Black Boy Rhetorical Analysis

The piece of writing which I felt was unsuccessful for me was the Rhetorical Analysis of an article relating to a topic from our course book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. This piece of writing was difficult for me to organize my ideas around. The article that I decided to use for my rhetorical analysis highlighted mass incarceration among African American and the effect of civil liberties being are taken away from these individuals. I had a lot of repetition because many of the examples I used demonstrated more than one type of appeal. I found myself repeating what the purpose of the example was and how it demonstrated proper use of ethos, pathos, and logos.

The purpose of the opening scene of Black Boy was to set the stage for a tale of hope and perseverance; while growing up in Jim Crow South as an African American. Wright achieves this purpose by recounting an incident that greatly impacted his life, a fire he started as a small child. The incident is prefaced by Wright’s struggle with his family and the lack of security, love and acceptance; “dreading the return of my mother, resentful of being neglected.” This leaves Wright hungry for attention and this leads to an idea, the idea leads to severe consequences. Wright uses personification and metaphors effectively through a first-person view so the reader can feel the severity of the problems.

In this passage from Last child in the Woods, an extremely discouraged Richard Louv shows the separation of nature to both parents and children. By showing imagery through car rides in the present vs. car rides in the past he shows an extraordinary change. By his use of rhetorical devices such as pathos, ethos, and imagery Louv produces a captivating argument to fire up the modern generation. Throughout the passage Louv cites many sources, and deserves credit.

The Emmett Till documentaries had plenty of archival footage that shows the audience the horrific murder of Emmett Till. By using archival footage, the documentaries serve as rhetoric functions providing pathos for emotion appeal and logos to convince the audience. In The Untold Story of Emmett Till, I noticed there was a strong usage of applied specificity. One of the examples of applied specificity is Mamie Till talking about Emmett Till and while she speaks his baby pictures surface onscreen. The filmmaker showing this footage humanizes Emmett Till as more than a corpse.

Richard Louv, a novelist, in Last Child in the Woods (2008) illustrates the separation between humans and nature. His purpose to the general audience involves exposing how the separation of man from nature is consequential. Louv adopts a sentimental tone throughout the rhetorical piece to elaborate on the growing separation in modern times. Louv utilizes pathos, ethos and logos to argue that the separation between man and nature is detrimental.

Abstract: In a hot summer, an 11-year-old black boy, first loses faith and then hope: that is how Anthony Grooms depicts the life of Walter Burke in Birmingham, Alabama in his novel Bombingham. The novel begins with Walter Burke – the protagonist – who is drafted to be a soldier in Vietnam War. When he loses his friend Haywood in the minefield, he decides to write a letter to his parents as promised. However, his attempts to write a letter reveal the flashbacks of his summer in 1963 in Birmingham, during the Civil Rights Movements and 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

Pacing in Kaffir Boy The excerpt from Kaffir Boy is a prime example of different pacing techniques. The author, Mark Mathabane, uses long sentences with lots of detail for the slow paced parts. One example of this is “They slept in abandoned cars, smoked glue and benzene, ate pilchards and brown bread, sneaked into the white world to caddy and, if unsuccessful, came back to the township to steal beer and soda bottles from shebeens, or goods from the Indian traders on First Avenue.”

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States, and Citizens of America: Tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of Black History Month, we are reminded of our Nation's path toward civil rights and the work that still remains. Recent threats targeting Jewish Community Centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week's shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a Nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms. Each American generation passes the torch of truth, liberty and justice — in an unbroken chain all the way down to the present. That torch is now in our hands. And we will use it to light

Walter Dean Myers’ Bad Boy chronicles his childhood and his most memorable moments that led to his career as a writer. Growing up in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s, Myers constantly struggled with racial issues and financial problems. His unconventional interests for young boys gradually made him feel isolated from the rest of the world, with his only escape being in the books he read and the poems and stories he wrote.

John Boyne is the author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, his most notable book, The Thief of Time, The Boy at the Top of the Mountain, and many others. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, and is 45 years old. The author’s use of tone and imagery in The Boy and the Striped Pajamas is very descriptive. Boyne used vivid expressions to describe how the characters talk to each other and how they think. He often uses the innocent tone of a nine year old boy to contrast against the horrors of Nazi Germany.

Wherever you may go often you will see advertisement. It may come in many different forms such as a poster on a telephone pole telling someone about a yard sell. Perhaps a bench ad or a television commercial. On a milk carton or box of cereal, whatever the form it’s all around us. Have you ever thought, what is the point of the advertisement?

This Boy’s Life was written by Tobias Wolff and published in 1989. The very successful American author, Tobias Wolff is known for his short stories, novels and memoirs. This Boy’s Life is a memoir of his childhood experiences. Wes Moore also a successful American author is known for his first book, The Other Wes Moore, published in 2010.

During the young black males speech he accidently says social equality instead of social responsibility. When he does this the white men in the room snap at him, making sure it was a mistake and that he was not trying to be smart. After that they remind him of who is superior by saying, “We mean to do right by you, but you’ve got to know your place at all times.” (Ellison). When his speech is done he is presented with a brief case that has a scholarship inside it to the state college of black youth.

Quote: “The more I remembered the killings, the beatings, and intimidations, the more I worried what might possibly happen to me or my family if I joined the NAACP. But I knew I was going to join, anyway” (Ch. 20, pg. 269). This passage is significant because it demonstrates the substantial and terrifying risks taken by those who chose to join the early Civil Rights Movement in the south. Earlier in her life, Anne witnessed acts of bigotry, violence, and murder carried out against members of black activists organizations and anyone who mentioned these groups in public.