“Death of a Soldier” by Louisa May Alcott Essay

The excerpt Death of a Soldier, taken from Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott features various rhetorical strategies to create an arouse to emotion. She exhibits the compassion of the lactate for John, point in the face of inevitable conclusion she displays the altruistic wit of John, and adds depth to her words by using analogies. She uses these tools in order to cut a deep emotional feeling and an understanding of how awful the point actu anyy was.One of the rhetorical strategies of this piece is her compassion, even when seemingly futile, for the wound soldier. The way Alcott describes Johns situation as being altogether helpless and doomed. The doctors words, not having the slightest hope for recovery, illustrate his condition. given over this information prior to her attempt to ease his pain, Alcott shows her sheer clemency for the little lad. I bathed his face, brushed his bonny br accept hair, set all things smooth about him. This quote shows how much effort sh e put into even the slightest difference in his comfort, in hopes of inflicting a satisfied expression on a dying face. She stirred the air about him with a let up wave of air and waited for him to die. She stood by him until his breath helping him fag out the agony of his inevitable and anticipated death. These examples of her charity instill feelings of understanding and pity for John.The other side of Alcotts appeal to emotion is Johns mastermind. John questions the nurse in reference to the battle do they call it will be my last? He is seemingly eager to relapse to his position and fulfill his duty. He feels loyal to his cause and indifferent to his own well-being. On his deathbed he is only momentarily worried for himself when introduced to his fate. After that legal brief moment he seems to feel guilty for his cowardly cause of death, and justifies it as he obeyed orders. With his last live breath he asks of the people record that they tell the others he did his best, as he wanted so urgently to make his friends and family proud. He sees the tragedy of his death not in death itself, but in the incapability of action, thereby preventing further altruism. His noble mentality draws the reader away from the image of a boorish, stoic, combatant, towards a kind, caring, Virginia blacksmith.To strengthen the appeal of emotion, Alcott integrates analogies into her writing. She embodies a look of helplessness forced by the inevitability of his death, hybridisation Johns face in her words, over his face I saw a gray veil falling that no humans can lift. She shows the reader how close to death he was, and appeals to the reader with her correspond inability to help him. After he has died, she compares his lifeless breathing to the waves of an reflux tide that bear unfelt against the wreck. This pallid vision shows how although he was not physically dead, he was not really alive.With such proficient use of these rhetorical strategies, Alcott reaches the emot ions of the reader. She shows the compassion of the nurse, to provide the reader with understanding of the atmosphere she provides insight to the stray of mind of John, to show him as a person who is more than a tool of war and she intensifies her emotional appeal with analogies, to deepen understanding for the events of the story. finally Alcott amalgamates all these elements in an overwhelming effort to capture the readers heart.