The Censors Valenzuela Rhetorical Analysis

Goals are a healthy and helpful thing to have, but when people become too focused on the outcome it can change the entirety of who they are. In “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela, Juan sends a letter that changes his life. He tries his hardest to get it back and gets a brand new job just to do so, but the letter consumes his life and him as a person. Valenzuela uses revealing actions and tone to highlight how obsessing over goals can change every aspect of life. Valenzuela's revealing action of when Juan puts himself into his work highlights how it’s easier to lose yourself than it seems. Juan’s obsession with his work was, obviously, turning into an unhealthy obsession: “Day after day he crossed out whole paragraphs in red ink, pitilessly chucking many letters into the censored basket” (Valenzuela). He spent all his time working at his

Juan doesn’t really realize how involved he is with his work until the end, but we get hints about it all through the story: “Not because he had a calling or needed a job: no, head applied simply to intercept his own letter” (Valenzuela). . The way this is stated give off a sense of sarcasm. It seems as if Juan was already bored with his new job, yet he still cares so much about getting his letter back. He kept getting promotion after promotion. He ends up reaching Level B, and, even though it happened swiftly, that had to take some time and effort. This job is all he can think about and do. It has consumed his life. This is the danger with obsession of goals that most people face.
Using tone and revealing actions, Valenzuela illustrates how people can become lost trying to achieve important goals in “The Censors.” Juan’s single action of writing a supposedly harmless letter changed him, and not for the better. People need to be very careful while working towards what they want or else everything can become blurred to