How the writer engages the reader

Here, we will give you some discussion points related to the overall argumentation of the article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” by Amy Chua. This section will show you how the writer engages the reader through different techniques, such as open argumentation, rhetorical devices, forms of appeal, and language.

Open or closed argumentation

When we talk about open or closed argumentation, we debate whether a text’s argumentation is direct or indirect. Direct (or open) argumentation involves transmitting an explicit message from the author, in which readers get to know the author’s point of view about a situation. Indirect (or closed) argumentation involves an implicit message and an overall closed text where readers need to work out the message by themselves.

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Rhetorical devices

Amy Chua uses several rhetorical devices to engage and persuade the readers of her opinions and to make her article more attractive.

First, sarcasm and irony are employed whenever Chua expresses her distaste for the Western approach to parenting. For example, the following extract is both ironic and amusing, as the majority of the readers could never fathom that offending their children would lead to positive results:

Chinese mothers can say to their daughters, “Hey fatty – lose some weight.” By contrast, Western parents have to tiptoe around the issue, talking in terms of “health” and never ever mentioning the f-word, and their kids still end up in therapy for eating disorders and negative self-image. (ll. 66-69)

Self-irony is also present when Chua gives an example from her own family related to the way she pushed her younger daughter to excellence:

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Forms of appeal

The three main forms of appeal – or persuasion devices – are ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos refers to the credibility of the sender; pathos refers to emotion and to the emotional responses created in the readership; logos refers to the use of logic and reason to persuade the readership.

In “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, Amy Chua employs all three forms of appeal to engage her readers. First, she uses ethos to highlight the fact that her own experience as the child of Chinese parents did not destroy her but pushed her to excellence. This way, through her own example, Amy Chua becomes credible as an author and readers tend to give more credit to her views:

Once when I was young – maybe more than once – when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me “garbage” in our native Hokkien dialect. It worked really well. I felt terrible and deeply ashamed of what I had done. But it didn’t damage my self-esteem or anything like that. I knew exactly how highly he thought of me. I didn’t actually think I was worthless or feel like a piece of garbage. (ll. 54-59)

Logos is employed when Amy Chua makes use of logical reasoning in her arguments, which is aided by several pieces of statistical evidence:

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Language

The language employed by Amy Chua in her article is simple and easy to understand. Note that Chua employs narrative and descriptive passages, which she combines with dialogue to offer more authenticity to the text and a glimpse of her personal and private life:

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