"Me Talk Pretty One Day" Rhetorical Essay
Novelist, David Sedaris, in his narrative essay, “ Me Talk Pretty One Day” discusses his experience in a French class when he was forty-one. He draws a clear image of how he felt being someone who is learning a second language and how his effort and determination to learn will eventually help improve his French. The purpose of this antidote is to display that through perseverance and effort, you can conquer your fears and even learn something new, which to him was understanding French. Sedaris uses pathos, diction, and simile to appeal to his readers and make his point. The excerpt appeals to pathos by describing how he felt on his first day of class and depicting his thoughts of his teacher. Through the use of imagery, he paints a vivid picture of how he felt on his first day. He starts off by stating how “nerve-racking [it was] because [he] knew [he’d] be expected to perform… everyone into the language pool, sink or swim,” (paragraph 5). This appeals to the audience’s emotions bec...