In the fifth paragraph, Alexie makes a shift into third person, and establishes an appeal to pathos. Alexie makes the shift when he introduces the fact that Indian children have different expectations in school because of the inequalities they face. If Alexie had been non-Indian “he might have been called a prodigy,” but because he was an “Indian boy...” he was “simply an oddity.” This shift suggests that Alexie feels an internal division to this time period in his past. By using this shift, Alexie adds to his emotional tone because it creates an appeal to pathos that makes his audience feel both sympathy and empathy. Alexie made the decision to include this shift in order to assert how he recognized the inequality Indians face in society, and to declare the painful and conflicting emotions of his past. His audience of Indian youth may feel the same way, which therefore creates a connection …show more content…
That way, they will be more attentive to the points that he is making. By including this appeal, Alexie is able to make another bridge between the sciences and the humanities. How Indian children were treated in school refers to sociology, and mentioning his miserable, mournful, mentality, speaks to Alexie’s cognitive thinking. Alexie makes this bridge in order to to explain how society’s treatment of people have profound effects on the development of an individual’s mind. His audience can further understand Alexie’s points on inequality, and begin to examine how it has affected their growth.
In the six paragraph, Alexie begins by using strong diction to describe the effect society’s inequalities had on him through an appeal to pathos. Alexie claims that a smart Indian is “widely feared and ridiculed,” by all social groups because Indian children are “expected to be stupid.” The strong