Rhetorical Analysis of Tom Wolfe’s “Putting Daddy on”

Rhetorical Analysis of Tom Wolfe’s â€Å"Putting Daddy On† By: Robert Gribschaw Tom Wolfe sets the stage for discussion with his words in the essay â€Å"Putting Daddy On.† Every reader can relate to this story because the topic of life is very general. Everyone is responsible for his or her own actions and the decision each chooses to make is their lifestyle. Although it is ultimately up to the individual to create his or her own lifestyle, there are often major influences, like parents that aid in lifestyle creation. The father son relationship is a complex bond and Tom Wolfe clearly shows this through his writing. â€Å"Putting Daddy On† is a story that forces readers to question his or her feelings about life and how it’s meant to be lived. What is†¦show more content†¦It’s not in the storytellers’ favor to pick sides and persuade the audience that either character’s motives are correct. Due to this, the argument takes an unbiased approach allowing the reader to give the storyteller credibility. Tone alsotakes a major role in this essay. In the beginning of the story the tone appears to be humorous. Parker’s intellect and positive attitude give the reader the feeling that the situation will be resolved. Parker goes to talk to his son on a respectful level so that he can have a chance to persuade Ben to straighten his life out. When he arrives at Ben’s tone takes a shift in a pessimistic direction. The problem is that he is embarrassed that his son who had only one more year left at Colombia has dropped out and done nothing with his life. Because of this embarrassment Parker fails to show his son respect as he continues to indirectly make fun of him. With Parker’s inability to show respect, the reader finds out a weakness in Parkers seemingly perfect lifestyle. Ben then also chooses to take a rude approach to his father’s conversation. He answers all of Parker†™s questions in the simplest form possible and in some cases changes the subject to avoid the question. As a result of their stubbornness and unwillingness to except each other, Ben becomes angry and Parker shows signs of frustration. Once again tone has another shift, going from a slim chance to salve the problem to no chance. Parker