Rhetorical Devices Used in Sophie

The Greek philosopher Aristotle applied the literary devices of ethos, logos and pathos, to fiction , synthesizing rhetorical devices which are utilized as a technique for persuasion. Ethos consists of an author's degree of credibility or status. Humans tend to acquire bias views of messages told by communities they trust, such as their their best friend, and it only seems natural. The next rhetorical device, logos, is more scientific, as it applies straight up facts, or graphs to manipulate or brainwash the reader into believing that this data originates from absolute accuracy and truth since it is so logical. But Aristotle admits that pathos is the strongest rhetorical device, since it reaches out to our hearts and arouses certain emotions.Although numerous rhetorical devices are practiced in the stories of “Vancouver Short Stories” I will only briefly discuss my personal favorite one. The short story, “ Sophie ” might be first acknowledged and appear familiar due to the fact that it is composed by Emily Carr who is a very prominent and applauded author in literature, and who also has a university named after her. Emily Carr's level of authority is an example of ethos. She also utilizes pathos very much in this short story, allowing the reader to feel deep sorrow and pity for Sophie who continuously requires to hold funerals for her young children and who's husband does not treat very well. I enjoy the fact that Emily Carr names streets after real ones in North Vancouver, which makes the story seem much more realistic, and that could be her way of using logos.

E-Media: Alteration of the "Reading Sensation"

As I was madly rummaging through the small, yet quite extensive library in my house in search of a lost Calculus textbook, I stumbled upon a collection of children’s literature books. Most of these I recognized immediately, as they were the books that my sister and I read when we were young. These were the classics, like “The Little Engine That Could”, the collection of “Bernstein Bears” books, and a collection of Roald Dahl books including “The Twits” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. For children at that time, before the Internet became a worldwide trend, such books were what taught us the foundations of reading and writing, along with teaching us valuable life lessons. It is astounding to see that kids these days are learning to read and write using a computer. Just as a little experiment, I searched for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl on the Chapters website. It did not surprise me to find out that not only do they have the hardcover book version, but they also have audio CD’s, computer games, movies, and CD-ROM texts of the story. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because it allows for multiple ways to enjoy the masterpiece. However, it is sad to observe that the use of the good-old-fashioned book has declined dramatically since the dawn of electronic media. Countless times have I heard people say “Oh I’ll just go and see the movie, then I’ll understand the book”. In this sense, the use of the book is dying. However, the value of the book is still worth its weight in gold. Reading a book has, and always will have a certain sensation that cannot be emulated by a computer or television screen.

All of this has recently come to my attention, after a long hiatus from reading. I had forgotten how different it felt to sit down and read a good book, compared to how it feels to sit in front of a computer screen and browse the World Wide Web. A good example of this “reading sensation” is the physical action of turning pages (As opposed to clicking on a scroll bar). This subtle action, along with others such as holding the actual literature in your hands, and taking time out of the daily routine to sit and read it, contributes to the overall reading experience. When I first started reading Vancouver Short Stories, the sensation immediately came back to me. It is much more interesting and enjoyable to read literature about the history of our great city than to read dry and boring fact books. This is the genius behind the book, especially fictional books, to learn something and to enjoy what you’re reading at the same time.