Literary Analysis Essay on "Girl", "Bullet in the Brain" and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"

Introduction

The use of language is more important for the postmodernist and the post-colonial writers since this helps in capturing the attention of the audience. To get the audience attention, the postmodernist and the post-colonial writers employ the use of the three important rhetorical appeals by Aristotle. The rhetorical appeals, in this case, include the ethos, pathos, and logos. The use of this by the writers is more important in capturing the various types of themes reveal in any text (Higgins, 200). The three rhetorical appeals encompass the use of credibility to give substantial evidence the writer means the emotional themes and the critical facts and arguments presented in a text or a speech respectively.

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The components of ethos, pathos, and logos allow for the development of persuasion in given writing or speech. The component of pathos deals with the author's ability to emotionally connect to the target audience that he is trying to convey his message. The second component of Ethos entails the speaker's credibility to create an understanding of the importance of establishing the required audience persuasion. Finally, the third component of logos helps in establishing the arguments being analyzed and presented to the audience. All the components provide an essential support position to the writer's message.

The stability of language has been supported by the techniques as mentioned above used by the postmodern and the pre-colonial writing. This is because, by the application of the three appeals, the writer or a speaker will be able to pass his intended information without any difficulty and will make the target audience get to understand the message faster.

Having gone through the three appeals, it can be connected with the following three major stories as discussed in the preceding sections of the paper. The three stories are; "Girl" by Jamaican Kincaid, "The Bullet in the Brain" by Tobias Wolf and the story of "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway. The authors of the mentioned stories employ various themes that illustrate the use of proper language to convey their messages to the intended readers. The themes employed does not only enrich the language but also helps capture the reader's attention to continue reading the texts.

From the story of "Girl" by the Jamaican Kincaid, there are main ideas that the writer tries to employ in his story to make it more appealing. The author, Kincaid tries to express the emotions of a caring mother who is trying to advise her daughter concerning the happenings in real life then she didn't know. The mother tries to illustrate to the girl the important behaviors she deems appropriate for females. Though the daughter doesn't seem to have attained the age of adolescence, the mother worries that there is a probability that her current habits can end in a promiscuous life if continued. The mother has a stern believe that a woman's respectability or the reputation is a core determinant of the quality of life she would live in the society. The following words from the mother illustrate the mothers thought, " this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming " (Kincaid, 1). Kincaid depicts in his story that there are only two types of women in the society, i.e. the "sluts" and the respectable kind.

Besides, it is clear that the girl in the story has been constrained to the said behaviors. Consequently, the mother connects material substances and tasks to the central taboo of the sexuality topic. This includes squeezing bread just before purchasing it and the much of the advice in only centered on the way of upholding respectability. Out of this the author, Jamaican Kincaid, wants to pass the central theme of the danger of female sexuality to his target audience which in this case are the females in the society. Besides, the author also uses his credibility in trying to convey the issue of the transformative power of domesticity upon women in society. The author reveals that there is a need for the girl child to get acquainted with the domestic chores which will save her from the life of promiscuity and will as well empower her being the head of the household and the productive member in the society. Kincaid uses the real facts to reveal that the household duties avails power and even prestige to women .out of this story, the readers can recognize on the accord the mother has for the power of domesticity through the way in which the author uses the common real facts where the girl's mother gives her daughter numerous instructions such as how to cook, sweep, buy bread and also to wash the clothes." Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry ... cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil... soak fish before you cook" (Kincaid, 1).

The second story is the "Bullet in the Brain" by Tobias Wolf where the author uses more of the facts and emotions of the involved characters who had been attacked by the burglars in a bank. Tobias Wolf uses the memories that in the brain of the Character Anders to show that once you die, one shouldn't regret on the way he/she has changed. This depicted by the author when Ander is more careful on many things. The author uses the first sentence to reveal how critical the character was, "Anders - a book critic known for the weary, elegant savagery with which he dispatched almost everything he reviewed" (wolf, 1). As the book critic, there is an expectation by the audience for Anders to be critical but the writer shows that he become so obsessed with the element of being critical now that he is so forgetful on how to evaluate on things. Anders is even sarcastic by laughing at how the burglar who stood just before him was acting like a stereotypical criminal making the criminal to shot him on his skull out of frustration.

Anders memories show how he wasn't a critical person and also and shows of how Anders couldn't remember anything but this shows how caring he was," He did not remember deliberately crashing his father's car in to a tree, of having his ribs kicked in by three policemen at an anti-war rally, or waking himself up with laughter" (Wolf, 3) The writer brings in the emotional aspect through the character, Anders who cared much on his emotions to the father also being an anti-war going onto the sudden measures. In the story above, Anders is an amazing character and symbolizes adulthood that has been carefully crafted by the writer. Anders variations of comedy, sarcasm, and nostalgia turned him to everyday adult from the book critic.

Finally, from the story of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," Earnest Hemingway portrays many facts and arguments using the factors surrounding the depressed old barman who went to drink in the cafe. The old man was rich a preferred going to drink in the cafe at night since the place was quite enough and hence he could meditate on the events that surrounded him, "but at night the dew settled the dust, and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet, and he felt the difference" (Ernest, 1). From the story, it is revealed by the writer that the old man has tried so many techniques to staff off despair, but his attempts have always been futile. The story is emotional to the readers as it entails the loneliness that the old man has been encountering in his life. The old man out of his depression also unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide, and the only way he thinks to be the solution of his despair is to sit for hours in the clean, well-lit cafe. This is evidenced by the discussion which ensued from the two waiters in the cafe about the old man, "Last week he tried to commit suicide," one waiter said. "Why?" "He was in despair." "What about?" "Nothing." How do you know it was nothing?" "He has plenty of money" (Ernest, 1). This story according to the author tries to sample out other factors that can result in depression apart from lack of money which can ultimately lead to one committing suicide. The author, Ernest Hemingway in his story presents facts and ideas that do happen in our day to day lives which can influence our thoughts. The story is emotional due to the lonely life the old man is experiencing which forces his to go and drink in the bar in the late night.

Conclusion

To summarize, it is clear the authors in the above stories employed the three rhetorical appeals as evidenced by the various themes from the stories. The three core pillars of persuasion normally used by the writers set the foundation for connecting the writer and the target audience. Ethos, logos, and pathos enhance development and the expression of the support for persuasion.

Works Cited

Kincaid, Jamaica. Girl. San Francisco Examiner, 1991.

Wolff, Tobias. Bullet in the Brain. Blackstone Audio, Incorporated, 2013.

Hemingway, Ernest. A clean well-lighted place. Creative Education, 1990.

Higgins, Colin, and Robyn Walker. "Ethos, logos, pathos: Strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports." Accounting Forum. Vol. 36. No. 3. Elsevier, 2012.