"How to Restore the American Dream", was written by Fareed Zakaria, a native-born Indian who first came to America for educational opportunities. Zakaria first writes from her own perspective as an immigrant, comparing and contrasting life in India to that of life in America. In the next few paragraphs, she turns from personal experience to fact, highlighting in specific the economy and financial stability of America. She recalls the recession in which we recently experienced, and then moves on to appraisal of large companies such as Apple and IBM, all of whom began in the heartland of America. The structure of the article had a significant impact on the effect of persuasion. Zakaria started by posing America in the limelight, sharing how people from India longed to experience the opportunities it had to offer. She then moved on to reprimanding our great country for the pains it had suffer (i.e. the recession), and lastly, reminds of us all the great we, as a nation, have done.
This article does an excellent job of utilizing persuasive techniques to serve its' purpose of "restoring the American dream." In the first paragraph alone, there were at least three rhetorical devices that stood out to me. The first device I noticed was perspective. Zakaria uses this in the first line, whilst describing her take on the American dream. Imagery was used in the next line, "...TV series began with a kaleidoscope of big, brassy, sexy images — tracts of open land, shiny skyscrapers, fancy cars, cowboy businessmen and the very dreamy Victoria Principal." The last one was comparison, present in the last few sentences in which Zakaria compares life in India to that of life in America. Comparison was an extremely prominent device throughout the course of the entire article. More than likely, Zakaria did this intentionally. With the purpose of the article being restoration of faith and the American dream, it's definitely an effective tool to use the appraisal of other countries to fill a sense of pride in Americans.
Zakaria, Fareed. "How to Restore the American Dream." (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
This article does an excellent job of utilizing persuasive techniques to serve its' purpose of "restoring the American dream." In the first paragraph alone, there were at least three rhetorical devices that stood out to me. The first device I noticed was perspective. Zakaria uses this in the first line, whilst describing her take on the American dream. Imagery was used in the next line, "...TV series began with a kaleidoscope of big, brassy, sexy images — tracts of open land, shiny skyscrapers, fancy cars, cowboy businessmen and the very dreamy Victoria Principal." The last one was comparison, present in the last few sentences in which Zakaria compares life in India to that of life in America. Comparison was an extremely prominent device throughout the course of the entire article. More than likely, Zakaria did this intentionally. With the purpose of the article being restoration of faith and the American dream, it's definitely an effective tool to use the appraisal of other countries to fill a sense of pride in Americans.
Zakaria, Fareed. "How to Restore the American Dream." (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
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