Rhetorical choice is the unseen communication between the reader and the writer. These choices often increase the clarity and coherence of the passage, emphasize points, or give the reader a relatable middle ground. Ralph Waldo Emerson, considered one of the greatest American scholars of all time, delivered a speech to an audience of Phi Kappa Beta students at Cambridge. He delivers the speech in order to provide insight on the future, but also to enlighten them to a new way of thinking. Emerson was influential to that group of students, and is still influential to people today. That is why in “The American Scholar”, Emerson effectively impacts an unintended audience, today’s society, by explaining his ideology through a metaphor called, “Man
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Ideals are essentially what people think is perfect, with the key word being think. Because ideology is made up of this, that means that ideology includes an opinion which cannot be proven right nor wrong, but only agreed with or disagreed with. This is why throughout Emerson's speech, he includes allusions for the purpose of credibility to his audience of people that believe students should be egocentric about education. When using a proverb that is ancient, but still used today, it shows that a lot of people agree with what it says, otherwise it would not be still around today. In Emerson's speech he tends to favor the ancient and old proverbs because they seem more credible. On top of this, he uses these ancient and old proverbs to support his ideas, therefore making himself more credible to the audience. For example Emerson says, "But, as the old oracle said, 'All things have two handles. Beware of the wrong one.' In life, too often, the scholar errs with mankind and forfeits his privilege." (470)He quotes the old oracle, and then follows it with his opinion on the scholar and what he is doing wrong. He introduces the oracle first, because the oracle supports his opinion on the scholar and it makes him more credible to his audience. Therefore, making the audience more likely to be persuaded by this ethical
Ideals are essentially what people think is perfect, with the key word being think. Because ideology is made up of this, that means that ideology includes an opinion which cannot be proven right nor wrong, but only agreed with or disagreed with. This is why throughout Emerson's speech, he includes allusions for the purpose of credibility to his audience of people that believe students should be egocentric about education. When using a proverb that is ancient, but still used today, it shows that a lot of people agree with what it says, otherwise it would not be still around today. In Emerson's speech he tends to favor the ancient and old proverbs because they seem more credible. On top of this, he uses these ancient and old proverbs to support his ideas, therefore making himself more credible to the audience. For example Emerson says, "But, as the old oracle said, 'All things have two handles. Beware of the wrong one.' In life, too often, the scholar errs with mankind and forfeits his privilege." (470)He quotes the old oracle, and then follows it with his opinion on the scholar and what he is doing wrong. He introduces the oracle first, because the oracle supports his opinion on the scholar and it makes him more credible to his audience. Therefore, making the audience more likely to be persuaded by this ethical