Rhetorical Analysis Of If By Rudyard Kipling

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Achieving dreams and becoming successful can sometimes come at a price. Unfortunately, people get whatever life throws at them, and whether it was outcome that was expected or the one that took the wrong turn, it can shape a person and how they look at life. Rudyard Kipling is an author who has a strong opinion on dreams and he inputs his opinion in his writing using rhetorical devices like repetition, tone/mood, and symbolism to emphasise his greater message that is hidden in his writing.

In Kipling's poem “If”, he expresses his opinion on becoming a man and uses repetition to signify this message. Kipling wrote the poem as if he was talking to his son John, who later passed at the age of 18. In the poem Kipling

Unfortunately, Kipling had a very devastating life with first being given up by his real mother, then being abused by his foster mother, but when things started getting better life smacked him in the face by killing 2 of his children. This may be why he is such a great author and the words and phrases that he uses in his poem set such a great tone and mood to the reader. Readers may feel like Kipling is talking directly to them, because of the way he uses the 2nd person point of view when he says “[i]f you can…” and this can interest them personally (Kipling). Not only does writing in 2nd person set the tone but also the words he uses with “triumph and disaster, imposters, knaves, sinew, virtue, risk, and unforgiving” can make the hairs on a person’s back stand up and interest the reader even more to keep reading (Kipling). The tone and mood that is set to the poem is very important, because than the readers wouldn’t read the poem in the right tone, and this could set a different meaning/message to his poem. They’d also never understand the smaller messages that Kipling is trying to get across. The tone/mood is just one of the contributing factors to Kipling's writing that makes his words have