Rhetorical Analysis Of The Great Influenza By John M Barry

In The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, the author writes about scientists, and their constant struggle with research. Barry emphasizes the difficult challenges, and mysteries people in the science occupation experience. The author also explains the qualities one must possess to be a scientist, and the all-or-nothing research they must partake in. Throughout this passage of The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, the author characterizes scientists, and their everyday research as spontaneous and unpredictable through the use of several rhetoric strategies.

To begin, Barry uses anaphora, the rhetorical strategy of the repetition of words, in the beginning of the passage. “Certainty creates strength. Certainty gives one something upon which to lean. Uncertainty creates weakness. Uncertainty makes one tentative if not fearful…” (Lines 1-5) Barry continues to say that scientists are almost always uncertain of their research, and work. This repetition of

“All real scientists exist on the frontier. Even the least ambitious among them deal with the unknown, if only one step beyond the known.” (Lines 23-25) Barry uses this comparison to show that scientific research is just like the wilderness that the pioneers would explore. Barry is comparing scientists to pioneers by using the rhetoric strategy of analogies.

Subsequently, Barry uses rhetoric questions, where the author asks a series of questions without expecting an answer from the audience. “Would a pick be best, or would dynamite be better – or would dynamite be too indiscriminately destructive?... Would analyzing the water after it passes over the rock reveal anything useful? How would one analyze it?” (Line 40, Lines 46-49) The author uses these questions to get the reader thinking of how scientists analyze their research. This classifies scientific work as mind boggling, and a chance of either success or