Are people born with the character trait of compassion, or do they have certain experiences in order to learn compassion? There are hundreds of homeless people living on the streets who need help from people that are fortunate enough to have better circumstances. Barbara Lazear Ascher writes “On Compassion” to explain to people that they need to go out into the world and connect with other people who are less fortunate than themselves so that they can learn and develop compassion. By using imagery, concrete diction, and syllogism she successfully creates her argument to prove this.
Ascher begins her argument with a narrative in the third person that describes what she witnessed when a homeless man approaches a mother and her baby. By using …show more content…
Ascher uses concrete diction to describe the man in the shop as well as the shop itself so that the reader can get an understanding of the situation.
He wears a stained blanket pulled up to his chin, and a woolen hood pulled down to his gray, bushy eyebrows. As he stands, the scent of stale cigarettes and urine fills the small, overheated room. The owner of the shop, a moody French woman, emerges from the kitchen with steaming coffee in a Styrofoam cup, and a small paper bag of… of what? Yesterday’s bread? Today’s croissant? (7-8)
As the reader learns what it like to have been in that room, the reader will recognize the situation that homeless people are in and feel a sense of empathy for the man. The author mentions that she has seen this happen twice in the shop, by saying this, the readers will understand that the French woman has grown compassion for the man because she has seen and been around homeless people before. Describing the experiences she has had with homeless people, Ascher helps the reader understand what homeless people are like and their situation; she also shows the reader that the people that are around the homeless grow compassion for
Ascher begins her argument with a narrative in the third person that describes what she witnessed when a homeless man approaches a mother and her baby. By using …show more content…
Ascher uses concrete diction to describe the man in the shop as well as the shop itself so that the reader can get an understanding of the situation.
He wears a stained blanket pulled up to his chin, and a woolen hood pulled down to his gray, bushy eyebrows. As he stands, the scent of stale cigarettes and urine fills the small, overheated room. The owner of the shop, a moody French woman, emerges from the kitchen with steaming coffee in a Styrofoam cup, and a small paper bag of… of what? Yesterday’s bread? Today’s croissant? (7-8)
As the reader learns what it like to have been in that room, the reader will recognize the situation that homeless people are in and feel a sense of empathy for the man. The author mentions that she has seen this happen twice in the shop, by saying this, the readers will understand that the French woman has grown compassion for the man because she has seen and been around homeless people before. Describing the experiences she has had with homeless people, Ascher helps the reader understand what homeless people are like and their situation; she also shows the reader that the people that are around the homeless grow compassion for