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10/4/15
Period 1
Syndicated Columnist Part II: Article 1

In the article At the state dinner, leave some seats empty for Chinas political prisoners,
Fred Hiatt uses pathos and repetition of parallel structure to get his point across to the readers.
Hiatts main goal is to highlight the irony of hosting a diner for the Chinese President by using
evidence to support his argument that Chinas political prisoners are treated poorly. In doing so,
he uses a multitude of rhetorical devices as well as a sardonic tone.
Hiatt brings back a certain anaphora at the beginning of most sentences to use as a form
of parallel structure. He repeats Lets set a place changing it slightly with each paragraph but
keeping its message. This is used to directly connect the current event of the state diner to the
underlying problem of how Chinas political prisoners are mistreated.
The authors use of pathos through diction and description evokes sympathy in the reader
toward the prisoners, and distrust in President Xi Jinping. Hiatt uses diction such as barbaric
and suffocating to place harsh imagery in the minds of his readers. His slight use of alliteration
when describing the prisoners as beaten, blindfolded, and abducted, is used to strengthen
pathos appeal.
Overall, Hiatt uses these rhetorical strategies to get the audience to put themselves in the
shoes of Chinas suffering, political prisoners. The whole table setting analogy and devices really
helped me as a reader to envision their emotions. All of the diction and detail that Hiatt used was
meant to add to the readers emotional appeal. Hiatt did a great job of using pathos to get his
point across. I anticipate that this article had the same sympathizing effect on others.