Rhetorical Appeals in "The Joy of Reading and Writing" by Sherman Alexie

In "The Joy of Reading and Writing" the author, Sherman Alexie, uses many rhetorical appeals throughout the story. When reading the article, I noticed in particular the author using the emotional appeal of kairos, the opportune moment. Specifically, I noticed its appearance when Alexie wrote how often he would read. There is a good 14 lined paragraph in the story listing and describing all the things we read. To me, this portrays he as a child took any moment he could to read, learn, discover new worlds in literature and words even if the text he was reading all together was very boring. For example, he starts off by describing how he would read books and later on in the paragraph writes he would end up reading junk mail too. This shows how strong his love of reading was as a child and how he would take any moment he could to read.  Another appeal I noticed was pathos, or an emotional appeal. The use of this appeal is evident when Alexie describes how he refused to fail. He says he was smart, arrogant, and lucky. This pulls at the readers' emotional side because we empathize with him. We understand his drive to not fail knowing he feels he is smart and arrogant. This part of the story could also be seen as logos, or appeal to logical. Logically, if someone is arrogant and knows they are smart, they probably wouldn't want to fail. As a reader, that makes sense because we would more than likely do the same thing if we were in the same position. 

The use of the appeals in the story help connect the author with the reader, or audience. By appealing to logic, opportune moments, and emotions, the reader has a better understanding for the point of view the author has regarding the issue being written about. Based on how I felt about the reading, I feel the author used the appeals effectively. We witnessed and understand his story and how he became a writer and teacher. The audience has a greater acceptance or understanding for people like him too, or that grew up similarly to him. These appeals also opens the audience's eyes, at least hopefully, to the way he had to grow up. This story doesn't really attack the learning system on Indiana reservations, but it challenges people to think how we value all children in education. Are they really all encouraged to learn and be the best? According to the author, no. Some might argue against him but through the use of his appeals the audience has an understanding and even acceptance of what his life was like. 

If I were the author writing this story, I would not have done anything differently. I think he used the correct appeals in the write places to get his message across. I will say his technique opened my eyes to our education system and opened my heart for awe and respect for him and his work.