Pratt Rhetorical Analysis - Essay Example

Pratt Rhetorical Analysis Page 485-493 Does: The essay begins by a reflection on the early childhood life of the speaker’s son called Sam. SaysThe social and economic life of Sam revolved around what he had learnt from baseball (Pratt 485). Sam, the speaker’s son, also learns about the American history in addition to issues of racism from the baseball historical context. In addition, he learns about expertise and ways of associating with grownups (Pratt 485)DoesThe speaker then takes people on a journey on literacy and is concerned about the current education system.

SaysThe speaker says that her son begun his literacy journey by reading hard names on baseball playing cards. She further mentions that schooling has not been able to give him something that will take him beyond baseball (Pratt 486).DoesTries to explain the meaning of what Tony Sarmiento called ‘new visions of literacy’ in his comments to the conference. In addition, it analyses the letter that Guaman Poma wrote to King Philip III.SaysThe letter to King Philip III had two parts. The chronicles part of the letter, which the speaker refers to as the ethnography texts, refers to how people describe themselves to representations that people have made of them (Pratt 486).

They are contrary to the auto ethnography texts that others construct in response to those texts. These texts merged with indigenous idioms and they often aimed at addressing metropolitan audience as well as the speaker’s own community (Pratt 487). The second half of the letter talks of good governance and justice. At the time, Guzman wrote the letter, there was exploitation of workers insane and the decrease of the labor force hence the encouragement of the system’s reforms. Guaman praises Christians, people with good habits as well as just men.

Guaman wrote his text in an empire that was bureaucracy and had no established system of writing (Pratt 491). He manages to write by appropriating and adapting pieces of representational contextDoesTalks about the contact zones of the Spaniards and the Andreas and generally compares and describes how these communities lived.SaysThat contact zones were places where the two different communities with different cultures met and interaction took place in a variety of ways. The two communities also carried out trade amongst each other and while the Andreas had gold silver, the Spaniards only had armor and guns.

The speaker further says that miss comprehension, misread masterpieces, and incomprehension were some go the perils of writing in the contact zones of the Andres in the 1960s. These perils are still evident in the Trans nationalized United States (Pratt 493).SummaryGenerally, the speaker talks about writing and literacy in contact zones. Contact zones in the essay refer to a place where different cultures meet and clash in contexts of relations of power such as colonialism, slavery or their aftermath (Pratt 486).

The speaker compares these relations of power in the essay with the current of lives in relation to the Andres and Spanish community of the 1960s. The speaker then uses the contact zone term to reconsider the models of the community that many of us rely on during teaching and theorizing that are under challenge today (Pratt 486). The speaker further emphasizes on the letter that Guaman Poma wrote to King Philip III. In addition, the writer about the two phases of the letter, this includes issues on governance and leadership as well as the Chronicles part.

Rhetoric AnalysisIn the essay, the speaker is a MLA (Modern Language Association) member working in the elite academy. The speaker contribution aims at being abstract and anchored outside the real world. The audience comprises scholars and the topic relies on literacy context. The aim of the speaker is to educate the audience. The speaker manages to educate the audience by answering thoughts on what Tony Sarmiento called ‘new visions of literacy’ in his comments to the conference (Pratt 486).

In addition, the speaker succeeds in informing and educating because she brings in information from historical context and compares it with modern ways. This comparison aids her audience in understanding what she is saying more. The Speaker also employs the logical appeal. This is evident from the fact that she has used images to emphasize her point. The images make the audience believe that her claims are valid. In the instance where the speaker says that the Spaniards had lust for gold sound silver, she exemplifies her point with an image showing a Spanish saying that they eat the gold (Pratt 489).

The image therefore shows how much they had lust for silver and gold. Moreover, the speaker employees direct quotes from the letter hence showing his audience that she has valid points. The speaker quotes that the book says, “Nothing but armor and guns with lust for gold and silver, gold, silver, Indies, the Indies, Peru (489).” The speaker says this to show that the Spanish took nothing to the Andreas other than armor and guns.Work CitedPratt, Mary. Art of Contact Zone. < http://www.academia-research.

com/filecache/instr/p/r/1082326_prattartsofthecontactzone.pdf>