Irma Valenzuela

Mr. Cook
ELA
November 17, 2014

Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Using the five senses allows the author to get the reader engaged. Appealing to the
readers emotions makes them wonder how and why the author decided to write in this
particular way. Authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Gabriel Garcia Marquez have the
ability to write using imagery so that it affects the readers emotions. The stories The
Yellow Wallpaper and Blacaman the Good, Vendor of Miracles use the rhetorical device
of imagery to appeal to pathos.

In the story The Yellow Wallpaper there are many examples of imagery. The wife
shows her thoughts on the room by saying, It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly,
with windows that looked all ways (Gilman 12). This event uses the sense of smell to add
on to the imagery. The author also uses imagery by saying, "It is a dull yet lurid orange in
some places, a sickly sulphur tiny in others"(Gilman 13). This piece of evidence clearly
demonstrates that the author uses the sense of taste to bring a better image of the room
being presented.

In the story "Blacaman the good, vendor of miracles" there are many examples of
imagery. Blacaman gets bitten by a snake and he, "Rolled about on the ground, his huge
body wasted away as if he had nothing inside of it, but laughing all the while with all of his
gold teeth" (Marquez 273). This event shows how the sense of listening impacts the
imagery. Marquez says, and hed been changed into a glob of admirable jelly in front of his
staff (Marquez 276). In this event the author uses the sense of smell and taste to go into
deeper meaning on imagery.

Both stories The Yellow Wallpaper and Blacaman the good, vendor of miracles
appeal to pathos. When Gilman writes, I think that woman gets out in the daytime! And Ill
tell you why-privately- Ive seen her! I can see her out of every one of my windows! It is the
same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight.
I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I see her in those dark grape
arbors, creeping all around the garden (Gilman 30). Gilman uses these words as a way to
appeal to pathos by making you feel scared or horrified. Marquez says, The snake that kills
by poisoning the respiration and brought it to him in a bottle, and he uncorked it with such
eagerness that we all thought he was going to eat it, but as soon as the creature felt itself
free it jumped out of the bottle and struck him on the neck (Marquez 272). When Marquez
writes this he is trying to appeal to pathos by getting the reader into their emotions about
the snake bite. Marquez leaves you in suspense to what is going to happen with Blacaman.

Both Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Gabriel Garcia Marquez use imagery to appeal to
pathos. By doing so the author made feelings scramble and provoked thought to why the
author uses his five senses to connect back to the imagery they are trying to express.