The short story of Benito Cereno cannot do much justice the first time around, as one must read it a minimum of two times to really understand the material. Melville's prose, which is paced rather slow and methodically, diction, and syntax, is not hard to read, but is quite difficult to piece together. However, as the strange incidents begin to pile up – the young black slave hitting the white boy without any reprimand from Cereno, the Spanish sailors seeming to motion to him, the whispering between Cereno and Babo, and the two blacks knocking down the sailors – the readers, as Delano himself, soon discover that all is not what meets the eye. Melville’s plot unfolds very slowly, which is the reason for why some readers become frustrated with …show more content…
His word choice serves as keys to the understanding, or lack thereof to his story. He uses diction to obscure description, pointing to the conjectural expressions — ambivalent uses of words like seem, appear, perhaps, possibly, evidently, might, presume, conjecture, imputed, and thought — that appear throughout the stories plot. These phrases are similar to instruments of style that reflect the coating of false looks and unanswerable contradictory ideas that seem to bemuse human perception and inquiry, a sort of fiction in which things are never as they …show more content…
The perspective the narrator uses is quite tricky as we witness events through Delano’s naïve eyes - who I might add is not entirely reliable due to his racist and paranoiac suspicion of Spanish conspiracy. Yet, when faced with the position of seeing it through Melville’s eyes, we are still unable to obtain an objective narrator of who is entirely distinguished from Delano. The narrator often seeks to humorously make a joke of Delano when not depicting the story through his own eyes, because of this, the meaning tends to change dramatically in the second reading since the audience now knows Babo is in control. This shifts the readers mindset as we perceive Delano treated more ironically. When analyzing the story once more, one notices the efficacy of Babo’s performance as Cereno’s servant as Delano even comes to admire him on several occasions for his so called “loyalty”. Every time Delano reels and falls into Babo's embrace, we assume it the embrace of death as Babo continuously hovers over Cereno like Death himself, threatening to take his life should he make one wrong
In ‘Here’s Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense’, Alex Newhouse, a lawyer who resides in the area of Sunnyside, Washington addresses the controversial issue of the legalization of cannabis. The sole purpose of Newhouse’s article is to persuade readers and voters that marijuana should be legalized. Throughout his article, Newhouse focuses on the use of ethos and logos, while also slightly focusing on the use of pathos, to help persuade his audience. The incorporation of such rhetoric strategies allows Newhouse to change the opinions of individuals with views opposing the opinions he, himself, holds.
After Delano believes that Benito Cereno cut his faithful slave on the cheek for shaving him
Through the writings of José Martí, a reader witnesses his strong love for justice, virtue, and duty. His writings illustrate, with fantastic diction, Martí’s profound distaste for those who are not virtuous; specifically governments that are not virtuous. The theme that is consistently found in the work of Martí is his belief that the government is ultimately responsible for the acts carried out by its citizens. He believes that the government creates the monsters which it so desperately attempts to eliminate. And, in multiple essays, Martí makes clear that he believes the only way to prevent the acts of these “monsters” is by the government leading its citizens to a life of virtuosity through their own demonstration of such character.
There are many subtle clues that hint at the notion of Melville spinning a web of deceit in Benito Cereno, but the most revealing clue that best exemplifies this is when Babo attempts to stab his beloved “master”—Benito Cereno. In what seems to be an emotional ending to the novella, Benito Cereno bids his emotional adieus to Captain Delano while holding his hand; however, after Captain Delano and his crew are settled in their boat and the bowsman pushes the whaleboat off of the San Dominick, Benito Cereno suddenly springs into Captain Delano’s whaleboat and is then swam after by three Spanish sailors who attempt to climb on board. Still unsure on what to make of the situation, Captain Delano spots Babo with a dagger in his hand, and believes that his intent is to stab him. With this in mind, Captain Delano flings the boarded Spaniards aside and grapples the dagger that is aimed at his heart away from Babo.
Most readers would come to the conclusion that Babo is plotting to kill Cereno because of how scared terrified Cereno is of his own blood. However, Delano interrupts the situation as Cereno just being scared of his own blood. Deleno perspective is limited because he is ignorant to what is happening on the ship. In addition, the reader never experiences Babo’s perspective of the story. ‘Benito Cereno’ tells the story of the horrors of a slavery revolt. However, if the story was written in Babo’s perspective, the story could be interpreted as slaves breaking free from an oppressor.
Many people in today’s society tend to believe that a good education is the fastest way to move up the ladder in their chosen. People believe that those who seek further education at a college or university are more intelligent. Indeed, a college education is a basic requirement for many white collar, and some blue collar, jobs. In an effort to persuade his audience that intelligence cannot be measured by the amount of education a person has Mike Rose wrote an article entitled “Blue Collar Brilliance”. The article that appeared in the American Scholar, a quarterly literary magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, established in 1932. The American Scholar audience includes, Company’s , Employees,
In paragraphs 29-31, Swift mentions several expedients, such as taxes, wearing homemade clothes, rejecting foreign luxury, curing vices among women, instilling the virtues of patriotism, taxing the absentees, and rejecting divisiveness while promoting honest, industry, and skill. Swift’s speaker stated at the end of all his expending, “How preceptors!” Swift’s rhetorical purpose is to make the reader realize that he is ironic as well as understand what he actually stands for. The reader learns that Swift is forced to resort to ironic tone to reveal his true intention, which would otherwise go unnoticed. Swift is ironic because there is no way his expedients could succeed in a time that Ireland was in, he was mainly trying to highly the economic problems affecting the county at the time.
In David Brooks’ “People Like Us” passage on the issue of diversity, Brooks takes a personally emotional perspective of the way in which Americans don’t appreciate how diverse our nation is while “relatively homogeneous” (Brooks 136). His argument is weakened, however, through a bias and hypocrisy that his diction conveys. He claims that grouping ourselves with those who we are most alike is in our nature to, and in doing so, we separate ourselves from those who are different. Using certain statistics as evidence, Brooks points out that the social segmentation created by society will always exist.
In the essay, “What You Eat is Your Business”, Radley Balko writes to tell his audience about how the government is trying to control people’s health and eating habits by restricting food, taxing high calorie food, and considering menu labeling. Balko includes in his essay that government restricting diets and having socialist insurance is not helping the obesity problem, but it is only making it worse because it not allowing people to take their health in to their own hands so they have no drive to lose weight or eat healthy. In his essay, Balko is targeting society, including those who may be obese, he is trying to show them that the laws our
In the essay, “Education”, Ralph Waldo Emerson, a transcendentalist thinker, asserts that Education is damaged and he knows of a solution – the educators. He develops this claim by first introducing the paradox linking “Genius and Drill”, expressing his ideal method of teaching. Throughout the essay, Emerson tends to have a condemning tone against the educator but towards the end he changes it into a comforting one. Emerson’s purpose is to present an alternative style of teaching in order to persuade educators to use the teaching method by using paradoxes, rhetorical questions, and shifts in tone. He establishes an informative and didactic tone for educators who value attention to detail.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is a government website that provides information about various diseases, disabilities, disorders, etc.. The CDC provides multiple webpages about Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) that list and provide information about causes, treatments, variations, and signs/symptoms of the disorder. On their informative pages, they use rhetorical devices to better portray their message. The CDC effectively uses the three rhetorical devices, pathos, ethos, and logos, to reach their goal of informing their target audience and providing a clear perspective on Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
While reading "Benito Cereno" obvious clues as to what was happening upon the ship abound. Delano's suspicions arise constantly, yet are immediately justified in one manner or another or rationalized away. Many of them are quite ironic, the most major of them being, that all the while he is doubting Cereno's actions and intentions, Cereno is at the mercy of the slaves, namely Babo. In two different sections of the book, Delano "began to feel a ghostly dread of Don Benito" (Melville 68) yet about Babo, Delano states, "Faithful fellow!...Don Benito, I envy you such a friend" (57).
In Marjane Satrapi's word-specific panel about refugees fleeing north on page 89, she indicates the perilous situation of the war through taxis escaping flaming iconography. The bombing of border towns in the Iran-Iraq war forces residents to abandon their homes and belongings in the hope of finding refuge in the northern cities. The foreboding, chaotic scene underscores a period of turmoil in Iranian history. The words of the panel state, “After Abadan, every border town was targeted by bombers. Most of the people living in those areas had to flee northward, far away from the Iraqi missiles.” Satrapi sets the backdrop of warfare with intense, slightly militaristic words such as “targeted,” “flee,” and “far away”. This being a word-specific panel, the graphic
A college education is valuable and its quality is of the highest importance to most Americans. In his essay, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students,” Mark Edmundson utilizes ethos, pathos, and logos to effectively deliver his argument that the current educational system, especially in college, revolves around consumerism which in turn has negatively impacted students, teachers, and universities in general. However, although Edmundson presents an overall logically sound argument, there are few instances throughout the article that may hinder the reliability of his claims to the audience.
“Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, is a hilarious must read for junior high school students and any other aspiring writers. Her essay inspires comfort and confidence in writing a first draft. It concretes that all writers experience the “shitty” first draft. Anne Lamott wrote this instructional information in 1995, but it is timeless information. She blows the idea of writing an immaculate first draft out of the water. Anne supports the idea that bad first drafts will almost always lead to better second, third and final drafts. She symbolizes the first draft to be like a child. Where you put all your thoughts and emotions out there in words on paper, you go all over the place, you say all kinds of ridiculous things, and all with the