Rhetorical Analysis Of First Victim Was A Woman By Brent Staples

Brent staples uses rhetorical devices within his persona and the emotion he wants to establish to support the message that stereotypes towards a certain group of people can alter how that group is generally percieved as by the rest of the world. Staples’ emotional appeal in his essay helps create the message by providing diction and imagery. Staples opens up with the saying that his “first victim was a woman” (Staples 542). The title “victim” makes Staples out to be a criminal who has hurt people, that is, until you begin to read on. Staples calls this encounter (along with his other encounters) the “language of fear” (Staples 542). As it is learned that he is an African-American man, the uses of his words begin to make sense. He has seen the racial profiling and has

He was the one that civilians were fearing as they “[hammered] down their door locks” (Staples 542) and this idea of the world being his pool of countless “victims” impacts how Staples views himself. Staples also used imagery to paint a picture to the reader what he is experiencing. In the opening paragraph he describes a woman he titled as his victim. He deliniates her age, her clothing and the beggest contrast between them both: she is white (Staples 542). Staples’ depiction of the woman’s reaction, her running down the cold, dark street aids the reader in feeling the fear of the woman and even feeling the confusion of Staples since he hadn’t meant to prompt a reaction like that. Being able to imagine the event taking place adds to the the intensity of the event being described. Staples provides such great detail of the encounter. Then it is learned that that was a decade