We Are Training Our Kids to Kill by David Grossman: Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical Analysis The article ‘We Are Training Our Kids to Kill’ by David Grossman is an attempt at explaining the effect of mass media on our children as far as violence and the impacting role it plays. Grossman, a self entitled ‘world traveler and an expert in the field of “killology” uses the rhetorical aspects of ethos, pathos, and logos to get his point across. Regardless of the fact that Grossman did build some credibility for himself, used reasoning, emotion, and some facts to support his opinion, he did not use them in a very effective way. I am going to label this article as ineffective. The first reason I’m ruling Grossman’s writing as ineffective is because he seemed to contradict himself throughout his writing. The second reason it is ineffective is because he did not provide very many aspects of media in the article, just tied media violence or its consequences with young children into his examples when he could. The final reason I say the article is ineffective is because for a lot of the examples he used had no proof or substance to support them, or make a connection to his arguments. Grossman scattered contradictions throughout his article, causing it to be confusing which only added to the article’s ineffectiveness as a whole. In the beginning of his article, Grossman talks about the two large factors that are helping to keep the murder rates down. These two points designated by Grossman were the increased imprisonment of violent offenders, and the advancements of medical technology. But in the following paragraph, also the beginning of his next point, the first sentence is an opposing statement to points made prior to in the article. This point states that, “Today, both our assault rate and murder rate are at phenomenally high levels.” This is not only a contradiction to pervious points Grossman made, but also a point which very early in the article causes the reader to question the author’s credibility.
Later in the article, Grossman
Later in the article, Grossman