Running On Empty Margaret Visser

Margaret Visser writes about fasting in her short story “Running on Empty”. Visser effectively presents her writing style as expository and her thought process as deductive with denotative diction through the use of objective writing only to persuade the reader to her way of thinking. Visser’s writing is in fact persuasive, connotative and inductive. After a careful analysis of the story, one must conclude that Visser intentionally attempts to convince her audience that fasting is wrong by appealing to her audience. She appeals to her audience by presenting unbiased points of view then incites rejection of fasting in modern society.
M. Visser introduces her short story in the first paragraph by defining fasting and distinguishes fasting from starving and dieting. One must note that Visser defines “’starve’ [as] from the same root as the German sterben, ‘die’ whereas fasting is ‘standing firm’”,
Visser’s writing style is objective and expository throughout most of her story. By explaining the good things about fasting from an objective point of view, she gains the readers’ trust. In the second paragraph Visser explains how people “…are biologically gifted…” and how we as humans benefit from our body in times of low food supply. Visser continues to explain highly believable facts to continue to hold the readers’ attention in an attempt to appear as if she is not for or against fasting; and to appear as if she is in the middle, or on the fence. In paragraphs three to five Visser explains the importance fasting pertaining to religion and followers of religion. The example of Jesus fasting for forty days is leverage for Visser to express fasting as something that was acceptable in the past, where society was at a different place than it is today in terms of standards of living and civil