Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Wes Moore
When I read Wes Moore's "The Work" over the summer, I had no idea of the rhetoric present. "The Work" is essentially Moore's life story combined with the stories of others in order to inspire the reader to find what drives them in order to live a life of significance. While life stories are factual, they do not evoke a logos appeal. Particularly in this novel, the stories presented are very emotional and therefore warrant a pathos appeal. In "The Mentor" chapter in Moore's book, his pathos appeal is evident in the family situation and story of Mayor Michael Hancock. Moore's pathos appeal is especially evident in the description of Hancock's family situation. Statements like, "My biggest fear growing up was that Mom would leave us. She could barley feed us and keep the lights on. Why would she stay?" Questioning a mother's dedication to her family will strike an emotional chord with most people. Contrasting mother and father, Moore references the absence of fathers in the Baltimore community though Hancock's quotation: "Take them for ice cream once a month, but really be there." This quotation would make anyone feel sorry for a cild that has to grow up with the absence of a parent. Both if theses quotations causes the reader to feel sorry for the future mayor's circumstance and further his prominence in the city through overcoming a hazardous family situation. It was interesting to observe Moore's book from a different point of view.
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The story in this chapter is truly extraordinary and the story behind it is great. The mayor is someone that the reader can look up to and see that he has defied all odds. However, I never saw any mentions of rhetoric that is present in this chapter.
ReplyDelete^I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter as well. I read the book twice, once at the beginning of the summer and once at the end. Both times, I had not realize the rhetorical devices that are included in not only this excerpt, but in the entire novel . I too wrote about the emotional appeals that come from the struggles of a mother. I think that we can all understand the pain that she went through, because its something that we all may fear.
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