1) [1/2 of a page] Robert Root is an acclaimed writer and professor of creative nonfiction. In his book The Nonfictionist’s Guide, he defines the creative-nonfiction motive as a “need to know or understand a specific, limited topic.” Considering that definition, locate and analyze one passage that exposes Rich Cohen’s exigence to write. What conflict or question is Cohen trying to sort out or understand? And does he sort it out using a tone that seems to be more argumentative or more expository in nature? (When describing Cohen’s tone, consider the many adjectives you can use to describe it—not just “argumentative” or “expository.”)“The fact is, my interest in the Hitler mustache never started and never ends. It is always. If you’re a Jew, the Hitler mustache exists in the eternal present…I wanted to defuse it. I wanted to own it. I wanted to reclaim it for America and for the Jews. My name is Rich Cohen, and I wear a Hitler mustache” (Cohen 15). | | 2) [1/2 of a page] Locate a passage that reaches into the universal by presenting a dichotomous idea. What dichotomous idea is presented, and how does Cohen use the arrangement of details/ideas here to reach and present that dichotomous idea? “The presence of Chaplin's 'stache …show more content…
on Hitler's face encouraged Western leaders to underestimate the Fuhrer. 'Chaplin's mustache became a lens through which to look at Hitler,' he writes. 'a glass in which Hitler became merely Chaplinesque: a figure to be mocked more than feared, a comic villain whose pretensions would collapse of his own disproportionate weight...Someone to be ridiculed rather than resisted” (Cohen 18). | | 3) What role is research playing in Cohen’s development of this text? In your analysis, consider Cohen’s purpose and how his use of research helps him utilize one of the three appeals.“According To a recently rediscovered essay by Alexander Moritz Frey, who served with Hitler in the First World War, Hitler wore the mustache in the trenches. Because he had been ordered to…In other words, the mustache that defines Hitler was cut in the shape of a gas mask. Which is perfect. Because Hitler was the bastard son of the Great War” (Cohen 17). | | 4) [1/2 of a page] Select and analyze a passage that utilizes one of the 20 figures of speech you were introduced to last quarter and that you did not focus on in CRJ 1.
In your analysis, explain which figure is being used and what it does for the text in terms of its effect on the reader. Which one of the three appeals does it seem to be building?“So people do with little Hitlers what people always do with lunatics in New York, the harmless or dangerous—they ignore, they avert, they move away. If you want to fly coach without being hassled, grow a Toothbrush mustache. I wore the mustache for about a week. It preceded me into stores and hung in the air after I exited. It sat on my face as I slept” (Cohen 21). |
| 5) [1/2 of a page] Is Cohen playing more with syntax OR more with diction in his introduction-conclusion combination to achieve purpose? Focusing on one of the three appeals (ethos, logos, pathos) and on one or two stylistic choices (related to diction or syntax [connotation v. denotation, specific v. general, active v. passive, sentence length, etc.]), make your claim clear.“When you stare into space with a Toothbrush mustache, you are glowering. You can’t help it. You’re looking into crowds. You’re looking at the names on the census that end in ‘-berg’ and ‘-stein’ while thinking, How do we get all these Juden onto trains? But in the end, my project, in its broader aims, was a failure….it still belonged to Hitler” (Cohen 21). | |