What literary devices—metaphor, simile, parallelism, personification, etc.—do they use and to what effect?

Your task is to identify your chosen author’s central message or theme in their text, analyze how they produce their argument, why they make the rhetorical choices they do, and ultimately, whether or not they were successful in persuading their readers.
Your thesis statement for this essay should therefore answer whether “yes” the author is persuasive or “no” the author is not persuasive in convincing their audience, and it should highlight some particular reasoning for the text’s persuasiveness or lack of persuasiveness.
Here are some key questions you may want to address.
Who is the intended audience for the text you’re analyzing and why is this important?
What is the author’s purpose in writing this piece?
How does the author portray themselves as a speaker in the text?
What specific rhetorical devices (ethos, pathos, logos) and strategies does the author use, and why might they have chosen them?
What literary devices—metaphor, simile, parallelism, personification, etc.—do they use and to what effect?
How successful is the writer in connecting with and persuading the audience?
You do not have to address every rhetorical aspect of the text—only the ones that support your argument regarding why and how the text is or is not persuasive.

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