Rhetorical Analysis Of The Child And The Shadow

1097 Words3 Pages

Rhetorical Analysis “The Child and the Shadow” Ursula K. LeGuin analyzes the psychological archetypes in her essay entitled “The Child and the Shadow,” in which she focuses her attention on one particular archetype, the shadow. The shadow archetype stands on the threshold of the conscious and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind, being what one may deem as acceptable to society and what they are comfortable with showing the world. On the contrary, the unconscious mind is the aspects of one’s being that they want to hide away, or not show because society would look down upon it. It is the psychological part of the human mind that gets pushed away or swiped under the rug so to speak. The shadow is basically any human thought, desire, or …show more content…

She also incorporates the aspect of creativity and how he or she can unleash certain artistic abilities by coming to terms and confronting one’s true nature. LeGuin also studies and Carl Jung’s psychological ideas and theories and tries to communicate them to the reader in a way he or she can understand. She describes Jung’s philosophies around the shadow archetype and how it pertains to both the conscious and unconscious realm. In conclusion to her essay, LeGuin explains to the reader how denying the existence of one’s shadow is the practice of escapism and in order to truly connect with one’s inner being he or she must reflect on the true characteristics of one’s deepest and inmost self. In Ursula LeGuin’s essay “The Child and the Shadow,” she makes the valid point that children benefit greatly from the fantasy genre, due to the fact that the child’s shadow has not yet developed to the full extent of an adult’s and is still very vague; this teaches the young child to view his or her shadow in a new light and with great compliance, rather than disregarding their shadow and falling to the wayside of …show more content…

Everything they experience gets soaked up into their innocent, naive minds and the brink of his or her shadow is still yet undefined, considering young children have no inclination of what society deems acceptable and unacceptable. This time in one’s life is indeed viewed crucial by LeGuin. She states, “But I think that when in pre-adolescence and adolescence the conscious sense of self emerges, often quite overwhelmingly, the shadow darkens right with it.” This quote basically means exactly what it says; in the time of pre-adolescence and adolescence the shadow grows with the child’s self, and as the growing child starts to understand what society sees as unacceptable, the shadow also becomes repressed as well. LeGuin portrays this natural act as disheartening because children have many hopes and dreams that get swept under the rug that were once so pure and unbiased by how cruel the world can actually

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Veldt

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout their early life, children feel oppressed by their parents. From being constantly nagged to being misunderstood, children can feel that their parents dislike them. With screams and threats, with lions lurking, Ray Bradbury utilizes foreshadowing and symbolism to uncover those dark feelings that dwell within a child.

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Toddlers In Tiaras'

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Toddlers In Tiaras” Skip Hollandsworth purpose is to get readers to understand Pageants are fun but can also be dangerous many predators attend them to seek out their next victim. Pageants can be very overwhelming and sometimes affects the participants in the long run. His exigency is the unknowing exploitation of little girls who are decorated with makeup, fancy clothes, and extensions added to their hair and the death of JonBenet Ramsey was taken serious but is believed to be a consequence of being in a pageant. “We love the beautiful dresses and the big hairstyles. We love the bling and makeup. We love our girls showing lots and lots of style, and we love seeing them sparkle”(Annette Hill). In the article Skip is speaking to many types of audiences.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis: The Digital Parent Trap

    481 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the passionate article, “The Digital Parent Trap” by the renowned Eliana Dockterman, the author convincingly portrays that there are benefits to early exposure to technology and that this viewpoint needs to be more pervasive or else there would be a severe problem with broad consequences. The author effectively and concisely builds the argument by using a variety of persuasive and argumentative rhetorical techniques including but not limited to the usage of ethos, evidence, and pathos.

    Read More

  • The Blind Side Rhetorical Analysis

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    Media such as movies, video games and television, in general, are all created to support some form of social context. This helps with generating popularity because people are able to relate to the form of media. In Greg Smith’s book What Media Classes Really Want to Discuss, he describes 6 different representational strategies that justifies people’s way of thinking. The trope that I will be amplifying is the white savior tactic. In addition, I will connect this strategy to the movie The Blind Side. There are clear examples throughout the film where racism and low-income cultures exist in which the white family is there to help. The Tuohy family from the movie “The Blind Side” serves as the white savior for the progression of Michael

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis: The End Of Walking By Antonia Malchik

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    Only the poor, the beggar, and the under-classes are prefer to walk, in the opinion of some Americans. However, one American, the author Antonia Malchik, writes “The End of Walking,” and she argues that in Orwellian fashion, American people not only walk less, but are afforded less opportunity to walk. Undermined pedestrian transit systems encroaches on people’s liberty, instinct, and health. In Malchik’s article, most of the rhetorical strategies are very effective. She strengthens the credibility successfully by citing experts’ words and narrating her own experiences. With facts and statistics, she interprets the logical reasons of walking.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of The Devil In The White City

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    A good author writes with a specific purpose. Many of them are very opinionated and controversial, calling out certain groups of people, or presenting readers with seemingly outlandish ideas. George Orwell says that he writes “to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.” His purpose is to persuade his readers to better themselves as well as society based on what he deems the correct approach. Erik Larson wrote “The Devil in the White City” to shine light on the infamous Gilded Age of America and the stark contrast, yet inevitable relatedness, of pride and evil. The book follows the story or architect Daniel Burnham as he works on the World’s Columbian Exposition,

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Richard Louv's Last Child In The Woods

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, writes about the separation between nature and people now, to nature and people in the past in his passages. He uses many rhetorical strategies, including logos and illustration, to analyze the arguments against these differences. The passages in this writing challenges these differences, and outlines what the future may hold, but also presents so many natural beauties that we choose to ignore. Louv amplifies the illustrations between how people used to ride in cars in the past, and how they find entertainment now. He asks, “why do so many people no longer consider the physical world worth watching?” Louv writes about how children are now more interested in watching movies or playing video games in the car, rather than looking at nature and

    Read More

  • A Christmas Carol Rhetorical Analysis

    494 Words  | 1 Pages

    Many people have transformed, or changed, throughout their lives, either in a positive or a negative way. But what does it mean to transform? That can be different between people and the way they think. Some think it's something unacceptable and you should try avoiding it, others want to transform themselves. To transform, you just need to see the true meaning of things and be happy. It is possible to change, but you need a reason to change. You need motivation, just like how you need the motivation to do the things you love to do.

    Read More

  • Speech On The Babies Rhetorical Analysis

    550 Words  | 2 Pages

    Being a servant to your baby,copying your child’s emotions,or taking your baby’s food, pretty normal right?Not, that was verbal irony, which Mark Twain’s “Speech On the Babies” and “Me Time” by Tina Fey both have through the use sarcastic situations, humorous scenarios, and over exaggerating things that come with being a parent.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis: The Dying Girl That No One Helped

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the FBI, more than 75 percent of all murder victims are women, and more than 50 percent of the women are between the ages of 14 and 29 years old. A part of that statistic is Kitty Genovese,a murder victim who is the focus of an editorial, “The Dying Girl that No One Helped,” written by Loudon Wainwright. Kitty was a 28 year old woman who was brutally stabbed to death while on her way home from work. The woman, named Kitty Genovese, lived in a pleasant, welcoming, residential area, in New York. There was at least 38 witnesses that came forward, and they all heard her cries for help, but no one came to her aid. Wainwright effectively demonstrates how society has started turning a “blind-eye” toward problems that can endanger someone's

    Read More

  • A Prayer for Owen Meany

    2622 Words  | 6 Pages

    Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who developed many theories concerning the unconscious mind. Jung’s theories state that the unconscious part of a human’s psyche has two different layers, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is unique to every individual; however, the collective unconscious “is inborn.” (Carl Jung, Four Archetypes, 3) The collective unconscious is present in everyone’s psyche, and it contains archetypes which are “those psychic contents which have not yet been submitted to conscious elaboration” (Jung, Archetypes, 5); they are templates of thought that have been inherited through the collective unconscious. Jung has defined many different archetypes such as the archetype of the mother, the archetype of the hero, the archetype of the shadow, etc. These Jungian archetypes are often projected by the collective unconscious onto others. If the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is examined through a Jungian archetypal lens it is possible to discern different archetypes projected by the protagonist’s unconscious self to illustrate the effects of the collective unconscious on character and plot analysis.

    Read More

  • Perspectives on Childhood in The Glass Castle and The Kite Runner

    1727 Words  | 4 Pages

    In John Connolly’s novel, The Book of Lost Things, he writes, “for in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be”. Does one’s childhood truly have an effect on the person one someday becomes? In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle and Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, this question is tackled through the recounting of Jeannette and Amir’s childhoods from the perspectives of their older, more developed selves. In the novels, an emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the relationships Jeannette and Amir have with their fathers while growing up, and the effects that these relations have on the people they each become. The environment to which they are both exposed as children is also described, and proves to have an influence on the characteristics of Jeannette and Amir’s adult personalities. Finally, through the journeys of other people in Jeannette and Amir’s lives, it is demonstrated that the sustainment of traumatic experiences as a child also has a large influence on the development of one’s character while become an adult. Therefore, through the analysis of the effects of these factors on various characters’ development, it is proven that the experiences and realities that one endures as a child ultimately shape one’s identity in the future.

    Read More

  • Death Of The Moth Rhetorical Analysis

    1636 Words  | 4 Pages

    The subject of death is one that many have trouble talking about, but Virginia Woolf provides her ideas in her narration The Death of the Moth. The moth is used as a metaphor to depict the constant battle between life and death, as well as Woolf’s struggle with chronic depression. Her use of pathos and personification of the moth helps readers develop an emotional connection and twists them to feel a certain way. Her intentional use of often awkward punctuation forces readers to take a step back and think about what they just read. Overall, Woolf uses these techniques to give her opinion on existence in general, and reminds readers that death is a part of life.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Little Red Riding Hood

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyone’s childhood was filled with fairytales, and stories that will forever be programed into our minds even memory that continues from generation to generations. You’ll remember in school your first book were both the three little pigs and even Little Red Riding Hood. Yes, good old fairytales who knew when you was reading the most famous little red riding hood it was actually a lot history behind the tale. Just to allow a slight backstory about the tale we were taught of the story going like this little girl goes to bring her grandmother a basket of sweet on the way she encounters a wolf she tells him she on her way to her grandmother’s house from there the wolf bets the little to the grandmothers house eats the hopeless grandmother then

    Read More

  • The Effect of War in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... growth where a child is forced to start looking for solutions for everything that is wrong instead of simply being a child. This analysis prove that children have their own way of seeing things and interpreting them. Their defense mechanisms allow them to live through hard and difficult times by creating jokes and games out of the real situation. This enables then to escape the difficulties of the real world.

    Read More

More about Rhetorical Analysis Of The Child And The Shadow

Open Document