The Great Influenza

By: John M. Barry

Analysed by: Nmbr2pencil

            As the writer begins the passage it is clear that he starts off using common sense giving of an initial feeling that the argument should be obvious. However he can only speak for himself because one person can only experience what he has dealt with on his behalf. As we go through the passage we see the author using tactics such as ellipses on lines 10, 63 and 64 to solidify his points. Barry also tries to push in evidence from a physiologist, Claude Bernard, to advance his argument. It is also a bit noticeable where is says “the great French physiologist…” as opposed “a great French physiologist…”

             He uses a variety of rhetoric including personification around the 15^th line where he gives the attribute of ‘sharp’ to a laboratory finding which is actually intangible. The spectrum in which his writing and rhetoric skills spread gives his writing great definition and value. In his 4^th paragraph Barry chooses to use allegories; one in which a good scientist is viewed as an old styled soldier who always stands in the front of his battalion. In the other allegory he refers to the unexplained as the ‘wilderness’ and the scientist as a voyager.

            Throughout the whole 5^th paragraph Barry uses evident repetition overlapped by an extensive metaphor. Again and again the word ‘rock’ is brought up in which he amplifies it significance to having unpredictable sensitivity like that of a unknown examination subject. He gives rhetorical questions along in the paragraph to illustrate the concept a scientist must uphold before even approaching the subject in question or the ‘rock.

In the 6^th and 7^th paragraph the author desired to stay straight forward and concise. He explains the epilogue of the journey to a scientist’s finding. This strategy might have been used to leave the reader at the same note that he or she started by reviving a feeling that the subject should only be common sense; thus appealing to the reader’s logic or logos. Combining the great verity of vocabulary and rhetoric skills Barry proves to be a notable writer more than deserving of an analysis.