Rhetorical Analysis Essay
January 13th 2012
AP English Rhetorical Analysis Essay #3 Final Draft
Every individual has traditions passed down from their ancestors. This is important because it influences how families share their historical background to preserve certain values to teach succeeding generation. N. Scott Momaday has Native American roots inspiring him to write about his indigenous history and Maxine Hong Kingston, a first-generation Chinese American who was inspired by the struggles of her emigrant family. Kingston and Momaday manipulate language by using, metaphors, similes, and a unique style of writing to reflect on oral traditions. The purpose of Kingston’s passage is to reflect upon her ancestor’s mistake to establish her values as an American immigrant where as Momaday’s purpose is to remember his ancestry through his grandmother to remind future generations of their family’s traditions. In The Way to Rainy Mountain, Momaday used a metaphor comparing his grandmother to the Rainy Mountain. For example, he writes that “[a]lthough my grandmother lived out her long life in the shadow of Rainy Mountain, the immense landscape of the continental interior lay like memory in her blood (Momaday 131). This metaphor compares the immense landscape of the Rainy Mountain’s continental interior to his grandmother’s memory instilled in her bloodstream. By using metaphors, Momaday reminds young individuals of their traditional life by comparing memories with the present. Momaday was inspired by his Kiowa roots and his ancestors to write The Way to Rainy Mountain. In No Name Woman, Kingston uses the same rhetorical device but for a different purpose. For example, she writes that “[b]ut one human being flaring up into violence could open up a black hole, a maelstrom that pulled in the sky (Kingston 240).” In this quotation, Kingston utilizes a metaphor to compare the village’s violence towards her aunt’s ways of not conforming to the physical representation of their culture as the
AP English Rhetorical Analysis Essay #3 Final Draft
Every individual has traditions passed down from their ancestors. This is important because it influences how families share their historical background to preserve certain values to teach succeeding generation. N. Scott Momaday has Native American roots inspiring him to write about his indigenous history and Maxine Hong Kingston, a first-generation Chinese American who was inspired by the struggles of her emigrant family. Kingston and Momaday manipulate language by using, metaphors, similes, and a unique style of writing to reflect on oral traditions. The purpose of Kingston’s passage is to reflect upon her ancestor’s mistake to establish her values as an American immigrant where as Momaday’s purpose is to remember his ancestry through his grandmother to remind future generations of their family’s traditions. In The Way to Rainy Mountain, Momaday used a metaphor comparing his grandmother to the Rainy Mountain. For example, he writes that “[a]lthough my grandmother lived out her long life in the shadow of Rainy Mountain, the immense landscape of the continental interior lay like memory in her blood (Momaday 131). This metaphor compares the immense landscape of the Rainy Mountain’s continental interior to his grandmother’s memory instilled in her bloodstream. By using metaphors, Momaday reminds young individuals of their traditional life by comparing memories with the present. Momaday was inspired by his Kiowa roots and his ancestors to write The Way to Rainy Mountain. In No Name Woman, Kingston uses the same rhetorical device but for a different purpose. For example, she writes that “[b]ut one human being flaring up into violence could open up a black hole, a maelstrom that pulled in the sky (Kingston 240).” In this quotation, Kingston utilizes a metaphor to compare the village’s violence towards her aunt’s ways of not conforming to the physical representation of their culture as the