Rhetorical Analysis On James Mcbride

The theory being applied to James McBride’s family is Sigmund Freud’s Psychodynamic theory. This theory is based on the grounds of the importance of early childhood experiences that shape personality and behavior (Lifespan). Applying this theory to James’ family we can begin by looking at the time period in which the children grew up. The family grew up in a time where black and whites did not marry and it was unacceptable for them to be together. This caused some of the family members to develop a defense mechanism. A defense mechanism is the denying of reality and projecting feelings on someone else (Lifespan). Because the mother was a white female, the children sought to understand, but where protective of their mother. Ruth uses the defense mechanism to hide or suppress her past and race from her children. Many times the children ask Ruth are they black or white and where she comes from. Ruth suppresses these thoughts and reacts by telling her children not to worry about it or don’t ask questions.

In his untitled gun control and gun rights cartoon, Chris Britt establishes an accusatory tone using critical irony and a macabre diction to condemn the national threat disregarded by the Republican Party for ignorantly advocating unregulated licensing of guns.

If you’re looking for an inspiring book, “The Color of Water”, by James McBride is the book for you, because it shows the true struggles of immigrants and black people in America in the 20th century. The story is a split plot which shows the life story of Ruth McBride and her son James McBride.

James McBride demonstrates that one can learn about his own identity through others opinions of him in his society. Generally, youngsters often do not care about each other’s races unless someone wants the kids to distinct between the two races. At an early age, James realized that his race has something to do with his Identity. He noticed that both black and white people glare at his white mom and her black kids with an obscene expression on their face, letting James know that his family is different than other families which the society considered more acceptable than his family. James started to compare his skin tone with his mother’s skin tone and noticed that she was white however he was black. “When I asked her if she was white, she’d say, “No. I’m light skinned,” and change the subject again.” (Ch.4, pg.15) Ruth’s changing the topic of racial issues caused even more perplexity and insecurities within James. Because of his uncertainty, it was very difficult for James to decide how he fits into his conservative society. Also, in his community it was only the McBride siblings who seemed to come from the interracial family which made them partially feel like

The line between rational and irrational thought is often blurred for some more than others. Usually when we cross this line into irrational thought our brain will let us know that what we are doing isn’t within reason. While many believe that Christopher McCandless was crazy and his ideas were ludicrous; I believe that he saw the line between rational and irrational thought very clearly, and that all though some of his ideas may have seemed crazy to some, he carried them out in sane body and mind. Chris was an extremist, a radical youth with different ways of thinking, and often we as a society tend to identify someone as crazy when we cannot comprehend the reasoning behind why a person would do something. Chris was not crazy, but he was

Award winning writer, George Orwell, in his dystopian novel, 1984, Winston and O’Brien debate the nature of reality. Winston and O’Brien’s purpose is to persuade each other to believe their own beliefs of truth and reality. They adopt an aggressive tone in order to convey their beliefs about what is real is true. In George Orwell’s 1984, Winston and O’Brien use a variety of different rhetorical strategies and appeals such as parallel structure, pathos, and logos in order to persuade each other about the validity of memories and doublethink; however, each character’s argument contains flaw in logic.

Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver is a collection of writings and correspondence with his attorney Beverly Axelrod from his time in the Folsom State Prison in California in 1965. Eldridge Cleaver was convicted of drug crimes and then convicted again later after he committed a series of rapes against black and white women. Within Soul on Ice, Eldridge Cleaver details his pursuit of self-discovery and the pursuit of knowledge and new ideologies within the prison system. In addition, Cleaver explores the social system and race relations of black and white people during the Civil Rights Movement. Cleaver renounces his actions as rapist and converts to a Malcom X follower and later a Marxist revolutionary.

Mark Twain, an 18th century humorist, was known for his critical and satirical writing. In one of his most famous essays, “ Fenimore Coopers Literary Offenses” Twain addresses Coopers inability to realistically develop a “situation” and his failure to effectively back up his stories in order for them to be more plausible. To dramatically convey his unimpressed and sarcastic attitude, he applies biting diction, metaphors and hypophora throughout this work .

In Florence Kelley’s heart wrenching call for awareness of child labor she uses quite a few rhetorical devices. An anaphora is the most recognizable as she’s trying to nail in how she would could be helping the children. Pathos is another of her persuasion methods used in her tone. Kelley also uses a fair amount of imagery throughout the passage.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee contains various examples of racism and prejudice throughout the novel. The story takes place in the 1930's, a period when racism was a part of everyday life. Prejudice and racism in this book are represented by acts of hate towards others because of the color of their skin. In this novel, prejudice and racism was dominantly pointed towards blacks. Acts of racism can be discreet to the point that you can easily miss them. Yet alongside those, there are conspicuous demonstrations of racism that would never happen in today's society. Lee illustrates many of these behaviors in her novel.

The novel Black Boy by Richard Wright exhibits the theme of race and violence. Wright goes beyond his life and digs deep in the existence of his very human being. Over the course of the vast drama of hatred, fear, and oppression, he experiences great fear of hunger and poverty. He reveals how he felt and acted in his eyes of a Negro in a white society. Throughout the work, Richard observes the deleterious effects of racism not only as it affects relations between whites and blacks, but also relations among blacks themselves. Black Boy, however, explores racism not only as an odious belief held by odious people, but also as an insidious problem knit into the very fabric of society as a whole.

As a child, McBride knew that he and his family were different. They lived in a black neighborhood with a white mother and a dozen children. The fact that his mother was white created many issues

James McBride, author of the memoir The Color of Water, grew up in a dangerous time period for people of his color. Throughout the early to mid-1900s people that were African American or mixed were not treated the same as they are now. Many lives were taken during that time purely for the reason that their skin was not white. Although some individuals had a lighter skin tone, despite being mixed, many were not bestowed that “blessing”, as it would have been deemed in that time. Those who were lacking the “blessing” were often thought less of by both races, and consequently faced a larger risk of peril. Lucky for McBride, he lived in an area where racism was not as poignant and was sheltered from some of the world’s cruelty in his younger years. As he grew older, he was beleaguered with events that changed his lighter view on the world. But regardless of the many trials he faced, he turned into a strong individual.

Around the age of three Dalton attempts to acquire himself a new baby sister by abducting a young girl from a family of black separatists. His youth and innocence to how the world really was made him naive to the racial constructs around him, but as he grew he started learning the complexities that came along with race and racial status in America. When describing his childhood Dalton talks about it as some sort of social experiment about figuring out what it really meant to be middle class. This type of unique perspective in conjuncture with Conley’s flair for observance offers the reader an

Thirdly, revisioning family ties to communities and contexts acknowledges the experiences of coloured children as unique because they are situated in multiple contexts growing up. That is, Uttel (2009) asserts that the community within which a child is situated also has a major impact on their development “because of the specific environmental demands to which children of colour are exposed. [They] move between different cultural communities that hold different expectations of their behavior.” As stated above, conflicting expectations from two extremely different contexts has caused me to wrestle with myself everyday as how I should act to appease to both contexts and my position in these two settings. Therefore, my identity struggle is in