Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis Laurie Schutza’s essay, “The Pack Rat Among Us” gives the readers a view of what a hoarder is like physically and mentally. A hoarder is a person who gets too attached to personal items that he/she cannot get rid of over the course of their lifetime. This causes the hoarders to have stacks of random things that must people would have disposed of. “Hoarders tend to keep what many may consider useless items such as empty food containers or cardboard boxes” (Schutza 306). Schutza also gives the readers some of the reasons why people become hoarders in the first place which are their history of living with parents who were hoarders and America becoming a nation of mass consumers. Schutza says, “And many elderly hoarders are products of the Great Depression where they were taught to save everything or the Cold War where they were taught to stockpile and always be prepared” (306). She also talks about how now days it’s even more easy to shopping because of online shopping. People don’t even have to leave their homes and are one click away from having anything they want so it can be thrown in a random pile in their house. (Schutza 307). The intended audience for this essay is both men and women from the age group of 20-75. The geographical location doesn’t matter as long as they have internet they can do all their shopping online. Schutza proclaims that we all have a little bit of a hoarder inside of us because we like to hold onto the small things that we just can’t let go of. “Even the most organized and efficient among us must admit to feeling a bit overwhelmed by the volume of stuff and junk we possess, accumulate, and think we need.” (Schutza 309). Schutza gives many examples and evidence in her essay on what it’s like to live in a hoarder’s home. The first four paragraphs give the readers the illustrations of what it would be like to walk into their house. It also gives her testimony of what she went through when she first

Cited: Schutza, Laurie. “The Pack Rat Among Us.” Inventing Arguments 2nd ed. Ed. John Mauk and John Metz. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning., 2009. 304-309. Print