Honors Reading Assignment #4

Entry 4: Rhetorical Modes

Background: In Vandana Shiva’s book, Stolen Harvest, argumentation is the main rhetorical mode used to persuade the reader. Although Shiva uses a lot of exposition in her writing, she also clearly states her opinion on the topic. Therefore, most people would consider Stolen Harvest to use an argumentation rhetorical mode.

Quotes: “The time has come to reclaim the stolen harvest and celebrate the growing and giving of good food as the highest gift and most revolutionary act.”

“Women have been particularly affected by the proliferation of the shrimp industry. Land has become a scarce commodity. Fights take place between neighbors over patches of land on which to dry fish. In places where water is provided by tankers, competition for the water becomes yet another cause of social disruption, particularly between women.”

Commentary: The book Stolen Harvest is somewhat disorganized in my opinion. I found that Shiva tends to go off on tangents referring to her personal encounters quite a bit. As depicted in the first quote, Shiva went off on an inspirational tangent as if she wanted to lead a revolution in the midst of writing her book (which she probably did). Although this disorganization can sometimes be annoying to the reader and cause confusion, it can also be very inspiring to some.

Throughout the book, she uses an argumentation rhetorical mode to get the reader on her side. Although she uses little dialogue, for every argument she proposes, she gives certain examples from her personal experiences to sway the reader in her direction. This style works well for Shiva because she does have very legitimate experiences that she can provide the reader with. For every point she makes, she has an experience to show why she supports it. This form of argumentation including evidence is shown in the second quote provided above.

In this quote, Shiva is explaining to readers how not only the environment is affected negatively by larger industries, but also how neighborhoods and the people are affected. This quote depicts how Shiva not only has heard about this, but has experienced it. How else would people know that women in small Indian villages are fighting over something caused by bigger industries? It gives the reader a sense that Shiva knows what she is talking about. This method allows the reader to join Shiva on her side of the argument as if they were seeing what Shiva had seen.