Nabokov Essay Question #3

In the essay, "Good Readers and Good Writers" by Vladimir Nabokov, there are several examples of rhetorical devices used. When I first read this question, I was not quite sure what rhetorical devices were, but after reading about them I learned that they are questions or statements that the author suggests where the answer is completely obvious. One of the first examples of where a rhetorical device is used is at the bottom of the first page when Nabokov talks about how "Can we expect to glean information about places and times from a novel?" (Nabokov, page 1, paragraph 5) and how someone who thinks that you can learn history from a novel is naive. This part is rhetorical because his tone shows that he obviously thinks it is impossible to for Nabokov names examples to prove it cannot be so and thinks anyone who believes it to be so is naive. Another rhetorical device used is when he says that "the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense" (Nabokov, page 2, paragraph 4). This is rhetorical because these are obvious qualities to a good reader. Another part of the essay was when he explains every detail to reading a page of a book, which is rhetorical because we all know that you read left to right, line after line, and page after page. One last rhetorical device used was where he says, 'The effort to begin a book, especially if it is praised by people whom the young reader secretly deems to be too old-fashioned or too serious, this effort is often difficult to make;" (Nabokov, page 2, paragraph 6). This is rhetorical because usually when someone in authority tells you to read a certain book your immediate thought is that it is going to be boring and you do not want to. These rhetorical devices are some of many used in the essay, "Good Readers and Good Writers".

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, and Fredson Bowers. Lectures on Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. Print.