant redirection back to the present moment as a failure, but as course correction toward some point on my horizon that I can’t see and, if I am living in the present moment, am not yet supposed to see.” Kate realizes that there is no guaranteed plan for her future, and ultimately she has no control over what the future holds. She can only control how she lives in the present moment, which will lead her to what her future holds. Kate learned that the best way to live a true and fulfilled life is to live in the present moment and not miss out on the opportunities and experiences that life has for