Barbara Ehrenreich The Civility Glut Analysis

The Transition of Civility

In today’s commercial age, many of us have experienced awkwardness in the conversations with service workers. In “The Civility Glut”, Barbara Ehrenreich addresses the issue of excessive formality and politeness within day to day communications in America. She begins with examples of the so called “civility glut” in the popular media and her personal life, then gives background information explaining why this is happening. Her transition in rhetorical approach from comedic narrative to thoughtful definition has played an important role in directing reader’s attention and opinion.

From the very start in the essay’s thesis, Ehrenreich uses the image of “chin-strokers” and “morality-mavens” to describe her opposition to the pretentious, lowering self-proclaimed experts who suggest that more formality is necessary (Ehrenreich par. 1). These negative visual metaphors make the reputation of the opposite argument less appealing to the general audience and thus strengthening her point. Also in the first paragraph, the colloquial language in the essay was established

7). She guides the reader through her train of thought, attempting to make logical assumptions on the meaning of her zip codes or account number, which are sarcastic. This method of deductive conclusion not only appeals to logos through logic, but further create some humour, keeping the audience involved and sympathetic to the issue. She also recalls the joke “Don’t tell me what kind of day to have!” and parodies a hostile farewell from Romeo and Juliet to “Have a great day, Romeo!” in order to demonstrate situations of unnecessary politeness. This way, the audience can reflect on their own experiences with the issue and feel uncomfortable without the author having to list the