Upon reading "Ending our Splintered Isolation," by Steve Duin, I was immediately struck by the way he manipulated the readers' emotions.
For instance, throughout the whole article, he uses a large amount of sarcasm. However, as an average innocent reader, it wasn't apparent until the end. Throughout most of the article, I'm thinking, "can this guy be for real?" until the end. I was quite impressed by his audacity to tackle such individual emotions.
The point is that his form of getting his argument across to the reader is by indirectly criticizing the values of the general public. For example, as he speaks of public skepticism: "That sullen anger is easier to hold on when we sport a grudge or the smoldering suspicion that some woebegone loser wants to steal off with our benefits..." (par. 15).
I think his favorite line was "our splendid isolation" (par. 4 & 14), a direct attack on those who spend more time in their own world rather than that of the World itself. Walking down the sidewalk, it's hard not to notice how frequently we as students do just that. Sometimes, you just need to remind your mind that hey, those mountains look incredible with snow! Or wow, people are very unique...
Think about it.
"I Have A Dream"
14 years ago
Nice job on what you analyzed Lars. I'd suggest to do a bit of analysis on Duin's view on the political side to this argument, since it is the other of the 2 main argued points in his article. Analyzing what brought up the "isolated community" thought would be a great way to get the full pathos of Steve Duin's opinion column.
ReplyDeleteI like how the first example of his fallacy is used, " our splendid isolation," and how it displays his desire to build pathos. I understand that it tries to build pathos; however, you might state that directly to help those who can't read into it. He uses "sacrificial giving" later on to question Obama's intentions for being president. There are a lot of opportunities to build your argument much more soundly by posting what he said, and how it affected the readers.
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