Rhetorical Analysis of a The New York Times Article Essay example -- A

The article titled "The man with the snow job" appears in the Opinion Pages, The New York Times. Author, Gail Collins, opens her article with the question: â€Å"Who is to blame for this weather?† which hooks readers’ attention and makes them curious about what they are going to read. In her writing, Collins talks about the current snowstorm in the United States and how it is used for everyone’s advantage. She also points out how government officials such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Gore, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama use the occasion of snowfall for their own purposes. The author borrows images of global warming effects to discuss some controversial problems in the society these days. She applies the following elements to establish the sarcastic tone throughout her article: hyperbole, metaphor, and simile. First, Collins uses hyperbole by repeating the word â€Å"snow† five times in one sentence: â€Å"Chicago’s snowfall was so huge that the news media ran out of things to attach to â€Å"snow† - thundersnow! snowpocalypse! snowmageddon!† (Collins). She consecutively uses three portmanteaus of the word "snow" with increasing stress level to create strong feelings. She wants to emphasize that Chicago is experiencing the most massive snowstorm in the United States, one of the consequences of global warming. This is a circumstance that causes people panic. She then reminds the readers about the blizzard of 1979 which made Mayor Michael Bilandic get â€Å"kicked out of office six weeks later in the Democratic primary.† It seems that she wants to make a connection between the congressman and a snow job. Besides hyperbole, Collins does an excellent job of using metaphors. She uses metaphor from very beginning. The phrase â€Å"snow job† in the title is a coll... ...d we have been suffering for what we have done. Human beings have to be responsible for that. Collins successfully uses the method of satire throughout her article. According to Oxford Dictionary, satire is defined as â€Å"the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.† Humor does play a big role in this article. Government officials take the occasion of snowstorms to build their image in public, attack their opponents. And even author Collins; she uses snow to make her article interesting and attractive. Works Cited Collins, Gail. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html. 2 February 2011. 8 February 2011 .