Analyzing Rhetorical Devices - Essay Example

“The Revitalizing Ptoon River” The river’s murmuring waters flow quietly by soothing away the day’s aches and fatigue. The chirping birds create a whole inclusive sing song melody, which builds up to a symphony with every element in nature playing its part. It is the life line of all beings that inhabit its path, giving and sustaining life effortlessly; one could feel the life force vibrating on everything even the rocks seemed to have a life of their own. The river moves on, in a leisurely pace glistening in the afternoon sun, giving life where there was no hope of life or where life was hanging on by just a sliver of hope. The animals come here to quench their thirst; some lapping up the water with their tongues, others taking a deep in the relieving water. Birds from all corners of the forest come to make their nests near her; for there is always plenty food where she passes. The little boys and girls are always lost in wonder at the graceful flow of the river, creating shallow pools in its wake where they spend most of their time splattering around without a care in the world. Their parents nearby are going on with their daily chores of fishing, cleaning, and singing in unison joining nature in its never ending orchestra by the river. It has many sacred places and shrines where elders come to perform rites to their ancestors, where initiates come to be one with nature, to ask for her permission before taking the bold step into adulthood. It is the place where people feel at most with nature and their gods. It is where all life culminates and where it is most vibrant; it is felt in the inner core of the soul of everything there. River Ptoon is a home away from home. “The Macabre Ptoon River” In an eerie calm by the river bank a scream shatters the silence another victim falls prey to the unusually calm river. Lurking in the deeper pools of the river there are ravenous predator fishes and alligators ready to snap their jaws at anything that comes near them. The ever present birds always ready to play the role of “garbage collectors”, nibbling the bones of the dead animals to scorched white, cleaning away the wine; the water stinks of death after the massacres. The stones by the banks are marked by bird droppings like a mad painter’s work of art. Only the tall old trees remain alive with their long deep tap roots reaching the pure water underground, and their shadows casting sinister looking impressions. Parents bring their children to play but pretend to be busy with their chores, but they are hawk eyed for any sign of danger from within or out of the river; the innocent children court with death at every turn of their naive games; the whole area is electrified with tension one can smell the fear on their parents. The animals, who come to drink, are those that have no alternative because they could die from thirst or take the risk and hope that their day to die has not come. The Ptoon River is a death trap even to those who claim to understand her, never knowing when her mood will change and leave a path of destruction in her unforgiving wake. Rotting human waste is left steaming in the morning sun and used contraceptives litter the forest floor from illicit affairs. Life is given and taken besides the river, but what is lost is more but not acknowledged for it is life that is given that is seen and not what is taken. Rhetorical Analysis The Ptoon River passes through a dense forest then comes to pass through flatland in the steppe. My first visit there was awe inspiring because of the beauty of the landscape that the river traverses through. The elements of nature in the river plain are both constructive and merciful to its subjects but can also lay wanton destruction in its wake from time to time. In the positive paragraph, I start by portraying the river as being “revitalizing” in the descriptive heading of the story. This immediately gives the audience an idea of the nature of the place being described by the passage. It shows the rivers ability to rejuvenate or boost life, morale and energy. The use of descriptive elements that show the birds, humans and nature singing in unison alludes to the harmonious co-existence that thrives in the river basin. “The children play without a care in the world” the use of this statement without mentioning how tense and afraid their parents are help s create the positive feel and projection intended for the reader (Mcguigan 120). In the second negative description, the birds always nest in trees near the river because there is always some dead body to scavenge on; in the first part of the story, the birds prefer being near the river because there is always plenty of food. If it were mentioned that the food was a dead animal remains, then the positive aspect of the place would have been diminished to the reader, confusing and contradicting the true purpose of my intention to portray the pure sanctity of the scene that I choose. The second description starts with a heading that includes the word “macabre,” this immediately tunes the readers mind to an unpleasant and negative discourse because the word means unsightly or horrid. “The predators lurking in the deeper pools of the river” totally changes the feel of the scene from that of relative calm and tranquility to that of constant vigilance and tension. The introduction of additional elements in the second description helps steer the reader to another perspective, which that is in contrast with the first. In the first description there is no mention of litter which would have painted the scene as dirty and filthy not befitting the rest of the paragraph. The animals that come to drink do so at their own risk because the river is not a safe abode; unlike in the first paragraph where the river is a source of life, in the second “the animals hope that their day to die has not come.”The choice of words changes the drinking spots to death traps, which in the first paragraph were havens of hope and life. In the first paragraph, the use of the words “murmur” and “sooth” create a pleasant mood from the onset of my description. In the second, use of the words “eerie” and “shattered” alludes to the terrible scenery that greets me when I come upon this scene. Reflection When writing this point of view essay, it has come to my attention that words can be used to great effect by how they are arranged in a sentence or the type of words used. Words are highly strong communication tools because they actively engage the readers mind into imagining and recreating the written word to suit their perception and expectation. Words can be used to deduce the type of mood or their state of mind that a writer was in when they authored something. The words that are used to describe something extremely influence the attitude of the reader towards that particular subject. Words have been described as the “highways to the soul” because they can be used to convey and relate to most remote recesses of our subconscious if they are arranged and applied in the right way. When making unbiased comparisons, care should be taken not to over emphasize one subject over the other because a discerning reader could easily note the discrepancy and discredit its true purpose (McGuigan 186). The use of words in rhetoric can be used to bring out different meanings to facts if they are manipulated and applied in an appropriate way. Work Cited. McGuigan B. Rhetorical Devices: A Handbook and Activities for Student Writers. Revised Edition. Prestwick House Inc, 2007.Print. Read More