Mandatory Blog Entry # 1

“Mandatory Blog Entry #1”

‘Scott Russell Sanders’ “Under the Influence”

The common theme in Sander’s personal reflective essay, “Under the Influence”, is based upon his father’s alcoholism disease. I have never read an essay that illustrates the cruel reality of alcoholism more than this piece does. Sander’s composition is so descriptive that my stomach was turning so much that I thought I was right there with him witnessing the disappointment and embarrassment of a father that chooses beer, liquor, and wine over his wife and children. In this piece, there is nothing wrong with appealing to the readers’ emotions. After all, alcoholism is a major issue worth arguing about because of the emotional as well as a logical dimension that is strongly portrayed in this essay. As we all know, emotional appeals are frequently misused; this emotional appeal, however, is a correct representation that allows the authors’ audience to have sympathy for the pain that he went through in his life because of his father’s disease. Sander’s begins his reflection by explicating the setting and conditions of where and why this story takes place. The vivid descriptions allow his audience to feel the shameful depression through his experiences, to demonstrate unwanted emotional appeals that linger in his body, mind, and soul forever. Alcoholism is an issue that is not widely talked about outside countless households in America. Because many families keep their secrets undisclosed to others in the community, writing has been an outlet for people like Sander’s to reveal such emotional appeals through voice. The following passage illustrates a vivid emotional appeal regarding Sander’s “family secret” (Father’s drinking problem).

“The secret bores under the skin, gets in the blood, into the bone, and stays there. Long after you have supposedly been cured of malaria, the fever can flare up, the tremors can shake you. So it is with the fevers of shame. You swallow the bitter quinine of knowledge, and you learn to feel pity and compassion toward the drinker. Yet the same lingers in your marrow, and, because of the same, anger” (Sanders pp. 735-736).

This passage gave me deep chills the first time I read it, which allowed me to connect with his pain although I do not have a father that has ever beat me or died of alcoholism. Nevertheless, I got a lot out of this reading, because if I had not read this I would not have as much compassion for someone who has been effected by the brutality of alcoholism. Reading Sander’s “Under the Influence” gives me a better understanding of how to connect better with people I meet it my life whose parents’ are alcoholics. Although every circumstance is different for every family, the general idea of suffering is made clear. In addition, this reading has changed my take on how dangerous the drug, alcohol, really is for the human race (especially those who overly abuse). In conclusion, Sander’s had to accept that this was a decision that his father chose—something that neither him, nor his family could alter.

AR Chapter 7

AR chapter 7, “Pathetic Proof: Passionate Appeals” analyzes the stimulation or terminology of emotions for Rhetors. This chapter goes in great detail in discussing the history of emotion that has been exhibited by ancient rhetoricians. Main sections within the chapter examine ‘ancient teachers on the emotions’, ‘emotions as rhetorical proofs’, ‘the characters of audiences’, and ‘composing passionate proofs’. Many themes inside this chapter connect strongly to Scott Sander’s, “Under the Influence” in regards to emotional appeals within our culture today. According to Crowley and Hawhee, “Of all the kinds of rhetorical proofs the appeal to the emotions seems strangest to contemporary rhetors, and perhaps a little bit shoddy as well” (p. 247). Because patterns have changed drastically since ancient rhetors laid the foundation for modern-day rhetors, the “sharp distinction between reason and emotion” has become a habit in our culture. This passage was very helpful when trying to understand the association of emotional appeal in contemporary vs. ancient deliberation.