The Dark Power Of Fraternities: Rhetorical Analysis

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“Are fraternities acting in an ethical manner, requiring good behavior and punishing poor decisions? Or are they keeping a cool distance from the mayhem, knowing full well that it occurs with regularity?” (Flanagan). Many individuals have never taken out the time to research and study some of the hidden secrets about fraternities. However, author Caitlin Flanagan wrote “The Dark Power of Fraternities” published in 2014 in The Atlantic, and she argues all of the hidden flaws within fraternities that are often covered up. Flanagan then proceeds to build up her credibility throughout the article, “The Dark Power of Fraternities” by demonstrating a wide array of rhetorical techniques in attempt to appeal to her readers; Flanagan utilizes her beliefs along with the usage of convincing facts and statistics in order to successfully build her credibility.

In her article, “The Dark Power of Fraternities” Flanagan sets the first initial tone of the reading by describing the specific scenario of a young man named Travis Hughes having a moment misjudgment at a fraternity house. Flanagan then goes on to state the pros and cons within fraternities houses on college campuses, and how they influence many moments of misjudgment. Possible solutions that were brought up by Flanagan throughout the article included many people attempting to ban fraternities from college campuses completely. However, many of the cases that included the banning of fraternities went against many constitutional laws. Throughout her article, Flanagan utilizes many strong sources that strengthens her credibility and appeal to ethos, as well as builds her argument. The sources included consist of a great amount of different articles. By her including all of these different articles it helps enhances Flanagan’s credibility by showing that she has done her research and has looked into the topic of discussion in more depth as well as providing facts and statistics, and her own personal opinions to support her claim. Flanagan also utilizes the fraternity experiences of different colleges to show that the topic she’s discussing isn’t just occurring at one specific college campus but at many of them. In addition to her ethos appeal, Flanagan uses strong appeals to pathos, with the usage of emotion and personal opinions to create an emotional response to her audience. She points out facts of many horrendous incidents that occur at fraternity houses at other colleges: “the deck was no more than four feet off the ground, but such was the urgency of his escape that he managed to get himself wedged between the structure and an air-conditioning unit, sustaining injuries that would require medical attention, cut short his baseball season, and—in the fullness of time—pit him against the mighty
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For example, Flanagan still introduces a new incident that occurred at a different university, “Last spring, Wesleyan sent yet another e-mail about Beta Theta Pi to the student body. It reported that in the early-morning hours of April 7, a Wesleyan student contacted PSafe to report that she had been attacked at the Beta house” (Flanagan 206). The usage of specifically pointing out the fraternity “Beta Theta Pi” stills shows how the topic of fraternities and incidents at fraternity houses hasn’t shifted during the course of the article, leaving an established tone that the reader is able to constantly follow throughout the article. This helps strengthens her credibility by staying consistent with her

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