The Gentleman's Agreement Rhetorical Analysis

Using appropriate syntax, foreshadowing, and other creative literary devices in his story “Gentleman’s Agreement”, author Mark Richard convinces readers to believe a particular father is cruel and hateful and that he will certainly follow through with his threat of nailing his son’s hand to the wall when he discovers that his son has disobeyed him. From the story, the reader gathers that the little boy likes to throw rocks. His father, a firefighter, swears that if he throws another rock that he will nail his son’s hand to the wall. While the boy wants to obey his father’s command, his playful nature and lack of self-control gradually lead the boy to forget about his father’s threatening message. Much to the audience’s disappointment, the last

The language Richard uses every time the father appears in the story is always negative. In the beginning of the story, he starts about the father’s appearance saying, “His father in his dirty, roughed-up denim, of all days to come home, mud and ash, machete on the hip and the snake pistol, timber boots laced with wire that wouldn't burn, the blackened shanks of ankles, the boot soles cracked by heat and desperate shoveling, his father footprinting crazy mazes of topography across the clean wooden floors.” All of the adjectives used are harsh. This allows for the audience to feel that he is a rough and tough sort of man, the kind of man that you do not want to upset, not out of respect but out of fear. Using these choice words, the author immediately turns readers off by the father and leads them to believe that he will certainly show no mercy toward the boy if he disobeys the

They stop for a moment to observe some paperwork which includes the bills the father owes to the doctor for repairing the boy’s head, and the bills for replacing the car windshield and broken windows. The other paper the boy sees is the check his father received from fighting the forest fire. The father reveals, with toolbox in hand, that he can hardly even afford to keep the child, much less pay to have his stitches removed. At this point, readers may gather that this father is not happy about losing so much money because of his child’s poor decision. There has yet to be any reason given as to why this boy will not receive his punishment as was