Rhetorical Analysis Of Caught In The Widow's Web By Grice

Fearing the Unknown “Various friends have told [Grice] that the widow’s bite is always fatal to humans-in fact, it almost never is.” Grice discusses several misconceptions of black widows that initiate fear, causing them to hold a power over society. He uses the following tones: awe (of the widow), fear, and ignorance (of many who fear but do not understand the black widow) to show there is no need to fear the unknown aspects presented throughout life. In parallel to this realization, there are greater evils in the world that cannot be explained, yet are highly feared. Grice urges society to not be easily manipulated, but for individuals to try and understand their reason for being afraid. In “Caught in the Widow’s Web,” Grice uses the black widow to address the question of why there is evil in the world, provoking the reader to ponder how manipulation can cause fear of the unexplained. Grice uses the following modes of writing to make his essay stronger: narration and process. He uses narration when telling a story of the time his mother killed a widow spider in front of him as a child. Drawing from his own experiences, Grice
He points out there is “[n]o idea of the cosmos as elegant design accounts for the widow. No idea of a benevolent God is comfortable in a world with the widow.” He creates repetition by starting two sentences in a row with “[n]o idea”, which emphasizes the point of unexplainable evil. Grice also uses many commas when creating lists, producing a descriptive essay. He begins his essay by listing the areas in which he has found widows: “in house foundations and cellars, in automotive shops and tool sheds, in water meters and rock gardens, against fences and in cinder-block walls.” Throughout the essay, Grice’s word choice is well suited to what he is explaining. Words such as malevolent, death, fatal, evil, and killing contribute to the fearful tone of the