Good morning!  It is a beautiful Sunday day with the rays of sunshine peeking through my blinds and the gleeful chirping of the birds up above; and I admit I am simply excited for today’s post!  Now that we feel comfortable with the various methods of rhetorical analysis, it’s only fair that we apply it a real life example.  And of course, the best body of work is one of my essays (self promotion here!)

Last year, I wrote an essay titled When He Falls, He Rises which is an essay based on the underrated novel, The Day of the Locust.  I argue that Tod should not be reprimanded for falling into the evil of Hollywood desires, but should instead be honored for his glorious success of eventually rising above the other characters and maintain his separation as an educated person.  To prove my points, I evaluate his relationship with Faye through his transformation from a gentleman to a sinner as well as discuss his project of the Burning of Los Angeles.  However, even though I have written it myself, I have never conducted analysis on it.  There’s a first time for everything, so here we go!

First, let’s use the ethos/pathos/logos method on this essay!  For ethos, we need to examine the credibility of the essay.  For the Work Cited, there are a total of eight sources consisting of works from Cornell University, University of Chicago, and the NY Times.  I also try to develop trust by making the first body paragraph a lengthy description of the novel to prove my understanding of the text.  For pathos, let’s check the emotional content of this work.  Here, I started out with an inspirational quotation from Confucius to reel the audience’s attention as well as connect the book to the Bible in the conclusion.  To further elaborate, one of my paragraphs was about is connecting Tod’s interpretation of the evils of Hollywood with the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.  Finally, for logos, the structure of the speech was carefully planned to guide the audience to my conclusion.  I first made an introduction to claim my thesis, then moved to a short novel synopsis to develop credibility, and helped familiarize the other characters as well through a paragraph on Tod and Faye’s relationship. Then, I discussed the evils that affected Tom regarding his savage sexual advances/thoughts of Faye, following with a paragraph of the symbolic Burning of Los Angeles through text examples.  Next, I applied the Bible and the deadly sins to Hollywood to show the importance of his revelations.  Finally, I finished with a conclusion introducing a new idea of the American Dream.

Surprisingly, when using a different method of rhetorical analysis, we could develop a new conclusion.  Therefore, let’s try the Toulmin method, which I admit, is personally my favorite.  For my claim, I argue that despite Tod’s fall into the same contaminated emotions as the other characters, he is the only one who is able to self evaluate himself and not only overcome his need to rape Faye, but also understanding the true burning of Los Angeles through his experiences.  For my grounds, I use quotations from reputable sources as well examples from the actual text to support my claim.  For example, I provided a quote in my paragraph from a reputable author: “Tod is similarly parasitic: sexually obsessed with the same auto-erotic adolescent girl, full of fantasies of violence and glory, and in the end simply another hysterical victim”.  Warrants is all of my writing in the essay to connect my examples to the ideas of the claim such as taking the quote mentioned above and using it to show how Tod has become part of the burning in Los Angeles: “The irony of the situation is that despite his narration making him look as above all the other dirty characters, he himself has also become victim to the burning.”  Regarding warrant, through the trust I have developed, the reader should trust my warrant.  I admit that I am confused about the model qualifiers and rebuttal here, because I did not use those keywords nor did I make a rebuttal paragraph for this specific essay.  My question is then if those are not fulfilled, is my essay a violation of the Toulmin method?

So what’s the point?  I spent over an hour analyzing my own writing using these methods to what benefit?  Improving your writing!!!!  To truly understand your work, simply reading it is not enough to connect to your audience.  By using these methods, you can ensure that you are properly fulfilling all aspects of a successful written piece.  In my case, from the Ethos/pathos/logos method, I learned that my essay is very strong at appealing to one’s emotions, however I need work with logos, or the structure of the paragraphs.  For my essay, I am trying to persuade the audience to accept my thesis I have presented to them.  These methods of analysis allow me to view every angle of the work and determine if it accurately argues my point.