Ernest Hemingway Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Ernest Hemingway uses many personal anecdotes along with anecdotes of others in order to draw an emotional picture for his readers. As soon as chapter one begins Hemingway references to his first bullfight experience. He then follows up with ethos when he mentions the ethics of the use of horses and at the time these ethics were Christian, a “modern” point of view. The killing of the horses in bullfight were modernly deemed as unethical. Throughout the rest of the essay, Hemingway takes a closer look at the deaths of these animals to, in a way, defend their deaths. Hemingway tries to reach an understanding of these deaths through the rhetorical device of metaphors. He compares the experienced viewer witnessing the deaths of the horses to cultured men who know that “symphony orchestras

His sentences are long, structured and complicated. These sentences are usually balanced with his use of imagery. For me, it made the reading difficult to understand. I would read and then lose track of what point he was trying to make. This led me to rereading multiple sentences. He also repeatedly referred to this a form of writing he called the “morning or afternoon newspaper”. Hemingway was trying to write with emotion and juxtaposed this emotional form of writing to writing a newspaper. Newspapers usually lack emotional conviction and analyzation. It is just relay of events. Overall, I feel like “Death In The Afternoon” at first shocks the reader. It is a controversial opinion to defend such a practice that goes against “basic” morality. Hemingway makes constant attempts to connect with the reader from using theatre, to wine tasting, orchestras to newspapers. He makes this attempt although it is unlikely that the reader is to agree with his view even though he is making the reader view through different lenses. It is best to approach this selection with not only an open-mind but with patience and