Rhetorical Analysis

Temptations and the Ring

Kathleen E. Gillian purpose in writing this essay was to convince people that the Lord of the Ring trilogy, primarily Fellowship of the Ring, there is a religious premise surrounding the book. Her objective is to show the religious aspect of the book and why it is religious. The intended audience is for those who have read the Trilogy. She is attempting to persuade the audience to believe that the Trilogy has a religious aspect throughout the book. She does seem to know her audience because she makes references throughout the book about the book, so the audience would have to have read the books to understand what was going on. The way she structures her essay and writes it is based on that people know what the book is about and what happens in the book. She writes it assuming the reader of her essay has read the Trilogy. The topic of the essay is trying to prove that the Trilogy is based around a biblical theme of temptation. It could be appreciated by the audience. Since many people are Christian this would be a theme they would agree with and enjoy this essay. The thesis of her essay is, “In The Lord of the Rings, and the first volume—The Fellowship of the Ring—in particular, Tolkien argues for a religious reading by showing that the struggle for the characters to fight the temptation of the Ring is a direct reflection of the temptation faced by those in The Bible” (Gillian). Gillian is trying to prove that The Fellowship of the Ring has a theme from the bible that people face temptation. The characters in the book face similar challenges congruent with stories from the bible. This thesis could be controversial because it is an opinion and comes from a source that not all people believe in. The bible is a book that not all people agree with, and that makes this thesis a controversial one. Gillian selects events in the book that are similar with biblical stories. She makes sure that the events in the book are near the ones that happen in the bible. Evidence is very important for her argument. Her evidence has to be very similar events between the bible and the Trilogy. An event from the Trilogy must have very similar occurring events to have any substantial argument to persuade people. The most influential piece of evidence is proof from the bible and an event from the book that correlate with each other. The style of her writing is that she explains an event from the Trilogy and then explains how that ties in with stories from the bible. She starts the introduction explaining how well known the book is. Next she says that the trilogy can be interpreted different ways giving an example on one, and then she explains her belief of the books theme. The way she structures the paragraphs are effective because they give and event and then evidence to back her belief. The transitions were decent. The transition from paragraph to paragraph was very sudden and rough. She went directly from one idea to another and it didn’t seem very smooth in my opinion. The ideas she had were good but the way she transitioned them was very unwelcoming. The diction used throughout her essay was that many people could understand if they read the essay. She didn’t use informal diction but it wasn’t elevated to the point where people had to have a high grasp of vocabulary. Her use of diction allows many people to read the essay and comprehend it helping her make her point to all people.