Rhetorical Analysis Of The Company Man By Ellen Goodman

In Ellen Goodman’s essay, The Company Man, she has a certain attitude towards the main character, Phil. He is a work-aholic that is a slave of the business world. Goodman shows disgust and disappointment towards Phil and his decisions. She is saddened that he wasted his life in the office, and ignored his children for his job and executive status. She hints that Phil literally worked himself to death. Goodman uses several rhetorical devices to prove to the reader that Phil wasted his life away at work. Goodman is cynical in order to show that Phil was not a loving father, or family man. She used many rhetorical devices throughout that help convince the reader of Phils status. In one of these she uses the phrase “dearly beloved” that was in Phil’s obituary. This can be considered a euphemism because his children hardly knew him so how can he be dearly beloved. An example of when they could have used this right would be he dearly beloved his work. His oldest child barely even knew him, he had to go around asking …show more content…
She also shows her disgust that there are many more just like him, eager to climb the business chain to the very top. This leads the reader to notice the irony of Phil’s reality versus real life. At work , Phil is convinced that the business world relies on him and that if he would shut down, the business world would shut down with him.He would be surprised to know that immediately after death, he would be replaced without the blink of an eye. In the final sentence of Goodman’s essay, she uses a very distinctive rhetorical question; “Who’s been working the hardest around here”.This is used to show that the corporate world relies on how much work you have done, not the quality of this work. Phil worked very hard and that is the reason that he was high up in the food chain of the business world, but the real question was how much of that work was solid, quality work that helped the