Function of Rhetoric in Narrative - Essay Example

Function of Rhetoric in Narrative Function of Rhetoric in Narrative Rhetoric is an art of disclosure used, by and speakers, to improve their way of expressing ideas that seek to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. In the traditional European culture, rhetoric has been in use for a long time where it was considered a tool of logical and political communication. In this case, most of the authors in the ancient Europe used it in political writings and presentations. Rhetoric is based on the author’s ability to understand a situation and identify ways of addressing it. The address should be in a way that he/she captures the attention of the audience and passes his/her message. According to Aristotle, the ancient rhetoric was based on three pillars, that included logos, pathos, and ethos (Gross, 2010). In the modern literal works, rhetoric has changed, in regard to application, from the ancient world. It is being applied in every field of study and profession based on the seven persuasive pillars that include; invention, arrangement, style, memory, delivery, grammar, and logic. Pillars are used to set boundaries of how far an audience can go. Outside the given pillars the author or speaker is considered off the rhetoric. Rhetoric was the first study in the ancient Greek culture on the basis of politics and legal disputes education. The curriculum of rhetoric had developed from civic art to educational curriculum used in all fields of study. There fields range from literature to even more technical ones like engineering. In both cases, the aim is to help the people in this professions, to have bases of using persuasive language, to help pass information by capturing the attention of the audience. Currently, rhetoric has undergone numerous amendments over time to suit modern needs. A good example is the political rhetoric which underwent changes after the main revolts in the French and United States. This was due to rise of the democracy policies, and the audience got to have a say and will agree to what was being said by a speaker and even had the right to question or request for more clarification (Gross, 2010). The author used rhetoric to entertain the audience and to persuade them. The author persuades the reader, which explains why the readers are interested in keeping on digging deep into the book. This is the main purpose of rhetoric and is fully served. Every speaker or author will have to use rhetoric to keep the audience interested in the progress of his work or talk. He has to give the audience a better reason to keep reading his book to the end. For instance, a speaker will have to keep the audience in the hall instead of them leaving the presentation for other activities (Gross, 2010). As it is known in present days, choice of article will highly influence how people will receive speaker’s message. Modern methods like videos and music are highly favored in comparison to poems. Poems are disliked due to the coded language, which is not understood by many. For rhetoric to be effective, it has to have the audience liked mode of passing information. Rhetoric as per Burke is an instrument of symbol, where he states that a person will never persuade another if not using his language or one the audience understands. Language as per Burke is used for identification. So it is true to come to a conclusion that when two warring parties can use rhetoric they can settle their problems. This is because with persuasion a person will understand the cause of the conflict and find a solution to the conflict (Gross, 2010). Symbolism as per Burke is the act of defining world natural resources using our names. This is the usage of terminology to reflect the natural or realistic thing. This aspect is useful in rhetoric by the virtual of preventing the audience from understanding the real thing been talked about. In the article, the theory of symbolism is highly used where characters are given symbolic names and characters, in order to bring the clear picture to the audience. This techniques are applied in order to enhance the delivery of ideas of the author. There exists a qualitative in the narrative, which is where the audience and the author are very kind on what they are exchanging. The author is working towards gathering optimum persuasion in the audience while the audience wants to get more of the facts from the author. Here, the attention of the audience is expected to be high since the author manages to arouse the eager feeling in the audience. As per Bitzer, exigence is a base of most rhetoric. Exigence is the thing that need to have been done but have not taken place due to the situation arising. A good example is given by snow onset, which is not nonexistent, because the snow cannot be stopped or worked upon by a speech, but failure by county government to provide sufficient snow removal can be one. Thus, exigence is rhetoric when there is a positive modification of the process (Gross, 2010). The voice of the author is visible in every part of the book. This is when the author takes his words in explaining points and his view about the scholar’s works. The author also passes his mind though work like continued story and history progress. This is visible because they have maintained a well recorded time plan for the flow of events, thus, have made the book to have a rhetoric theme, which is helping the audience to wish to get more from the authors. It emerges that the ability of the author to create suspense and unfold ideas at the right time is a crucial aspect of literal writings as well as the presentations, such as in plays and poems (Gross, 2010). Rhetoric of display is the part of the rhetoric that allow the speaker and the author to get audience attention through worked images. These images help the audience to get the full knowledge of work been discussed, since the aspect of imagery has been applied. This aspect is applicable in most literal works and talks. From the narrative, it is seen that rhetoric is a significant tool of passing of the information. Any author or speaker have to include it in his work to remain relevant to the audience. This makes him pass message with ease and without any challenge from the audience. References Gross, D. M. (2010). The secret history of emotion: From the Aristotles rhetoric to modern brain science. Read How You Want. Com. Read More