Introduction
The menace of smoking amongst youth is ruining their future. The smoking craze is picking up fast and good chunk of teenagers are smoking vigorouslyin colleges and high schools in the United States of America. This paper narrates about a rhetoric moment in which I had an argument with my brother on his smoking behavior while he was at high school.
Guidance through school
When I look back at my senior year in high school, I feel proud as I was able topull my brother out of the vicious behavior of smoking. My brother, Sukh, was a freshman and I was thrilled to have him in the same school. Being an older sister, I realized that it was my responsibility to take care of him. He was well-behaved, intelligentand charming. Over the course of time, his way of conduct changed which was very disturbing not only to his teachers but also to the family members. Due to the bad influence from his peers, his grades started dropping and this was a big concern to every family member. The communication gap between him and the family started to emerge and his behavior was rebellious which made me notice that something was going wrong.
Rapid change
By this time I was through with my education at the institution. I was alarmed by his rapid deterioration of academic performance. I had to find out what was going on before things got to a complete mess. I went to his school and talked to his teachers from whom I got a clear explanation of his behavior and academic performance. After knowing about his activities, I was disappointed to know how irresponsible he was getting towards his education.
The argument
When I got home, I found him relaxing in the sitting room and asked: “What is going on with your education and behavior?“, “I would appreciate if you stop stepping in my matters and give me some peace, I am very well aware of my surroundings”, he replied in anger, and walked away. At this time, I was confused on why he was very rebellious to me a thing that had never happened in the past. This created more suspicion on him having been using drugs.
One evening when I was driving home I saw him near the Rave movie cinema smoking with his friendsand that was very displeasing to me. I parked my car and as I approached him, he tried to hide the cigarettewith no success. According to our bringing up, smoking was condemned by the religious customs and teaching. At that moment, I was out of words and asked him to get in the car after which I started driving home.
From my silence during the drive, he realized that I was furious. “Since when did you start smoking and why?”, I asked. “I am sorry,” he muffled. According to our parent’s guidance, they had prohibited smoking and explained it clearly to all of us. This increased the fear in him as he knew that their response to such a habit would not be welcoming. After few minutes, he said: “I started smoking due to the influence from my friends who told me it demonstrated maturity”. On understanding his reason behind adoption of smoking, I explained to him about the risks associated with cigarrete smoking.
“Smoking is a hazardous habit which is addictive and can lead to diseases such as cancer, heart attack and stroke”, I said. To make him clearly understand the risks associated, I narrated to him a story on my friend’s father. The friend’s dad had a lung cancer as a consequence of smoking cigarette which he started at his teenage years while studying at HarvardUniversity. Due to his deteriorating health condition, he was taken to hospital for diagnosis. The treatment for the disease was very expensive and the family members had to look for alternative methods for raising the funds to settle the hospital bill.After spending about two weeks in hospital, the treatment for the lung cancer was successful but he had to talk through the voice amplifier. It was not easy for him.
“Smoking can affect a person’s performance at work or school due to reduced concentration when one lacks a chance of smoking, your case is a clear indication of that,” I claimed. The smoking habit contributes to an outbreak of diseases which brings pain, suffering and death to millions of people every year. It is one of the worst things you can do to your body.“ Despite the satisfaction you get from smoking, it causes more harm to your body,” I advised. He nodded but kept quiet.
As I spoke to him, he was very keen which made it easy to convince him to quit smoking. He did promise that he would quit but asked me not to tell ourparents about the situation. I was glad to convince him and get him back on the right track. His school performance got better and he started to spend time with the family, which was surprising to the parents, but they were delighted. Today, he has achieved his Bachelor’s degree and his career is well established.
Rhetorical Analysis
My narrative essay entitled “Guidance through schooling” describes a rhetorical situation in which I was able to convince my brother to quit smoking. He had indulged himself to smoking due to the influence of his peers. As a result, the argument between us was not smooth although eventually fruitful. The presentation of the paper was aimed at givingdetailed information on how I handled the situation making good use of kairos, ethos, pathos and logos.
Kairos mainly refers to the situation or time it happened. The base of my narrative was my brother’s smoking during his school years which led to a very hot argument between us. Catching him in the act and confronting him in the car made him more admissive to his behavior. The confrontation in my car avoided interference by external parties which would have made my brother less keen in listening to my advice. Being in the evening when I was through with my daily chores, I had no major duties awaiting me and thus I was able to take my time in explaining to him about the risk he was indulging himself to. As a result, I was able to convince him to quit smoking.
Ethos is the credibility or authority of the person to handle a situation. According to our bringing up, we were taught that anyone who was older than us had to be accorded respect. The elders were observed to provide guidance and counseling to the young. Being older than him, he accorded me respect and used to ask my opinions in many of his undertakings. As a result, when I argued with him on his smoking behavior, he considered me an advisor. This played a significant played role in him being attentive to me.
Pathos refers to the emotions attached to a person in handling a given situation. My narrative went through the roller coaster ride of emotions. The moment I saw him smoking, I was stunned and become very angry. This was expressed in taking him away from his friends into the car and remaining silent for some moment. Since he already knew that whatever he was doing was prohibited in the family, he was guilt ridden and this was expressed in him keeping silent and staring at me worriedly.
Logos is the logic and facts behind the argument. I was able to explain to him about the various risks a person is exposed to by smoking. Giving facts about the risks and giving examples of the health impacts to the victim and the hassles by the family members such as expensive treatment made him understand clearly the issue of smoking. The situation underwent by my friend’s father was very good in illustrating the health and financial problems caused by his smoking. Such facts were very essential in convincing him that my argument on smoking was valid and played a significant part in making his final decision.
Conclusion
Through the narrative, I presented a rhetoric situation and the use of rhetoric principles. Taking care of the finer details of the argument, I was able to clearly use and explain ethos, pathos, logos and kairos. This components of a rhetoric narrative are essential in laying facts behind an argument, emotions attached, authors credibility and time frame of the argument.