Hyper-Parenting
Hyper-parenting can be
most commonly defined as parenting in an over-involved manner. In the extract
provided, author Carl Honoré criticizes this newly-formed convention. In doing
so, he employs certain words, literary techniques and rhetorical appeals in
order to reinforce his argument and maintain the critical tone exerted
throughout.
The author’s selection of
specific words leads him into adopting a censorious tone and emphasizing the
unexceptionally little extent to which hyper-parenting will yield any lucrative
results. The critical attitude can be most directly observed at the beginning
of the passage where he refers to “prodigies” (line 1) with the word “a taste”
(line 1) while describing an eighteenth century Europe trend. The author, here,
is implying that children were no longer seen as human beings, at that time,
but rather as areas of endeavour wherein parents could inordinately invest their
time and resources. Despite this conceptualization in Europe, however, the
author accentuates the impossibility of creating a superchild with the phrase
“uber-child” (line 16); the term “uber” contributes to the detracting approach
the author has taken. Notably, the author hints that raising a superchild will
hardly ever be attainable with the expression “– in
any century” (line 19) further supporting his point. Also the use of a dash, “–“, before this phrase helps the author make his
remark slightly more conspicuous. Finally, to make his arguments more warranted
by relating them to real life, the author mentions well-known institutions such
as “Harvard” (line 21) and “Oxford” (line 22) during his reasoning.
Throughout the excerpt,
the author applies literary techniques to fortify his ideas. Initially, the
author communicates several anecdotes from Hester Lynch Thrale; these illustrate
explicitly for the readers that intensive parenting makes both the child’s and
the parent’s lives “miserable” (line 15). Secondly, the author utilizes a
collective language, as pronouns like “we” (line 20) or “us” (line 17) signify,
while conveying his ideas, making it much simpler for the readers to show
understanding for his cause. The collective language aligns tidily with the
author’s overall use of an inclusive language; his collective language
complements the accessible, straightforward one. Thirdly, since the author’s
purpose in writing this excerpt is to inform his readers, mostly parents, about
the shortcomings of superfluous parenting, he exercises a hypophora in the last
paragraph (20) to create a rhetorical effect and increase awareness before
beginning his instructions on better parenting.
In this abstract, the
author exerts three rhetorical appeals to articulate his notions in the most
compelling manner: ethos, pathos and logos. He inaugurates the excerpt by exemplifying
some anecdotes from an eighteenth century writer, Hester Lynch Thrale. This,
along with his specific knowledge about Thrale’s personal life, proves the
readers that the author is considerably knowledgeable in what he is saying, accounting
for the ethos part of the excerpt’s structure. Next, the author milks an
emotive language with the quotations he recites from Thrale, such as “I have no
heart to battle with Sophy” (line 14), in persuading his readers, designating
the rhetorical appeal of pathos, which literally means evoking emotions of pity
or sorrow. Ultimately, the author completes the triangle in the last paragraph when
he suggests reasonable solutions to the aforementioned problem of
“long-suffering” (line 7) caused by redundant parenting, marking logos.
In conclusion, author Carl Honore, in this excerpt, wields three strategies in enunciating his notions with a critical tone: word choice, literary techniques and rhetorical appeals. Through these three, the readers get to examine precisely why hyper-parenting is an issue and that a “slower way of living” would prove more beneficial both for the children and their parents.
-Bora
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