Analysis

This analysis of “How Not to Be Alone” by Jonathan Safran Foer is based on the rhetorical pentagram model.

In the next few pages, we will explore the topics of the text, technology and empathy, looking at how the writer chose to discuss them.

We will present the writer of the text, novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, looking at his background and the image he conveys about himself within the text.

We will consider the potential reader of the text, looking at when and where the text was published, but also at the people the writer mentions explicitly in the essay.

We will examine the language of the text, paying attention to the choice of words, writer’s tone, sentence structure, rhetorical devices and forms of appeal.

We will discuss the circumstances of the text, considering the use of technology in contemporary society.

We will address the writer’s intention with the text of promoting a balanced use of technology and empathy, and of sending a warning about the potential dangers of communication technologies.

You can read the full analysis in the next pages!