Rhetorical devices

Antithesis

Antithesis is a language device in which opposing views and situations are mentioned in contrast to each other to make a point.

One example is: “So I didn’t write this book because I’ve accomplished something extraordinary. I wrote this book because I’ve achieved something quite ordinary…” (ll. 10-11). Vance uses the opposition between extraordinary and ordinary to show that going to a good university or living a happy life should not seem extraordinary in a society that has upward mobility. The effect of this antithesis is that it encourages readers to reflect on their perspective on higher education, and what counts as normal achievement for different social groups.

Another powerful antithesis is: “Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbors, friends, and family” (ll. 39-40). By contrasting different perspectives on the poor white working classes, Vance wants to make readers aware of existing prejudices in American society about them.

At the end there’s another notable antithesis: “That’s the short version. The long version exists in the pages that follow” (ll. 115-116). The opposition between short and long shows that the story about how people can achieve the American Dream of upward mo...