Assignment: Quiet Persuasion

Assignment: Quiet Persuasion

When Paul is home he encounters Mittaelstadt, who is using his position of authority to torment their old teacher, Kantorek. (173-179)

• Should Mittelstaedt take advantage of his opportunity to get back at Kantorek?

Your task is to write a paragraph in which you make a persuasive case that Mittelstaedt should or should not take vengeance on Kantorek.

• Start by proclaiming that Mittelstaedt should /should not have taken vengeance on Kantorek.

• Next, use a direct quote from the book to support your point of view.

• Then, try to utilize some persuasive techniques from your notes in order to convince your reader of your position.

Your task is to examine each line of the quote explanation in front of you. Number each sentence separately on your paper. Explain what each sentence of the explanation is doing AND explain why it helps to make a persuasive case.

Sample Quote Analysis:

The war in Iraq was justified because we have protected the citizens of Iraq themselves. Saddam Hussein regularly violated the human rights of his own citizens. These violations are clearly described by the International Information website, which states that “Under the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi citizens face arbitrary execution, detention, torture rape, religious persecution and forced relocation” (“Human Rights”). 1.) These routine acts by Hussein clearly violate human rights, since his arbitrary killing, jailing, and torturing is exactly opposed to the definition of human rights, which proclaims that there are “rights – such as freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture and execution - regarded as belonging fundamentally to all persons” (Webster’s Dictionary). 2.) If we had not gone in to stop Hussein, these human rights violations clearly would have continued, and through our unwillingness to act, every citizen of the United States would have been partly responsible for them. 3.) If the United States is to seriously consider itself a leader of human rights protection to the rest of the world, it cannot stand idly and watch while another country completely disregards the notion of human rights. 4.) To not act in this situation would be similar to knowing that a neighbor was beating his children, but letting the child abuse continue because it is “none of our business.” 5.) Of course, some opponents of the war on Iraq have pointed out that there are numerous dictators around the world who currently engage in the same behavior as Hussein and that we would have to constantly be at war to stop all of them. 6.) This is a thoughtful contention, and it must be conceded that it would be impossible to go to war with every single human rights violator. 7.) However, Hussein stands out in a few key regards. 8.) Unlike our policy towards many other dictators around the world, we had already put the severest diplomatic and economic pressure on Hussein to change his behavior (Reubens, 3). 9.) And yet, despite all of our efforts, no one, not even opponents of the war, claim that Hussein had stopped his routine cruelty towards his own people. Secondly, Hussein was different from many other human rights violators because…