A Rhetorical Analysis Of Hamill's Argument

Hamill used appeals to pity in his argument. His goal is to draw out the reader’s emotions and uses them to his advantage. Hamill cleary uses appeals to pity to catch the reader’s empathy to how drugs can ruin a life. The first thing Hamill writes about is how he talked to a woman who was hooked on crack cocaine; she was young and had three kids. To appeal to you pity for her he gives her backstory: “Her story was the usual tangle of human woe: early pregnancy, dropping out of school, vanished men, smack and then crack, and tricks with johns in parked cars to pay for the dope” (551-552). He then tells his audience, when the woman was telling her story he notices that the children are ignored them because “they were watching television” (552).