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Rhetorical Analysis Of Car Dealers In The Late 30's '

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Throughout the late 20’s and early 30’s, people suffered in some of the worst ways America has ever faced. John Steinbeck noticed how people, in some ways, were treated much worse than they should have been when he considered what these people faced. Many people felt harsh treatment in car dealerships specifically, as they purchased cars to help them travel across the country towards California. Through the use of tone and diction, John Steinbeck characterizes the car salesmen as ruthless towards those who are suffering. Throughout the passage, the tone used to describe the dealers emphasized just how harsh dealers were to those trying to purchase cars. Many times, people were spoken to as if they didn't matter whatsoever. It had been seen that” if the women like[d]” the car, then the salesman could “screw the old man” into buying the car at a higher price than he initially would have been willing to in the first place. People were treated as if they didn't matter and if someone chose the more expensive choice, someone else was taken advantage of, no matter their struggles. There were also instances where people came with the attitude of others “don't want to buy no cars” instead they wanted to “take up [their] time.” Car salesmen felt as if these people who were fighting to survive were simply wasting time and they didn't have intentions to purchase a car, even if that was the real reason they were there. They diminished the real efforts of people who needed those cars to find work and support themselves just by the way they said people were wasting their time. Steinbeck continued to describe the merciless car salesman with their tone towards individuals with the ways salesmen saw them as “bastards on the sidewalk” instead of seeing them as struggling just to get by on a daily basis. The harshness of the salesmen’s description completely confirms the inhumane thoughts they have towards those who dealt with horrific hardships. Furthermore, Steinbeck took the tone one step further in his representation of just how harsh these salesmen were to people who just wanted to find a vehicle to take them to find work. Car dealers didn't want anything “for more’n twenty-five, thirty bucks,” instead they only accepted

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