Rhetorical Analysis of the El Pasos Perimeter of Poverty Article

Kiara Starks
Rhetorical and Composition 1301
October 4, 2017
 Introduction

David Maraniss uses rhetorical appeals, logos, pathos, and ethos to support his claims

about the colonias not having running water and how the government gives zero funding to them

while swaying people into his side of the argument.

David Maraniss, the author of the article, argues about how the colonias, the area on the

border of El Paso, has no running water; he even mentions how the government is not helping

with funding of any kind until 1983. The gives an insight about the people who live on the edge

of El Paso and how they do not have any running water and how the government is not helping

them get clean water. The water in the area is highly contaminated which causes the people to

get diseases and yellow stained teeth. Due to not getting any support from the government, the

years before 1983, people would use the contaminated water to drink and bathe in, even though

they end up with rashes and other problems from the water; the water was brown and did not

become clear.

Discussion

The author used logically sources by conducting interviews and using statistics. Logos

tells if the author gave a logical argument about their claim. One way the author showed logos,

was by using the interviews of the people in the colonias. Maraniss talked with a resident named

Willie Madrid, who gave insight on how the water was contaminated and gave them bad rashes

when they used it (Maraniss 1987, para. 9). This gave the readers understanding that the author

knew what he was talking about, due to the interviews from the people in the colonias. Another

way he showed the use of logos, was by putting statistics in his article. In paragraphs, 23 through

25, gives the percentage of the children with medical issues, the percentage of what the

contaminated water contained, and the percentage of residents who store their water in drums.

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The telling of percentages gives the audience a logical insight on how bad the problems are with

having no running water.

Maraniss proves ethos by using the interviews from the health department in this article.

Ethos tells the audience how credible the author's argument is. From the start of the article,

Maraniss used a saying from Dr. Herbert Ortega, a regional director of the UN-affiliated Pan

American Health Department. What were talking about is a Third World within our border. It

is a very serious problem that can no longer be ignored, locally or nationally (Maraniss 1987,

para. 7). Even paragraphs 13 and 23, continue to show his credibility by adding a saying from

the regions health department and the percentage of children infected from no running water,

conducted by the public health nurse. This shows the audience that the author has credible proof

in his argument, proving that they are not opinions.

Pathos was the main rhetorical appeal shown throughout the article. Pathos is the

emotional response that the author tries to ignite from the audience. Maraniss shows pathos by

talking about the deteriorating health of the children. For example, paragraph 23 talked about 85

percent of children suffer from medical issues while paragraph 10 says how half of 1,200

students live without water. This makes the audience who read this sad about the children who

are suffering without water. Another way Maraniss uses water by using a saying from the health

department that really gets the audience thinking about their life compared to the colonias. Can

you imagine, for a minute, what it is like to wake up every day and not have running water, to

wash, to drink? (Maraniss 1987, para. 7) Lastly, he does talk about the government not helping

until 1983, which can ignite anger among the reader. Paragraph 31 talks about the 10-year

growth of the colonias population and how in 1979, El Paso utility stopped the water connections

in the colonias. Then paragraph 36, tells how in 1983, William P. Hobby Jr, the lieutenant

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governor of Texas and first politician out of El Paso, helped contribute to giving the colonias

water.

Maraniss, throughout the article, seems to be applying to the community of El Paso as

the audience. The way he talks about the history of the colonias that are in different areas of El

Paso and mentioning an organization called EPISO, the El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring

Organization, shows that this is towards the community in El Paso. There was a usage of

academic words, so this was probably towards the adults of the community. Also, the talk of

politics towards the end of the remaining paragraphs is most likely focusing on the adults of the

El Paso community who are invested in politics. The people who read the article can have

awareness about the colonias that are in their area and have a political stance on how they can

help the colonias with the problems of running water.

Conclusion

The authors wording and tone fit into the rhetorical appeals, making the article a persuasive

argument. Maraniss used logically sources by conducting interviews to get the audience to see

what is going on in the colonias as they do not have any running water and what the people do or

feel about this. Not only did he prove logos in that way, but also proved it be using statistics.

Ethos may not have seemed big in the article, but the usage of health departments and high

political people proved the credibility in this article. Lastly, pathos was a major key point in the

article. The author used the mentioning of childrens health, due to contaminated water, to have

an advantage point on swaying people to his side of the argument. Even the mentions of politics

have a major effect when it comes to pathos, due to it creating certain emotions about the

problem mentioned. Maraniss used rhetorical appeals to talk about his claim about the problem

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of no running water and the involvement of the government by persuading the audience to sway

on his side of the argument.

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 References

David Maraniss. El Pasos Perimeter of Poverty. The Washington Post (August 17, 1987).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/08/17/el-pasos-perimeter-of-

poverty/f1b6a57c-5f5f-4ac0-bf2b-a01065dcfc41/?utm_term=.7c3f8a4840e1