Tales of a Tyrant Rhetorical Analysis Essay Fear is a factor that only some individuals know the true feeling of, for its claws have personally grasped their soul and has been dragging them into its dark abyss of chaos. This emotion can create a shield for a powerful ruler to hide behind which provides them with the ability to control everyone, leading to the creation of a tyrannical power. In Tales of the Tyrant, Mark Bowden, the author and narrator, uses sarcastic diction to justify Saddam’s weaknesses of his survival along with detailing Saddam’s precautionary actions against his domination in order to prove how Saddam fears the world he is surrounded by and how he must hide from fear by putting it upon others. Sarcasm can play as an
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Saddam is a ruler who is not fit to rule, yet he creates his own façade of a world in order to make himself believe that he is. As Bowden examines Saddam, it is revealed that “he is a sixty-five, an old-man, but because his power is grounded in fear, not affection, he cannot be seen to age [since] weakness invites challenges, coup d’état (2).” Here the audience sees how Bowden mockingly offends Saddam for being weak in his rule due to Saddam being ‘an old man’, which leads the audience to believing that Saddam is too frail to rule with an iron-grip. This idea ultimately leads to the question of whether or not Saddam can actually escape his fear of the world, his fear of him dying. Moving farther into Saddam’s rule, Bowden pokes fun at this fear when he sneakily places the brushstroke of words stating that “his life- the nation! - hangs in the balance [with] survival becoming his one overriding passion (5)”. Through this language, Bowden meticulously places the tyrant’s power upon his overall existence, knowing that Saddam has not even come close to holding his power in any successful way. Instead, Saddam has only placed his fearful thoughts among his people, stripping them from their own happiness. It is clearly …show more content…
For Saddam’s personal welfare, Bowden describes how he plays in his pool like an infant without a single care in the world, yet he manipulates the façade that Saddam has created by explain how “his pools are tended scrupulously and tested hourly [for] poison that might attack him… -[but] that worry is always there too (1)”. With this said, Saddam’s actions are turned against him due to the fact that his powerful appearance being torn down by the constant worry of being hurt by another human. Since this fear thrives within Saddam, Bowden makes a point in showing how Saddam has to do something in order to get rid of his baggage, and he shows the audience how violence is the best way to apply it to others. To protect himself from harm, Saddam decides to create a type of ‘purge’ for those who do no respect him or his authority. These innocent civilians that have been marked as traitors, and as a result there is only “one man [who controls] the destiny of their entire nation,” and this control has only come from “his crimes” that he had been “cloaking… in patriotism (8)”. Although these actions were down with Saddam’s patriotism for his country, Bowden clearly points out how Saddam is committing crimes himself by killing people whenever they had a moment of being disloyal! Looking at the
Saddam is a ruler who is not fit to rule, yet he creates his own façade of a world in order to make himself believe that he is. As Bowden examines Saddam, it is revealed that “he is a sixty-five, an old-man, but because his power is grounded in fear, not affection, he cannot be seen to age [since] weakness invites challenges, coup d’état (2).” Here the audience sees how Bowden mockingly offends Saddam for being weak in his rule due to Saddam being ‘an old man’, which leads the audience to believing that Saddam is too frail to rule with an iron-grip. This idea ultimately leads to the question of whether or not Saddam can actually escape his fear of the world, his fear of him dying. Moving farther into Saddam’s rule, Bowden pokes fun at this fear when he sneakily places the brushstroke of words stating that “his life- the nation! - hangs in the balance [with] survival becoming his one overriding passion (5)”. Through this language, Bowden meticulously places the tyrant’s power upon his overall existence, knowing that Saddam has not even come close to holding his power in any successful way. Instead, Saddam has only placed his fearful thoughts among his people, stripping them from their own happiness. It is clearly …show more content…
For Saddam’s personal welfare, Bowden describes how he plays in his pool like an infant without a single care in the world, yet he manipulates the façade that Saddam has created by explain how “his pools are tended scrupulously and tested hourly [for] poison that might attack him… -[but] that worry is always there too (1)”. With this said, Saddam’s actions are turned against him due to the fact that his powerful appearance being torn down by the constant worry of being hurt by another human. Since this fear thrives within Saddam, Bowden makes a point in showing how Saddam has to do something in order to get rid of his baggage, and he shows the audience how violence is the best way to apply it to others. To protect himself from harm, Saddam decides to create a type of ‘purge’ for those who do no respect him or his authority. These innocent civilians that have been marked as traitors, and as a result there is only “one man [who controls] the destiny of their entire nation,” and this control has only come from “his crimes” that he had been “cloaking… in patriotism (8)”. Although these actions were down with Saddam’s patriotism for his country, Bowden clearly points out how Saddam is committing crimes himself by killing people whenever they had a moment of being disloyal! Looking at the