Rhetorical Analysis

For this assignment I decided to analyze a piece by Derek D. Miller, "Postmodernism in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle".  In his essay he was trying to convey the ideas of postmodernism expressed in the novel Cat's Cradle and how they are expressed.  He does not follow the basic principles to writing a strong essay that we have been taught throughout our years of learning.  Miller's point is to highlight places in which the story tries to explain the postmodern beliefs.  To help prove these thoughts the writer uses a good source, quotes from the story, to persuade his audience that his concepts are legitimate, but he doesn’t use the Schaffer style of writing he just free writes.  It is actually a better method because he is able to show his ideas without being limited to designing the essay a certain way.  Miller also uses dialogue as a tool in targeting his thesis.  Instead of following a structure of writing he goes his own way but does include some of the important pieces of writing such as a strong introduction that emphasizes his main point and a concluding paragraph that wraps up his entire essay.  However throughout the body he doesn’t structure his paragraphs in order to explain his thoughts he includes a variety of different paragraphs whether it’s showing dialogue or just focusing on describing postmodernism.
We have been told to always use good transitions when going from paragraph to paragraph but in Miller’s piece of work he doesn’t and I feel that he still has a strong article.  He can go from talking about how destructive society is becoming to how religion is telling us that we don’t need to know the truth.   These topics don’t even have any relation but his idea still gets across and actually makes his thesis stronger.  It doesn’t confuse his audience but get s to the point and doesn’t bother with useless writing.  There is no use of similes or metaphors but he does compare and contrasts his thoughts with our society today.  He uses them throughout his essay not in a special pattern but wherever he feels they are needed to improve his explanation.  While reading his piece I’ve noticed he is a reliable source because he has read the story himself and seems to understand the meaning and topic of the novel with his use of great diction, dialogue, and quotes and their explanations.  He does build a strong ethos in his introduction and follow all the way through to his conclusion.
From being given the opportunity to read and analyze this academic essay I have gained new understandings of what good writing requires and it is not a structure that you must follow.  I feel as if my whole life of writing has been a lie, the teachers have been told to teach us these rules when writing a piece and to follow them and if we don’t our result would be failure, but we need to write how we feel is right and conveys out ideas the best.
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/512/postmodernism-in-vonneguts-cats-cradle