Rhetorical situation
Writer
The writer of the article “Death by Civilization” is Mary Annette Pember, a Native American journalist. Because of her ancestry and background, Pember has a personal connection with the issue of Native American boarding schools. Specifically, Pember’s mother personally experienced the boarding school system: “Thousands of Native American children were forced to attend boarding schools created to strip them of their culture. My mother was one of them” (ll. 1-2). Consequently, Pember’s interest in Native American boarding schools is personal on several levels.
Pember portrays herself as a dedicated researcher, who is “consumed by the need to validate and prove, intellectually and emotionally” (ll. 31-32) her mother’s experiences in one of the Native American boarding schools. After finding proof of the truthfulness of her mother’s stories, Pember fee...