Transcript Joan Didion
“On Morality” by Joan Didion An essay excerpted from Slouching Towards Bethlehem -1965 Slouching Towards Bethlehem by W.B. Yeats Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert. A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? Hieronymus Bosch Reading Rhetorically How did charting help you make sense of Didion’s challenging argument? Reading Rhetorically by Charting • Paragraph 1: Didion describes her physical discomfort to illustrate her intellectual discomfort with the word “morality”; however, she does introduce her concept of the “particular.” • Paragraphs 2-4: Didion exemplifies what she means by the “particular” (157), providing a current as well as historical cases of primitive moral beliefs/codes that are taught to us as children. • Paragraphs 5-6: Didion maintains that it is difficult to move beyond particular primitive examples of what is good in a place like Death Valley as she describes how stories travel as well as how their tone is mostly dark and ominous. • Paragraph 7: Didion asserts that morality is not “manageable”(161) as it is guided by the individual conscience, which can be good or bad, and again, provides historical examples to illustrate her point. • Paragraphs 8-9: Didion concedes the problem with asserting what is right or wrong (including her own assertion), but claims that we have no way of knowing what is moral beyond fundamental/primitive social codes and insists that when we feel that we have a “moral imperative” (163) to push our virtues on others it is dangerously bad. Because when we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or that we need something, not that is is a pragmatic necessity for us to have it, but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard in the land, and then is when we are in bad trouble. And I suspect we already are. (Didion 163) What is Didion’s main argument (thesis, major claim, key assertion)? Does she make any ideological assumptions? English 120: College Composition & Reading Instructor: Sydney Brown ARISTOTLE’S PERSUASIVE APPEALS / RHETORICAL STRATEGIES: LOGOS, ETHOS, AND PATHOS Whenever you read an argument, you should begin by asking yourself, “Is this persuasive?” And if so, to whom? There are several ways to appeal to an audience. Among them are appealing to logos, ethos, and pathos. These appeals are prevalent in almost all arguments. To Appeal to Logic (logos) To Appeal with Credibility (ethos) The author attempts to persuade with his/her character . To Appeal to Emotions (pathos) The author attempts to persuade by using reasoning. Theoretical, abstract language Language appropriate to audience and subject The author attempts to persuade by appealing to emotions. Vivid, concrete language Denotative meanings / reasons Restrained, sincere, fair minded presentation Emotionally loaded language Literal and historical analogies Informed, intelligent Connotative meanings Factual data and statistics Appropriate level of vocabulary Emotional examples Quotations Correct grammar Vivid descriptions Citations from experts and authorities Shows awareness of complexity of issue Narratives of emotional events Informed opinions Acknowledges other opinions Emotional tone Figurative language Effect Evokes cognitive and rational response Example Effect Effect Demonstrates author’s reliability, experience, competence, and respect for the audience’s ideas and values through consistent and appropriate use of support and general accuracy. Evokes emotional response: Example Example One should not smoke, as the Surgeon While smoking is a challenging addiction to General reports that cigarette smoke contains overcome, it is vital to do so. over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer.” Susan never had the opportunity to have that mother-daughter talk, as when she was twelve, she lost her mother—a lifelong smoker—to lung cancer. Evaluation To what extent do you find Joan Didion’s “On Morality” convincing?