Rhetorical Devices In Once Upon A Time By Erin Pierce

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In the essay Pierce uses numerous rhetorical devices and uses them at the right time to make the essay more effective with a condescending diction and a long and involved syntax, which also helped set the conversational tone and serious mood. This essay had numerous rhetorical devices throughout the essay, in fact there is a rhetorical device in the first line, “Once upon a time” (Pierce, Line 1), this is cliche as “Once upon a time” is very used and familiar phase and the reader knows that it is usually used at the start of a fairy tale. “That seems too good to be true right?”(Pierce, Line 1), here is another rhetorical device in the first line, this is a rhetorical question, this question has an obvious answer that the reader realizes as …show more content…
Now moving onto the second paragraph, throughout the story Erin Pierce seems to use three rhetorical device a lot, idioms, enumeration and rhetorical questions. “A handsome gentleman on a white horse would eventually come sweep them off their feet” (Pierce, Line 9), this is an idiom, as a handsome gentleman will not literally come sweep them off their feet the author just means to say that this gentleman will just fall deeply into love with them. ”Humans are defined as being subject to weaknesses, imperfection and fragility”(Pierce, Line 22),this is obvious enumeration as she lists the weaknesses of humans. When it comes to which rhetorical device was the most effective in this essay, it was the anecdote, Erin Pierce talks about a time in her life where she thought she had found her “Prince Charming” but realized she was not enjoying everything else in …show more content…
It was condescending as she showed a feeling of superiority towards self happiness rather than being in a relationship which one is not happy in. “Hone in on the little things in your life”(Pierce, Line 29), in this case, the word hone adds another level of effectiveness, hone means to sharpen, using a word like that in this context only emphasizes her message to prioritize self-happiness. “Let’s throw it back to the movie Cinderella” (Pierce, Line 5),this is another good example of condescending diction, when Erin Pierce says “Let’s throw it back” it seems casual and it gives the reader an odd feel of comfort, and the reader feels they can listen to this person. The syntax of this essay is long and involved, the sentences are mostly between 15-30 words, I think that these long sentences really increased the effectiveness of the essay as it seemed the longer they were the more drawn in the reader was. “If there is anything that I’ve learned during this venture to bettering myself before finding the right guy, it’s that I am human, and I am entitled to make mistakes to grow as a person” (Pierce, Line 20), this sentence is a great example of long and involved

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