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Rhetorical Analysis for the Incarceration Cycle

Leonardo Santos

Florida State University

ENC2135

Instructor Ayandele

March 8th, 2023

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Mass incarceration has been on the spotlight for policy makers in the United States in the

recent decade. With jails and prisons becoming over capacity, it is almost impossible to run any

correctional institution safely and constitutionally without spending excessive tax money on it.

Many scholars discuss incarceration and what makes America so different than the rest of the

world all through different lenses and communicated through different medians. Sociologists,

such as Bruce Western, convey their message on incarceration through scholarly books and other

formal writing; however, it is also common to see these same ideas illustrated through artworks

and comics much like what Steve Breen achieves in his comic below. While Bruce Western in

Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison goes for the more fact driven and informational

approach with an embellishment of emotional appeal, Steve Breen uses satire in his artwork to

point out the flaws that corrections have in the criminal justice system.

In Bruce Western’s texts, he presents his findings from his field study in a comprehensive

book described for a broad audience to understand. His structure and compilation of the data is a

representation of his logos appeal to the audience. For example, Western begins the book with

plenty of background that establishes the context of his data as well as the methods in which the

data was acquired. By providing context, the audience can now include anyone who is unaware

of the issues pertaining to incarceration such as young students or even foreigners studying

American society. This introduction also establishes his credibility on the subject by him

revealing that he is a professor of sociology at Harvard and that the data presented is a product of

his primary research of released prisoners which also adds to the credibility of his work. He then

begins his introduction with the historical background of incarceration in America starting in the

early 1970s. Throughout the text, Western introduces each topic with background into the study

and significant findings. Doing this improves the likelihood that every reader fully understands
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the scope and effects from his data. Then, to strike at the audience’s emotions, he provides an

anecdote from individuals involved in the study and their personal experiences with the subtopic.

As an example, he does this well when he is describing the challenge of employment

experienced by releasees. To provide context for the topic, he gives an anecdote for four

participants each going through different kinds of struggles relating to employment after prison.

The shift between an informative tone that presents purely context and information, to a

melancholic tone that presents an unfortunate reality poses as an effective rhetorical strategy for

Western, keeping his audience engaged and invested into this issue. From the perspective of a

reader, the personal stories of each prisoner evoke the feeling of pity or even anger at the

injustices being faced. As a writer, this can be effective to help my audience understand deeper

about the issues being faced.

Steve Breen does a great deal of communication through a median with few words.

Through the implementation of symbolism, the audience can decipher the interaction between

three separate entities: the U.S. government, prisoners, and the community. His illustration

displays what at first may seem simple playful joke but is actually a clever and deeper narrative

on American society. While the comic is only four pictures, the audience can gather that it is a

prisoner who is spending his entire time in prison only to “learn his lesson” by the time he has

been reduced to bones. By extending time to this illustration, Breen evokes the thought of the

reality of spending life in prison. He satirically places the comment at the end of the comic that

creates an absurdity such as finally learning the lesson when it does not matter anymore. This

display is ironic because the audience is aware of the futility of the government’s efforts to

rehabilitate an individual spending life in prison, however, the community in the comic ignores

this. Whether or not the voice in the comic actually believes a useful lesson is learned, or if they
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are not actually concerned with the prisoner’s wellbeing and chooses to ignore it is unknown, but

the overall message for the audience is the same: the state of the system is flawed. Further can be

analyzed about the voice in the comic referring to the prisoner as a ‘kid’. The audience can infer

from this that the prisoner is young and presumably still has his entire life ahead of him. The

conflicting idea of longer-term incarceration resulting in a ‘lesson learned’ is another application

of situational irony. Steve Breen also does not provide a face for the prisoner. The facelessness

of the prisoner adds another understanding for the audience that the suggested prisoner is a

placeholder for any young person in the United States. Despite the symbolism and other implied

messages used in the comic, Steve Breen does include the words “US sentencing” written on the

bars so the audience makes no mistake in attributing the bizarre reality of the comic to the US

criminal justice system.

While both Steve Breen and Bruce Western tackle similar messages, the possible

outcomes and the emotions given by each of their works differ greatly. On one hand, Bruce

western’s scientific approach is more informative than it is persuasive, and it achieves this by

using strategies like effective structuring and using different diction to change the tone from

somber to educational. Reading his book would educate you on the subject and the context

revolving recidivism; however, it does not attempt to call the audience to action. Bruce

Western’s book does not explicitly advocate for social and political change, it mainly focuses on

educating the readers on the realities that prisoners face with real anecdotes. On the other hand,

Steve Breen does not use any scientific methods to inform or educate his audience. It is assumed

that the consumers that typically view his art are aware of how the prison system works;

however, the intention of Steve Breen is a call to action and to make the audience aware of the

dilemma surrounding harsher sentences. His effective use of symbolism paints a clear picture for
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the audience to connect the artwork with reality. While being limited to few rhetorical strategies,

symbolism arguably would be the most effective to influence his audience to consider change or

protest current institutions. The situational irony given adds a shock value to the audience for the

realization of society’s ignorance and disregard for the life of a prisoner. With Steve Breen, the

idea is that the audience is pushed to face the problems that are presented with the comic because

of how absurd it seems.

Bruce Western and Steve Breen both have similar messages and narratives regarding the

cycle of incarceration in the United States. It can be gathered from both pieces of work that

reform must take place within the criminal justice system in order to alleviate the social unrest.

The two authors, however, approach this message very differently from each other. Bruce

Western seeks to share his findings from extensive and original research, while still appealing to

an audience’s humanity every now and then, while Steve Breen demonstrates his message in a

satirical comic that questions the methods of correctional institutions in the system. Each

approach proves to be an effective means towards their goals, whether it be to inform an

audience or to draw an emotion from them; both goals which ultimately lead to the

understanding that social and political change is necessary for progress in the criminal justice

system.
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Resources

1. Western. (2018). Homeward: life in the year after prison. Russell Sage Foundation.
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2.