Ken from Whose Life Is It Anyway Persuading the Judge to Let Him Die

In this essay, I will be describing and analysing how Ken, from “whose life is it anyway”, used persuasive techniques to persuade the judge to let him die.
Ken is trying to persuade the judge to let him die, and he persuades him with this quote “…and I find the hospital’s persistent effort to maintain this shadow of life an indignity and its humane.” this quote is clearly showing that he does not want to rely on other people. The word “maintain” stands for holding something like an object in your household. He does not want the hospital and the doctors to “maintain” his shadow of life because he thinks that he is “dead already”.
In the quote “…but the dignity starts with their choice. If I chose to live, it would be appalling if society killed me. If I chose to die, its equally appalling if society keeps me alive.” This quote shows that he cares about other people not just himself. The word “society” is used because it shows that he thinks truly not only about himself. Also there is a word “choose”, this clearly shows that there is no modal verbs and it is more effective and emotive, as that word, it self, shows that he thought everything though what he actual said. I like the way Ken uses strong words like “appalling”, by saying this, he is exaggerating and by doing this, he is shocking.
Ken doesn’t thing letting someone live although they’re against it is terrible, but the fact that they don’t get the choice. “The cruelty doesn’t reside on saving someone or allowing them to die. It resides in the fact that the choice is removed from the man concerned” this quote means exactly how ken feels at that moment. The choice is about to be taken from him, and that will make things even harder for him. The word “cruelty” is a very strong word. Using it, Ken, creates sympathy and it made the whole quote more persuasive and he was saying that people are cruel by taking the choice from him. Also I this quote, he is stating by using words like “is”, “fact”, “it resides”. All of these are modal verbs and show that he knows what he is talking about and is confident with what he thinks and knows. The author chose the techniques for a reason, and the reasons are that the whole fact about persuading the judge needs to be pointed out as it’s the most important bit in the story play, the judge will judge from whether to save the man or let him die as he wanted. It’s a life or death situation.
Ken also uses rhetorical questions to make the judge think, “Is that surprising?” Ken said this on purpose as it is very effective persuasive technique like in the one. Rhetorical questions overall, start arguments and debates in which this story is all about.
Overall I think that the judge did the right thing letting ken die. He would be suffering mentally and physically if he didn’t. This story has many different writing techniques and only very few I have analysed in this essay. I think they are very effective upon this story and the story wouldn’t make sense and so much drama if it didn’t.

Agata Chirek