Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Cuss Time' By Jill Mccorkle

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his bold novel, The Scarlet Letter tackles a variety of themes that include: sin, guilt, redemption, postfeminism, and organized religion's abuse of power. Hawthorne spoke in a somber and grim tone, designed to arouse a sense of suspense for his readers. The audience in which he was addressing would have been conservative Christians and women suffragettes, all of whom reflected the ideologies during this time period. By instilling clever diction, Hawthorne exposes hypocrisy in Puritanism and objects against the religion's superfluous punishments; which force individuals to endure unnecessary and extreme suffering.

During the time Florence Kelley was advocating for changes, child labor was a popular unrestricted practice. The kids were working making textiles and other items in horrible working conditions. Many states had children working more than 12 hours a day and night shifts while they were not allowed to go to school. Florence Kelley was a United States social worker and a reformer. She fought ferociously for improvements in child labor and conditions for working women. At this convention for the National American Woman Suffrage Association she wants to reach out the women focused on suffrage towards other issues. Kelley used rhetorical strategies to help convince her audience to help her fight against child labor. The use of repetition, imagery, and rhetorical question help get her point of eradicating child labor across to the audience.

In The Case Against Banning the Word “Retard”, Author Christopher M. Fairman made his argument clear in very clear that the effort to rid the use of word retarded or retard is futile and a possible danger to freedom of speech. Fairman does not base his argument on the idea that the mentally disabled, or mentally retarded, aren’t offended by the use of the word retard, but rather that the core issue isn’t the actual word but the negative connotation people put with taboo subjects. Because Fairman bases his argument on the idea that the offensive nature of words is created by the taboo nature of their origins, a large part of the paper is devoted to defending this idea with examples like the N-word and the use of the word gay. Although the

Introduction An eloquent speech can tackle the challenges posed by flying time and shine in various social contexts. Severn Cullis-Suzuki’s speech in 1992 hit the world by its appeal and eloquence. Nowadays, Severn is still remembered as “The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes”, and during important international environmental conferences, journalists still turn to Severn for comments and advice. How does the speech stand out from numerous environmental speeches in the history?

Profanity should be the last reason a great novel should be banned. After all, it is reality, it is how people talk, and in the case of Harris and Me, its definitely how young boys talk to each other. The use of the language is hardly profanity at all. For example, Harris says, “Well you can just blow it out your butt you old cow, you ain’t no grown-up to tell me what to do. How the hell am I supposed to know things if I don’t go ahead and ask them? (Gary Paulsen, Harris and Me .7)” The words feel elementary to me, he says butt instead of ass, and old cow instead of old heifer. Maybe it’s not the actual words that parents are losing their minds about, but more about

In the middle of the speech, Florence Kelley states the situation regarding the legality of child labor in many states, using firm facts, doleful repetition, and ironic diction to arouse within the audience a sympathetic response to want the children removed from their harmful situations along with the logical response of wanting to repeal the laws associated with allowing children in damaging manufacturing industries. Kelley employs several examples of different laws in different states allowing children to work long hours at young ages. One example given describes even the lack of restrictions on child labor whatsoever. “In Georgia there is no restriction whatever! A girl of six or seven years…may work eleven hours by day or by night.” Utilizing

On the other hand, some people argue that book censorship is a violation of their constitutional right to freedom of speech, and the right to self expression. One article puts its effects this way, “Permitting restraints on literature sets the stage for attacks on all expression that is artistically or politically controversial or that portray unpleasant realities of life.” This,

In Florence Kelley’s speech delivered to the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1905, the author employs empathetic repetition, strong facts, and piteous diction to inspire as many people as possible to work against child labor.

“Tonight while we sleep…” those little children will be busy working adult like hours, does not that upset you? Due to child labor laws in the United States in the early 20th century, children were working a great quantity of hours during the night time “while we sleep.” In the United States approximately twenty million children are working for their own food because of child labor laws. Florence Kelley, the author of this essay is disgusted by these unjust child labor laws and is empathetic towards the children,but also Kelley is ashamed of the United States rights of women. In this speech, Kelley expresses her loathe feeling towards child labor laws and emphasizes the fact that women cannot vote; in order for them to vote against them.

The voice of writers and authors are the key components to their inner thoughts. It is a way of actually portraying what a person is trying to say. However the case is that their words silenced and put in period of exile away from the eyes of the public. Author Charles Lawrence goes on to state that racist speech is wrong simply because of the drastic agony it puts on a victim’s perspective. In the article “On Racist Speech,” the author, Charles R Lawrence III, effectively establishes credibility, logic and emotional themes to supports his argument which infers that the use of harmful language should not be protected by the First Amendment Law in order to stop racism.

First, the author argues, “When engaging in critical literacy, readers question reality and entertain multiple perspectives about particular topics, attitudes, and behaviors” (Graff). Challenged and banned books are beneficial to readers. These banned books help students evaluate more difficult pieces of literature, which could be used in the future. Jennifer Graff states, “...Book censorship helps us think critically about the power of the written word as well as the relationships between individuals, texts, and contexts, to paraphrase Lawrence Sipe (1999)” (Graff). Banned and challenged books allow readers to see the truth--from the past, future, or present--written by the author. Readers can apply these ideas to real-life situations successfully. In the article, On Reading and Sharing Banned Books, the topic of “...heightened sensitivity about what and how we say things,” and needing, “ongoing conversations about how literature can be part of our lives without undue stress and controversy” is exposed (Graff). Books are written for many reasons, to inform persuade, entertain, and relax; however, with books censorship, finding relaxing or entertaining books is extremely difficult. Without censorship, readers could easily discuss these now controversial topics without worry. The purpose of the book, good moral, and potentially

Florence Kelley, an active social worker and reformer of the 20th century, rants over the horrendous working conditions kids must endure. She presents this in her speech before National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, which provides context and credibility for her argument. Kelley argues clearly of the terrible conditions and work hours kids suffer to bring about her message of, “enlisting the workingmen voters.” This is essentially to free the kids from the disastrous issue through her usage of credibility, empathetic tone to strike the audience, and her usage of examples of their conditions and state rules to support her message and purpose.

Mitch Albom described in the book did not resemble the Mitch Albom in the movie production. American author and sports columnist Mitch Albom in his memoir from Tuesdays with Morrie (1997) records his weekly conferences with his old, diseased professor for his final thesis about life. He develops his tear-jerking chronicle by first describing Morrie before Lou Gehrig’s disease, then addressing his new lifestyle with the disease, then listing their discussion topics in chapter title form, and finally recounting how Morrie’s wise words have impacted the way Mitch lives and encounters life. Albom’s purpose is to raise money and awareness of the disease in order to pay for Morrie’s medical bills. He establishes a buoyant tone for the general public. However, although this memoir to a man’s favorite professor is a success and a best-seller, no book is complete without a movie, in Hollywood. In 1999, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey produced a film dedicated to the narrative written by Albom. However, this film did not closely resemble the memoir for entertainment reasons. Mitch is not completely portrayed correctly; the film would be boring if the story was identical.

Many teenage books have profanity in the books to prove the point of topics that the writer wants to tell the audiences point of view. The Literature today is more mature then most of the the children and teenagers that is reading this type of mature literature. Having strong language in books makes the books more interesting and more intense with a lot more mature topic the for readers. In the numerous articles, “Darkness to visible”, “Sick-lit”, and “Potty Mouth”, arise the question: Should explicit content be available to young readers? Profanity in literature reveals real content that everyday young adults go through. However, profanity should be tolerated, but monitored to a certain extent.

Throughout reading Jill McCorkle’s editorial “Cuss Time”, I noticed she has a decent amount of experience on the topic. The end of the editorial informs the reader that McCorkle is the author of six novels, four story collections, and is a current teacher at Bennington College Writing Seminars. Her work has been featured in various periodicals as well. Although there are no specific credentials listed in the writing that relates to the discussion of free speech and expression, McCorkle’s history in writing, teaching, and public speaking inclines me to believe she is well versed about the subject at hand.