The Gripping Effect Upon the Reader by the Book - Research Paper Example

The Argumentative Structure That The Books Employs The first book that will be discussed in this brief response is That Mad Game. As such, the argumentative structure that the book employs is one of the narratives. Whereas other approaches can help to bring key points to the reader's attention, the narrative structure is employed to great affected within That Mad Game due in no small part to the fact that the 17 accounts detailed within the book help to compound the stories presented previously and allow for a narrative growth that had it not been present in such compound form would most certainly not had the same gripping effect upon the reader.

By relating the stories as firsthand accounts of privations, difficulties, stress, hardships, and a litany of other stresses, the editor is able to provide a well-reasoned and incessant drive towards the ultimate goal that he wishes these narratives to have upon the reader. Conversely, the second book employs a slightly different approach. Although the narrative argumentative style is still employed, it is done via a central narrator and not differentiated among a group as was the case in the previous book that was discussed.

The effect of this is that the reader does not receive a type of “whiplash” when dealing with the alternating topics that the author seeks to reveal. However, the general weakness of such an approach is the fact that the author does not have a broad enough subject matter in order to engage the reader with an undifferentiated narrative approach such as the one that has been employed without risking belaboring the point and losing the attention of the reader. Although the subject matter is nonetheless fascinating, it is difficult to hold on to the argumentative narrative with such a limited and shallow grip upon a narrow aspect of the subject matter.

The third book, Sizwe's Test, employs a mixed style of argument that is concentric upon both rebuttal and definition. By means of employing such an approach, the author is able to engage the reader by raising key questions regarding the extent of the AIDs dilemma in S. Africa while at the same time offering a rebuttal for the means by which the disease is not able to be slowed or stopped to a greater degree. By employing such a tactic, the author is able to help to present the reader a differentiated topic that cannot be understood from a simple argumentative approach.

Rather than attempting to define the issue and argue for a given outcome, the author seeks to define the issue and then rebut the ways in which the disease has been currently handled. As a function of this, a far greater and more effective argument is drawn and the reader is able to gain valuable insight into the disease as it exists as well as attempting to understand nuances that would otherwise be obscured by much of the disinformation that the author seeks to discuss. Works Consulted Beah, Ishmael.

A long way was gone: memoirs of a boy soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Powers, Jack. That mad game: growing up in a war zone: an anthology of essays from around the globe. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press, 2012. Steinberg, Jonny. Sizwe's test: a young man's journey through Africa's AIDS epidemic. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.