Analysis

An analysis of Corina Zappia’s article “Losing Whiteness When You Lose Your Father” shows that the rhetorical situation is the author writing about her mixed ethnicity. The article was published in 2019 on the website of Catapult magazine, a platform that publishes narrative fiction and nonfiction. 

When it comes to composition, the article is structured in five parts, each dealing with specific issues related to Zappia’s mixed ethnicity. The five parts are tied together by the expression “to lose whiteness”, which functions as an anchor throughout the text. 

The style of writing in lines 111-121 is simple and descriptive, which makes her message easy to understand and connect to. Zappia also relies on parallelism and direct address to illustrate her ideas in these lines, which makes them easier to follow. 

Some of the rhetorical devices that Zappia generally uses are direct address, humor and irony, rhetorical questions, and repetition. The latter functions as an anchor throughout the article and helps Zappia connect her ideas. 

The forms of appeal used in the article are ethos and pathos. Ethos is built whenever Zappia talks about her mixed ethnicity and personal experiences which make her a reliable speaker on this topic. Pathos is built when she talks about her family and her relationship with her father. 

You can read a full analysis of the text in the following pages. 

Further help

Do you want additional help with analysis of non-fiction? See our general guide to non-fiction analysis.