By Sophia Pettaway
Freshman Composition
James Buchanan
CCNY student , Nitema Sylvester wrote a narrative titled “Being in solitude” explaining her social experiences as a young child , and strongly supporting her claim to why she sees the beauty of being alone rather than having friends like her other peers , she highlights the importance of being your own friend and not lean on external forces , I was convinced that her claim was supported by things not said in this essay such as the behavior and actions that are made and supported by today’s society . Nitema uses rhetorical strategies that catch the audience’s attention and uses them to make her story understandable and relatable . The style of her writing is very informative but also emotional and non automated , the feeling and reactions behind the story was definitely colorful as this piece of work was being read .
In her narrative , Sylvester addresses the oxymoron-like pleasure of having very little company around . She explains how she was always asked why she did not have friends and why she didn’t find them important to have . I asked in our interview what her requirements were to keep someone as her friend and she said that trust is one of the most , if not the most important quality to have in any friendship that she would want to keep . Nitema makes it very simplistic for the audience to picture themselves and her situation , the audience does not have a difficult time understanding the why . She particularly uses the rhetorical device of pathos through describing herself – “I have black and brown coils , dreamy dark skin , super slim tall , and sparkly white teeth .” In addition she adds “ Being Anica is challenging when you look like me going to a predominantly Asian school .” Nitema is not convincing , she is just stating
her truth .
The nineteen year old college student emphasizes a circumstance she went through with a close friend of hers she made in school , Collin . In her writing she describes their friendship deeper than how most individuals describe their friends , she felt that he understood him better than others . “I always went to him whenever I needed help with math homework because while that was my weakest subject , that was his strongest subject . We always had opposites of each other .” However , she explains in an event in her friendship with him where he hung out with peers that participated in illegal activity and his pride took over , she admits that it helped her see the power of loving yourself and not caring for outside validation . “He was a great friend, but he didn’t realize that I was just helping him .He helped me discover that being by yourself isn’t so bad when you love yourself .” The rhetorical strategy of ethos can be seen when she tells the audience how Collin’s ego helped her see the importance of marching to the beat of your own drum and listening to others’ opinions of you .
After reading her narrative , I was eager to find out her views on the society that we live in and her opinion on other well known opinions . Nitema is a political science major , she already studies major events that take place every day and I strongly know for a fact that she has opinions about each and every one of them . In our interview , I asked what her positive and negative opinions are about today’s society . She replies agreeing with the opinion that we accept more lifestyles , appearances , sexual preferences , and more . Therefore , she also agrees that we are too accepting of anything that we see and have dramatically lowered our standards , this can be personal standards or the things that we see in the world . Another con that she shared was how people can act too feminist . JFor example, if a woman were to brag about cheating or wear inappropriate clothing nobody would say anything , but if a man did it , it would then be suddenly problematic , I also asked her what made her choose her specific major and she said that she enjoys traveling but while she traveled she wanted to make a difference . Nitema’s major is political science , which dives into the political circumstances and the consequences that others have to bear because of the choices that our government and congress makes . Her writing communicates the many questionable topics and priorities that the world we live in have .
The way Nitema developed this piece of work was through honesty and her honesty was beyond convincing because she did not attempt to catch our eye but instead just told her story . I strongly believe the only rhetorical devices that were used in her essay were ethos and pathos . Ethos is the emotions of a speaker or writer that are expressed in the attempt to persuade an audience . Throughout her essay , she shared the events that happened to her , and how it made her feel . She also explained how her feelings helped her realize the theme of her essay which was the importance of being satisfied in solitude . The rhetorical device of pathos is to persuade an audience by purposefully evoking certain emotions to make the audience feel how the author wants them to feel . In the beginning of this essay , particularly when she described her experience with making friends , she gave her honest opinion on why she was not interested and supported it by how we as young people are not the best at committing to relationships of all degrees . In her essay it reads “Anytime I let anybody in my life they always find a way to step out ,” She made a text to world connection in this and made it relatable to this younger generation , considering what we see and experience through the media and our experiences with one another as peers .
