The Homeless And Their Children Rhetorical Analysis

In writing “The Homeless and Their Children”, Jonathon Kozol, uses emotion to raise the awareness of “the effects of literacy on the lives of the poor” (Kozol, page 304). He also used an interview form, to not only show his audience how the main character feels in her own words, but puts himself into the situation if only for a short time. The author states that “more than one-third of America’s adults are at least partially illiterate, we should organize a massive Government and volunteer army to liberate people in prisoned by illiteracy” (Kozol, page 304). Jonathon Kozol, for over forty years, has been “deeply involved in social justice work” (Wikipedia, page 1). The book, Rachel and Her Children, from which the core reading was taken
Kozol uses a woman whose name he changes, “I will call her Laura” (Kozol, page 305), to illustrate how illiteracy can affect some one’s life. He uses Laura’s children to make the audience feel the pain that illiteracy can cause. For example, in the passages “a seven year old boy named Matthew has been sick for several weeks” (Kozol, page 305), and “My daughter is four months. And she has a rash” (Kozol, page 306), causes the audience to feel sympathy for their situation. Kozol even uses other children in the hotel to draw in the audience, “a child on the fourteenth floor fell…and cut his forehead, and required stitches” (Kozol page
Statements like “Somebody can take my children” (Kozol, page 307) and “the manager…Mr. Tuccelly…He had a gun” (Kozol, page 307) draws the audience into her fear. The author also uses the fact that the children do not get anything for Christmas, “Christmas, they don’t got” (Kozol, page 310)”, The author uses the description of the horrible living conditions in the hotel to make the audience more aware of the situation. “The bathroom plumbing has overflowed has left a pool of sewage” (Kozol, page 305) and “The carpets, they was filthy” (Kozol, page 306) and “greenish paint smeared over with sludge draining from some one’s plumbing” (Kozol, page 306) are descriptions the author uses to show just how bleak the living conditions of Laura and her children really