Rhetorical Analysis Of Brent Staples Mr. Bellow's Planet

The article, Mr. Bellow’s Planet by Brent Staples centers how Staples lived in Chicago as well as his inspiration to become a journalist. The article had a lot of attention grasping moments, however, I was confused about the structure and the message of the profile. For example, in the beginning of the article from pages 179 to 184, the article describes the neighborhood in which the narrator lived in as well as how many people feared him. The rest of the article, illustrates different characters who have influenced and inspired him as a journalist. This is shown by the different novels that were mentioned in the later portion of the article, “A signed copy was given to me as a gift. I still have it” (185). Overall, I did enjoy the article as it had different stylistic techniques that have been different to the past literary journalism articles that I have read. The stylistic techniques, in the article was his description of events. An example of this is on page 181, “When lovers paused below me I heard the wet sounds of kissing and the breath of their noses, the rustle of clothing as they rifled each other’s bodies. I was invisible to them, but only an arm’s length away in the dark.” The outer story of the first scene, takes place in an airplane journey to the University of
Moreover, it is a person as well that the article in the end foregrounds, Bellow. Who is seemed to capture what Staples aspires to be, “I wanted to steal the essence of him, to absorb it right into my bones” (193). The article helps foreground this person as someone who is influential to Staples, and how that motivated him to write in his journal. The beginning of the article helps capture this by illustrating certain scenes of his neighborhood as well as one of his journal entries of “the prostitute and the burger deluxe”