Kingsolvers Rhetoric

Barbra Kingsolver is known for being an extremely relatable and highly skilled writer. She typically writes about issues that are controversial to the American public. For example, in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, and Lily’s Chickens, Kingsolver writes about the debated topic of where our food comes from and if it is safe or healthy to eat it. Throughout these compositions she uses ethos, pathos and logos, among other rhetorical strategies, to send us a message to be more wary of where our food comes from. This style of writing is very successful for Kingsolver to express her beliefs on growing your own food and how easy it can be.

            Barbra Kingsolver frequently uses ethos, or credibility, to let the audience know that she does have experience when it comes to growing her own food because she, as well as her husband, grew up on a farm. However, this strategy is made successful when she tells us that she herself is not flawless when it comes to this lifestyle. As Kingsolver tells us about the big diet change that she and her family made, she does not make it seem like her way to eat should be the only way. Instead, she is humble while merely suggesting a new dietary style that you might be interested in trying. She never says “you must eat this” or “never eat that”, she is simply trying to offer you a lifestyle that she believes will be healthier for you. Kingsolver also uses humor in her writing to keep her readers interested in what she has to say because even she knows that what she is writing about can get a little boring at times.

            Perhaps Kingsolvers most effective strategy is the use of logos. While her writing can be humorous at times, Kingsolver includes numerous facts to assure her audience that the issue at hand is very serious and relevant. She mentions that one of the most serious problems with most Americans diets is the “food miles”. Food miles are the distance a product travels to the point where it will be sold. She also tells us that many foods, like apples, are imported from all over the world when it would be much more cheap and healthy to grow them right in your backyard. Kingsolver also includes facts about what kind of foods grow best in your part of the nation and how to get healthy food that may not be able to grow where you live.

            Barbra Kingsolver has made a successful career out of informing people about healthy ways to eat by making her audience feel like she is a trustworthy and reliable source. She wants to make you aware of the negative affects that unhealthy food can have on your body while encouraging you to live a healthier lifestyle. She does this effectively by carefully selecting what kind of rhetorical strategy would work best, and deciding which one would help persuade her reader the most.    

  

What Am I Eating?

A lot of people are very conscious about were their food comes from. Some people even get a little paranoid about what they are eating. But me, I don’t really care, as long as it tastes good and it won’t kill me as I’m eating it. Before I watched “The Meatrix” I did not know that animals were kept inside tiny areas where they are raised to be slaughtered. But, the companies that do this would not be allowed to sell the meat if it was unhealthy. Therefore, where the meat comes from doesn’t really bother me. I do not plan to start eating organic food because of "The Meatrix" because it is more expensive and I have heard that it does not taste the same as the regular products. I am not about to start eating more expensive food that does not taste as good because some people think it might be healthier for you.

Self Reliance Rhetoric

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an accomplished novelist and essay writer. In his famous essay titled ‘Self Reliance” he uses many rhetorical strategies like pathos, tone, and metaphors to appeal to the readers emotions, convey how he feels, and to clearly explain what he is writing about. “Self Reliance” was written in 1841, around the time of transcendentalism, so Emerson could express his feelings on individualism and being true to oneself.

            The second paragraph of Emerson’s “Self Reliance” shows all of these strategies. He starts by saying “There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.” In this sentence he uses pathos and a metaphor to explain how he feels about individuality. The first example of pathos in this paragraph is when he says “he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance.” By saying this he tells us that if you were to be jealous of someone for any reason it would be foolish because you should not be concerned about what other people have and focus on being the best individual you can be. He restates the same idea when he says “imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion.” Emerson then uses a metaphor to further explain his idea when he says “no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.” He is saying that who you are should only be a result of what you wanted to become and not a result of what others have molded you to be. He goes on to say “the power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.” Emerson uses pathos in this sentence to make you feel like you can be whoever you want to be as long as you are true to yourself. He then uses even more pathos in saying “not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray.” He tells us that we can still be inspired by the ideas and accomplishments of others, as long as we don’t strive to be just like the person that inspires us. Instead, we need use our inspiration to set goals for ourselves to help mold us into the person we want to become. Emerson then says “we but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents.” He is telling us that we do not always express ourselves to the extent that we should because we are often ashamed in our beliefs. Emerson seems to write this sentence with more authority than the others. By doing this, he strongly conveys this idea which he obviously thought was very important. Throughout the rest of the paragraph Emerson uses pathos to drive home some of his main ideas about individualism by saying “it may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.”

            Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self Reliance” essay is still considered one of the most popular and influential essays ever written. This is because readers feel like they can relate to his ideas because of his usage of emotion, tone, and accurate metaphors. These strategies make Emerson one of the most successful American writers of all time.

             

             

Emerson Needs a Friend

Ralph Waldo Emerson



 I’m looking for a friend who I can…

            Share my thoughts with

            Write poems with

            Go to plays with

Religious views: I believe that all things are in some way connected to God, making everything divine in its own way. I used to be a minister but people thought my religious views were getting away from the traditional Christian views so I decided to leave that job and do something that was more fitting for my beliefs. I think that slavery in this country should be abolished because it violates human laws and if we do not get rid of it then we are getting rid of freedom.

I want my friend to be someone that I can always be honest with no matter what the circumstance may be. If I can not be truly honest with a friend at all times then they are not a friend at all. I should not have to carefully think about what I am saying to a friend in fear that they might disapprove of it. Instead, I should hope that a friend would let me know if they disapprove of a thought because if they tell me otherwise that is just as bad as dishonesty. If a friend is ever hurt by something I should say, I hope that that they would not dwell on it but rather tell me that they were hurt and forgive me for whatever it was that hurt them. I would also hope that this friend would expect the same things in return from me. It can not be a true friendship if only one person attains these qualities.

I have always said “a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.” Friendship is one of the most important aspects of our lives, without life would be nearly impossible. Without it, there would be no one to be honest with, no one to trust, and no one to share our thoughts with. We should all be thankful for our friends because they are a gift from God. A friend is someone who listens to you, understands you, loves you, and embraces you even when you can’t do the same for yourself. Friends have no limit on age, beauty, or the circumstance in which you met, as long as they will always be there for you they are a friend. They will always tell you when they think that something you are doing is wrong, and praise you when you are doing something right. Friendship is one of life’s simple joys. Knowing that someone will be there to talk to you if you need it or maybe to just listen to you when you need to talk somehow makes life easier to live.   

Emerson's Enthusiasm and Effort

            “Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved” was once said by Ralph Waldo Emerson. However, I feel that the opposite is true and that you cannot be enthusiastic about anything unless you put some effort into it. The best way I can relate this to my life is by comparing to the three seasons of high school baseball that I have played.

                During my freshman year of baseball at Colleyville Heritage it didn’t seem like I loved playing the game as much as other players did. The other players were always talking about how excited they were to play the next game and I never felt the same way about it. I told myself that I didn’t enjoy the games like everybody else because it was only my freshman year and I didn’t think the games mattered as much as they would when I was older. But, as the season progressed I noticed the others also cared more about how they performed than I did. For some reason I didn’t take pride in how I played and I couldn’t figure out why. Before I knew it the season was over and I still didn’t know why my teammates were so much more enthusiastic about baseball than I was.

            My sophomore year of baseball was a lot different than my freshman year, the games mattered more and the coaches started to pay more attention to how you performed. That’s when I realized that I needed to take more pride in the way I played the game. So I started practicing more in hopes that I would get good enough to feel excited about playing. However I did not realize that my practice habits were nowhere near as intense as some of the other players who were obviously taking the season more seriously than I was. Near the end of my sophomore season I decided that I would work much harder at becoming a better baseball player than I currently was. So instead of only practicing during the season, I worked at improving my game through the summer, fall and winter.

            When the first game of my junior season came around I was an immensely improved baseball player. After we completed our first game, I finally realized why my teammates loved the game so much more than I did. It was because they worked so hard to become better players that when they saw the results it made everything they did more fun, and that’s what was finally happening to me.

            I do not think that Emerson was wrong in saying “Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved”, however, in my case it would be more accurate to say “effort is the mother of enthusiasm, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.