Rhetorical analysis

Why should we care? A Rhetorical Analysis of When Prisoners Protest by

Wilbert Rideau
When Prisoners Protest by Wilbert Rideau published his paper on July 16, 2013
on The New York Times web site, later printed in The New York Times print. Rideau is a
former inmate whom served nearly 44 years for manslaughter, mostly at the Louisiana
state penitentiary, is a journalist and the author of memoir In the Place of Justice: A
Story of Punishment and Deliverance. Rideau has firsthand experience with the penal
system and how it is in need of change.
Rideau wrote a piece about solitary confinement and how inmates are left with
little options to fight back in demanding better conditions, so they are forced with
protesting even if there is little to gain and too much to lose. Rideau describes some
of the ways inmates have chosen to protest. Rideau writes in response to the California
protesters, he says, On July 8, some 30,000 inmates in the custody of the department of
corrections went on a hunger strike to demand improvements in prison conditions. He
also begins to talk about solitary confinement and how its being abused. Protesters feel
this needs to be changed or modified so that it doesnt dehumanize people, yet they know
some inmates need to be put in solitary confinement due to security and safety issues and
the prisoners understand that. They dont demand total end to the use of solitary
confinement, but only reasonable limits to who is locked up and for how long.
Rideau uses When Prisoners Protest to help his audience get an understanding of
prisons conditions and how they feel the need to protest, using first hand experiences
(ethos), logos, and pathos. Rideau starts of is article with a powerful statement. there
arent many protests in prison. In a world where authorities exercise absolute power and
demand abject obedience this statement gives you a feel for which side Rideau is
rooting for. His use of wording in this paragraph makes you feel like youre powerless,
and empathizes with the prisoners.
His appeals to logos and pathos are strong through-out the whole article. He uses
cause and effect and a problem-solution to give the readers an urge to want to help.
About half way through the article he gives the readers a little ethos and stating he spent
12 years (out of 44) in various solitary confinement cells. Letting his audience know he
has first had experience with how horrible solitary confinement really is. Rideau explains
his time in solitary confinement, You talk to yourself, answer yourself. You become
paranoid, depressed, and sleepless. To ward off madness, you must give your mind
something to do I counted the 358 rivets that held my steel cell together, over and

Rhetorical analysis

over. If not being in that situation for so long doesnt help give you credibility, then I
dont know what would in this type of situation.
Rideau uses some logos to further drive his point across about inmates. The
typical inmate doesnt want trouble. He has little to gain and too much to lose. He goes
onto list things prisoners may lose, making you feel a little more sympathetic for the
prisoners. As the more the article draws you in the more you get a sense of how hard it is
for a prisoner to protest. Rideau further stretches for logic by saying, and if prison
officials actually listened to inmates, they would find that their demands are often
reasonable. Rideau continues to say, but only reasonable limits to who is locked up
and for how long, as well as some simple improvements like more educational and
rehabilitative programming for those in solitary.
Going deeper into this article Rideau starts to go more in-depth about solitary
confinement using logos and pathos to make readers want to understand more about how
horrible it is to be in solitary confinement.
Rideau gives a solution to the problems he has brought to the attentions of the
readers throughout the story by using logos and pathos by giving us a reason why we
should care about this, because readers might think these problems doesnt directly affect
us and our daily lives, like every year men from the Californias Pelican bay and other
supermax prisons around the nation are released directly from the vacuum of their cells
into free society, further playing on pathos. Rideau introduces two peoples as examples of
how the prison system abuses solitary confinement, briefly to help further make his
pathos, men like Thomas Silverstein, in the federal prison system, which has been in
solitary 30 years, and Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, who have been in Louisiana
cells for some 40 years each.
The authors appeal to logos, pathos and ethos to give you a glimpse into the
reality of how hard it for prisoners to protest and the obstacles they are trying to
overcome and tries to persuade you into feeling for the inmates. Rideau does a great job
trying to keep the readers on his side, even though the truth of the matter is his still an
inmate, and all of his examples good or bad is one sided.
Rideaus article is highly evident with the use of ethos, pathos, and logos, yet as a
reader we need to go into depth past the fact he is writing from personal experience and
look at the bigger picture. He is an inmate, whom had to commit a crime to be landed into
jail, and even past that he has to have done something worthy of being put in to solitary
confinement in the first place. His bases for this article doesnt really give me the

Rhetorical analysis

necessary want or need to listen to his plea, due to it being very one sided, if he were to
include more information about his past to make us want to believe in his story. Rideau
including more about his background maybe would be able to make a stronger
connection of ethos, pathos, and logos. Rideau includes other inmates into his persuasive
piece, without going too much into the backgrounds again for fear of losing support for
his cause due to it looping back around to it being about prisoners and how they might
see it as unfair, but they gave up their rights the second they committed whatever crime
they did, making their opinions not as substantial as say someone who isnt in jail.
Throughout this article Rideau has his ups and downs. His use of ethos, paths,
logos to give his opinion, what changes should be done to help other inmates, people
whom are convicted of crimes. So I say I dont agree to this paper and its message it tries
to persuade others with because of all of these reasons.