Beautiful Boy Rhetorical Analysis

490 Words1 Page

Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, wrote this novel to unveil the atrocious working conditions and the contaminated meat in meat-packing workhouses. It was pathos that enabled his book to horrify hundreds of people and to encourage them to take a stand against these meat-packing companies. To obtain the awareness of people, he incorporated a descriptive style to his writing. Ample amounts of imagery, including active verbs, abstract and tangible nouns, and precise adjectives compelled readers to be appalled. Durham, the leading Chicago meat packer, was illustrated, “having piles of meat... handfuls of dried dung of rats...rivers of hot blood, and carloads of moist flesh, and soap caldrons, craters of hell.” ( Sinclair 139). His description …show more content…

His son Nic Sheff had methamphetamine addiction and the memoir explained the stages David went through to help and keep Nic alive. Sheff was trying to appeal to readers who faced a similar crisis. He wanted these readers to be able to connect and relate as much as they could. Everybody can empathize with the basic emotions of relief, depression, and fear. Hence, Sheff utilized pathos in his writing. His poignant tone was testified by phrases such as, “enormously painful” (Sheff 17), “excruciating” (Sheff 35), “fearful”(Sheff 5), and “I relive the hell” (Sheff 54). By representing the pain he felt, he aroused the feelings of regret and agony he assumed his reader would have. His variety of sentence lengths also portrayed his emotions. For example, his long, never-ending sentence reflected his frustration and helplessness. When Nic went missing one night, Sheff said, "it got so bad that I wanted to wipe out and delete and expunge every trace of him from my brain so that I would not have to worry about him anymore and I would not have to to be disappointed by him anymore and hurt by him and I would no longer have the restless and haunting slideshow of images..." (Sheff 241). He also repeated the phrase, “if only I had” (42). This revealed the guilt he had for Nic’s condition. Sheff, along with other countless parents, felt that he was responsible for his son’s

Open Document