The Company Man by Ellen Goodman: Rhetorical Analysis
“The Company Man” Rhetorical Analysis
In the 1970’s Ellen Goodman wrote “The Company Man”. The purpose of Goodman’s piece was showing through an irony filled short story what matters in life as opposed to what should actually matter. She conveys this purpose towards her audience through the arrangement in her writing, the constant repetition of numbers, omission of last names and first names. Another rhetorical device she uses is irony and the use of limited quotations in her piece.
1st paragraph : arrangement - she arranges her piece first talking about work then mentioning and talking about his family life then returns at the end back to work
- the part where she mentions family is very brief and doesn’t show their emotional connection and love and the family mourning for one another, which shows how revolved around work his life was that he didn’t have any time for his family, then ties back to the purpose about how your family should be more important than your work but how in modern times we think that since work will provide money to support our families that makes up for the emotional connection between family members. Irony throughout the whole paper and how it shows that even during his funeral his death didn’t matter his “work” and whom would replace him did, once again tying back to what really should matter in life and if that is worth risking your family for because it might not even be worth it in the end.
2nd paragraph: repetition of numbers- a lot of time, ages, to symbolize and illustrate the work he was in and how really involved in it he was, this makes me think about the omission of names and the delay to mention the deceased’s first name, shows how non emotional or detached he was towards his family but more into work which once again shows the purpose being what should really matter in life, tieing into this would be the limited amount of quotations used in this piece but the one’s used were from his family foreshadowing
In the 1970’s Ellen Goodman wrote “The Company Man”. The purpose of Goodman’s piece was showing through an irony filled short story what matters in life as opposed to what should actually matter. She conveys this purpose towards her audience through the arrangement in her writing, the constant repetition of numbers, omission of last names and first names. Another rhetorical device she uses is irony and the use of limited quotations in her piece.
1st paragraph : arrangement - she arranges her piece first talking about work then mentioning and talking about his family life then returns at the end back to work
- the part where she mentions family is very brief and doesn’t show their emotional connection and love and the family mourning for one another, which shows how revolved around work his life was that he didn’t have any time for his family, then ties back to the purpose about how your family should be more important than your work but how in modern times we think that since work will provide money to support our families that makes up for the emotional connection between family members. Irony throughout the whole paper and how it shows that even during his funeral his death didn’t matter his “work” and whom would replace him did, once again tying back to what really should matter in life and if that is worth risking your family for because it might not even be worth it in the end.
2nd paragraph: repetition of numbers- a lot of time, ages, to symbolize and illustrate the work he was in and how really involved in it he was, this makes me think about the omission of names and the delay to mention the deceased’s first name, shows how non emotional or detached he was towards his family but more into work which once again shows the purpose being what should really matter in life, tieing into this would be the limited amount of quotations used in this piece but the one’s used were from his family foreshadowing