Rhitorical Appeals in Literature Essay - 970 Words

Throughout the Three pieces of literature I read – â€Å"Superman and Me† by Sherman Alexie, â€Å"Crazy Courage† by Alma Luz Villanueva, and â€Å"Theme for English B† by Langston Hughes, multiple claims are implied on the subject of knowledge and individual power. Whether it is about Race, being different, or the struggle to survive, they all point towards the same direction. They all show that being strong, proud, and courage is what makes you individually powerful, even if others may look down upon you or think of you as weird. Through the use of the rhetorical appeals ethos, logos, and pathos, these three authors truly move the readers to really accept what they are trying to prove. In â€Å"Superman and Me† by Sherman Alexie, the narrator’s claim is†¦show more content†¦In the poem â€Å"Crazy Courage† by Alma Luz Villanueva, the author talks about a man named Michael that she met in her fiction class, who, as she later finds out, is a cross dresser. Using the rhetorical appeal Pathos, the author truly proves her point- that other people’s opinions do not matter so long as you are courageous and confident about yourself. In the poem, Michael seems so courageous, even though he is dressed in woman’s clothes and in front of an entire class, that it â€Å"shocked / the young, seen-it-all MTV crowd / into silence†(Villanueva 20-23). The class was so shocked at the confidence of the person in front of them considering his situation that they couldn’t even speak. In fact, even â€Å"those who would kill him† were impressed at the level of courage he must have had, and the fact that he seemed even happier in the seemingly odd clothes and outfit he was wearing (Villanueva 27). Last but not least is the poem â€Å"Theme for English B† by Langston Hughes. The author Langston Hughes seems to use more of a Logical appeal. While it doesn’t seem to be the most org anized Poem, there is without a doubt some sort of claim. While it isn’t necessarily the best example of a claim that relates to knowledge and individual power, it seemed like an interesting poem to write about. In my opinion, the author is trying to show that even though he is of a different race than his white teacher, and even though he is