Rhetorical Analysis Of Blink By Malcolm Gladwell

To minimize the distance of the fourth wall between a reader and a piece of work, authors often rely on literary tactics to effectively convey their message. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell’s message to his audience is that people’s first instinct is usually correct; ironically, extensive analyzing of something can lead to flawed thinking. Gladwell uses several rhetorical techniques such as the rhetorical question, cataloguing, and allusion to not only embellish his writing, but to develop his argument as well. The first literary device Gladwell employs in his writing is the rhetorical question. The purpose of this technique is to emphasize an idea and persuade the audience to think a certain way. Gladwell expresses, “The Getty moved cautiously. It took the kouros on loan and began a thorough investigation. Was the statue consistent with other known kouroi? The answer appeared to be yes” (1). The author stimulates the audience by posing a question and answering it, as if presenting a dogma. By convincing the reader that the statue seemed to be legit, he increases the impact of the latter half of the introduction--that the statue is actually fake and was overlooked because …show more content…
Cataloguing places emphasis on an author’s point by listing several similar items. In Gladwell’s excerpt, for instance, he writes, “He then removed a core sample measuring one centimeter in diameter and two centimeters in length from just below the right knee and analyzed it using an electron microscope, electron microprobe, mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence” (1). By listing numerous professional-sounding procedures, Gladwell effectively persuades the reader into thinking that the expert examinations on the work of art is trustworthy, thorough, and correct in its conclusion. Cataloguing, in this excerpt, serves as a set-up for him to later introduce his own argument and simultaneously refute another