Katherine Ness
English 115
February 26, 2010
Essay Two Draft
Title TBD
All writers have different tricks and techniques they use to have an impact on their audience. Fiction writers, for example, may use literary devices such as imagery, tone, and diction to create a specific mood. Authors of expository texts also make specific choices about what to write and how to write it. These choices are called rhetorical strategies, and they are used means of persuasion, a way of using language to get readers’ attention and agreement. Peter Marin, in his essay “Helping and Hating the Homeless,” uses the rhetorical strategies in order to illustrate his assertion that ______. Amy Tan also uses rhetorical strategies in her essay “Mother Tongue” to support her argument that ______. While the individual arguments of these two authors are dramatically different, they use the same strategies in order to address concepts of difference and to have a powerful effect on the audience.
One way Marin is able to achieve this powerful effect is through his use of anecdote which is a brief story that an author includes to support or illustrate a point. The most vivid anecdote Marin includes is that of a homeless woman named Alice who, after living a normal and successful life, became homeless after a series of unfortunate events. Marin includes this anecdote to illustrate that his assertion that the homeless community is made up of real people who are very much like us. He asserts that homeless people “begin with an ordinary life; then an event occurs – traumatic, catastrophic; smaller events follow, each one deepening the original wound; finally homelessness becomes inevitable, or begins to seem inevitable to the person involved – the only way out of an intolerable situation” (171). His description of this “ordinary life” that became very different allows the read to understand that this situation could happen to anyone, including ourselves. This anecdote, the story of Alice, helps the reader to feel some empathy for these individuals who are just like us.
Tan also uses anecdotes give her reader a greater understanding of her mother’s struggle with language. To illustrate that her mother is treated differently because of the way she speaks, Tan tells the story of when her mother’s doctor lost the CAT scan of her mother’s brain tumor. The hospital made no apologies for this mistake; the simply told Mrs. Tan she would have to make an appointment come back another day. Mrs. Tan refused to leave until they called her daughter. Tan explains that “when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect English – lo and behold – we had assurances the CAT scan would be found, promises that a conference call on Monday would be help and apologies for any suffering my mother had gone through for a most regrettable mistake” (63). Tan includes this anecdote to illustrate the discrimination her mother faces because her English is not “perfect.” Like Alice, Mrs. Tan is viewed as “different.” Both Tan and Marin allow the reader to understand that difference is not an excuse to make unfair assumptions about people. They are not categories or unfeeling caricatures; they are individuals with stories, histories, hearts, brains and unique qualities. Their “difference” should be embraced as uniqueness, not just as justification for discrimination and neglect, and the uses of these authors’ anecdote illustrates this for readers.