RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF ESSAY ON “Students and Money: In Their Own Words”
The first Rhetorical device I see in the Essay on "Students and Money: In Their Own Words." By Karpeck, Griffin is the device “PATHOS” which is an appeal to emotion, and is a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response.
I consider the author is very much successful in this regard. In the first few lines itself he appeals to the emotion by saying that his friends smirk at him by looking at his need to do that menial job and he too has taken up the job reluctantly (i.e. he is forced to do the job for want of money). He realizes “self pity is our worst enemy,” and pity as an appeal to emotion is a fallacy. He immediately goes to the advantages he has with his job. He values the knowledge and life experience he gets there much more than the small money he gets. People like those who are happy and he is happy.
In the next paragraph, he goes on explaining how his parents have shielded him and his younger brother, in the tough times, from the worst of the economic recession. They have done their best in making the children happy is the positive message he gives. Through his sentence “Suddenly I found myself having to go through guard gates to get to the houses of my friends.” (Karpeck, 2014), he appeals to the emotion of the reader of his relative lack of richness.
His perception that his parents ought to have given him more has completely changed after he has started working at McDonald’s. He appeals by his positive personality development. His realization that there are people much more underprivileged than him has changed his outlook and the reader gets a good impression of him. By describing his coworker who has to cycle several miles to reach the work place and has to give all his earnings to support his mother and cannot think of joining a college, he takes the reader with his emotional journey. He continues it by describing his manager friend who is a teenage mother of three children and has to take care of them in the day and earn in the night to support them.
His sentence “In life, it is really easy to get caught up in your own bubble and never really look outside of it.” (Karpeck, 2014) is really impressive. His revelation at the work place makes him decide to help others get a chance in this world. In the conclusion, he asserts that, if given admission in the university, he will excel in the academics as well as create positive impact on the campus and co-students. It is really powerful emotional appeal.
The second Rhetorical device I see in the Essay is the device “THEME” which is the central or dominant idea or concern or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly.
Here also the author is successful in conveying the main idea of the essay. The main theme of the essay is to get admission in the university with scholarship. The author knows that the potential university student should have a good attitude, flexibility to adapt to the new situations and environment besides the academic merit. He shows his responsible attitude by taking up a job which his friends laugh at and which he himself is reluctant to do.
He values the knowledge he obtains at the work place and the life experience he gets there to be much higher than the money he earns. He learns with enthusiasm at the new situation and environment, which is a sure sign that he is ready to fit as a student at the university. He establishes his need for money and thus for scholarship. He describes how his parents struggle to meet the ends meet in bringing up him and his younger brother in the economic depression time.
Initially he compares himself with his rich friends and feels about what he cannot get from his parents. But later, he changes his perspective. He gets his enlightenment at the work place. He sees the importance of struggle, which is a sign that he will put up the required hard work at the university and excel in academics.
He shows his concern for the people who don’t have a chance to try for things beyond basic survival. He decides to help people to get such a chance. This way, he indirectly lets the professor or dean who reads the essay to consider him for the scholarship, as he is in need of it right now.
He says he is open for new people and new friendships with people who are different than he is. Indirectly this applies to the new ideas as well. This is what is required for academics. To be comfortable with new ideas and working with enthusiasm in new and unexplored territories is the hall mark of a successful academic researcher.
Thus he indirectly qualifies himself for the university admission with scholarship by his essay.
The third Rhetorical device I see in the Essay is the device “TONE” which is the attitude of the writer which is shown by his choice of words, toward a subject, theme or audience.
He starts the essay with a sympathetic tone. He works at a Restaurant which is looked down by his friends. He accepts the job reluctantly. Even that job he has got after applying for dozens of such jobs. He draws sympathy by his tone here.
He immediately changes his tone to a positive one. He gets valuable knowledge and experience there.
In the next Para his tone is realistic. He, along with his family has to face the consequences of economic recession. His sympathetic tone is apparent when he says that he has to go through the guard gates of friends’ houses to meet them. His initial tone of self pity at the fact that his parents are not rich has changed to enthusiastic tone of enlightenment at the work place.
His tone of drawing sympathy for himself has changed to giving sympathy to his fellow workers. His tone of empathy for the teenage girl of three children is very effective in the following sentence. “How is that even possible? I tried to imagine what she was going through and just couldn’t” (Karpeck, 2014).
His comparing his position to the position of his fellow workers with the positions in base ball game shows his enthusiastic tone towards life. The transformation in his thinking has changed his tone from self pity tone to gratitude tone. His optimistic tone is indicated in his wish to help others to have a chance in the world. His concluding request that he will be good both at academics and creating positive impact in the campus is an assertive tone.
Throughout his writing, the author has shown a pleasant tone. This tone lends shape and life to the essay. It creates a good mood. It makes the readers to keep on reading it. It has the power to stimulate the readers. Its effect is spectacular.
Thus, he is successful even with respect to the rhetorical device of Tone.
Works CitedKarpeck, Griffin. "Students and Money: In Their Own Words." The New York Times. May 2014. Web. 29 May. 2014.
