Rhetorical Analysis: Overcoming The Silence Of Generational Poverty

Poverty is a huge issue all around the world. Millions of people make little income and therefore cannot care for their families or even themselves. People living in poverty are often stereotyped, humiliated, and embarrassed when faced against the society in which they live in. One woman fought to overcome poverty and gain an education to support her family and to do something nobody in her family had ever achieved before. In her article “Overcoming the Silence of Generational Poverty,” Donna Beegle effectively argues that generational poverty impedes social and educational improvement by incorporating a purpose that sheds new light on a stereotype, uses strong logical appeals, and establishes her credibility through ethos, pathos, and logos.
Beegle uses a form of appeal called ethos to strengthen her argument Ethos is defined as the ethical appeal, or the means to convince an audience of the author’s credibility or character. Beegle draws in her audience by using her past experiences in life to relate to the topic. Beegle states that she was born into a family where no one was educated beyond the eighth grade. Her family subsisted on menial-wage employment and migrant work (11). By sharing this information with her audience Beegle establishes her credibility and introduces her audience to the importance and severity of the topic. Her personal experience with the topic enhances her clout, establishing trust with her audience. The audience is more willing to believe what Beegle has to say because of the information she incorporates at the beginning of her article. She immediately demonstrates her knowledge and expertise on the subject, effectively bridging trust with the audience and preparing them to accept her