Rhetorical and Critical Analysis

Running head: RHETORICAL AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS 1
Rhetorical and Critical Analysis
Name
Institution

RHETORICAL AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS 2
Rhetorical and Critical Analysis
“The Death of Honesty” is an article that was written by William Damon and published
by the Hoover Institute in 2012. In this article, Damon decries the death of honesty. He laments
over the rising levels of dishonesty in the society. In order to successfully deliver his intended
message, the author had to employ the use of pathos, logos, and ethos appeals. The purpose of
this paper, hence, is to present a critical, exhaustive and insightful rhetorical analysis of the
article.
In the article, Damon made a proper and effective usage of logos appeal. This is a
strategy that is employed in a literary work to help in the creation of a logical appeal. Logical
appeal is an essential strategy because it plays a significant role in appealing to the reasoning of
the readers (Stucki & Sager, 2018, p. 274). Reason is an important concept that must always be
applied by the human beings because it serves as a chief source of knowledge. In the entire
article, the author extensively uses a logical appeal to persuade and win the understanding of the
readers. In one instance, he said, “A basic intent to be truthful, along with an assumption that
people can be generally taken at their word, is required for all sustained civilized dealings”
(Damon, 2012, p.1). Here, the writer is appealing to the readers to acknowledge that honesty is
indeed a good virtue and practice that should be nurtured in the society. However, despite this
assertion, Damon regrets that dishonesty is becoming the order of the day. Thence, he laments,
“Yet to recognize that honesty is not an absolute standard demanded for every life circumstance
—and that we can expect a certain amount of deceit from even our respected public figures”
(Damon, 2012, p. 1). The author believes that all these are happening because “There may be a
perception in many key areas of contemporary life—law, business, politics, among others—that
expecting honesty on a regular basis is a naïve and foolish attitude, a “loser’s” way of operating”

RHETORICAL AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS 3
(Damon, 2012, p. 1). All these statements were incorporated in the article to demonstrate and
appeal to the readers to acknowledge that dishonesty has become a common practice. However,
people should use their reason to weed it out of the society because, as the author exclaims, it has
nothing good to offer.
Damon uses ethos appeal in his article. Ethos, as its name suggests, is a strategy that is
used to make an ethological and persuasion and appeal to the audience. In literary works
ethological appeal can be attained by using a wide range of techniques (Ting, 2018, p. 26). Some
of them include the credibility of the author, accuracy of the argument, incorporation of external
sources in the document, organization of the writing, conformity to standard writing procedures,
and the making of well-substantiated arguments in response to the relevant counter-arguments
(Miller, 2017, p. 295). A thorough review of the article proves that Damon made a proper use of
these strategies in his writing. The author achieves the ethical appeal when he quotes reputable
authorities such as George Orwell, President George Washington, and President Abraham
Lincoln. He alludes to Orwell when he says, “As George Orwell once observed, the very
function of political speech is to hide, soften, or misrepresent difficult truths. Orwell was clearly
skeptical about any expectation to the contrary” (Damon, 2012, p. 1). This indicates that the
writer wanted to appeal to the audience by acknowledging the significant contributions of such
figures whose credibility and reputation is known world over (Zettler, Hilbig, Moshagen & de
Vries, 2015, p. 111). For example, to appeal to the audience, he had to state different arguments
in the society. At one point, he said, “All human relations rely upon confidence that those in the
relations will, as a rule, tell the truth” (Damon, 2012, p. 1). Here, the author was trying to argue
that honesty is a good practice that should not be abandoned. The appeal also succeeds when
Damon asserts, “Honesty builds and solidifies a relationship with trust; and too many breaches in