Rhetorical devices

Rhetorical questions

In his article “The Truth About Cocoons”, Sam Anderson uses many rhetorical questions to engage his readers. One example of this is when Anderson wonders how the caterpillar might feel about its transformation: “Is a butterfly’s life any better than a caterpillar’s? Was all that suffering inside the cocoon worth it? Is a volcano happier after it erupts?” (ll. 96-97). 

In this case, the rhetorical questions help Anderson show that the process of transformation does not always necessarily end in an improvement. The questions also indirectly encourage the readers to reflect along with Anderson.

Another rhetorical question is used when Anderson discusses the stress and pain that people are going through because of the COVID-19 pandemic: “How do we even begin to process all of this – this cataclysm that is happening simultaneously in slow motion and all at once, on distant continents and inside our own cells?” (ll. 72-7...