Analyzing the Personal
Persuasive Essay,
“Being a Man” by Paul Theroux
Be formal, critical, and thorough in your
responses to all of the seven questions provided!
Step #1: What is the thesis of
Theroux’s essay?
Direct Quotations that Indicate the Thesis:
• “The whole idea of manhood in America is pitiful in my
opinion” (paragraph 2).
• “It ought to be clear by now that I have something of
an objection to the way we turn boys into men”
(paragraph 8).
• “It is on the contrary an unmerciful and punishing
burden” (paragraph 12).
The Thesis in Your Own Words:
• The prescribed gender norms that young boys are
socialized to conform to within our society are far too
harmful and limiting + The traditional definition of
manliness is damaging and restraining for boys trying to
become men.
Step #2: Do you agree or disagree?
Connect to Aristotle’s Rhetorical
Triangle to Support Your Position!
Ethos/Logos: How do these generalizations
detract from Theroux’s credibility?
• “Just as high school basketball teaches you how to be a
poor loser…” + “the manly attitude towards sports seems
to be little more than a recipe for creating bad marriages,
social misfits, moral degenerates, sadists, latent rapists,
and just plain louts” + “I regard high school sports as a
drug far worse than marijuana, and it is the reason that
the average tennis champion, say, it a pathetic oaf”
(paragraph 6) + “There is no book-hater like a little league
coach” + “one cannot be a male writer without first
proving that one is a man” (paragraph 9)
Where is Theroux’s proof?
Step #2: Do you agree or disagree?
Connect to Aristotle’s Rhetorical
Triangle to Support Your Position!
Pathos:
• “I take this as a personal insult because for
many years I found it impossible to admit to
myself that I wanted to be a writer”
(paragraph 8) + “It was my guilty secret”
(paragraph 8)
Step #3: What is the tone of
Theroux’s essay?
• Strong diction is used to express Theroux’s frustrated,
appalled, and hostile tone throughout the essay.
• Examples include:“pathetic sentence” + “the
whole idea of manhood in America is pitiful” + “It is
a hideous and crippling lie” + “…find the quest for
manliness essentially right-wing, puritanical,
cowardly, neurotic…”, in addition to using the
words “insulting”, “abusive”, “connives”,
“destructive”, “damaging”, “harmful”, “unmerciful,
“punishing burden”, “sinister silliness”, “primitive”,
etc.
Step #4: Identify and Discuss the
Persuasiveness of 3 Pro Arguments
1. How youths are socialized (paragraphs 3
and 5)
2. Masculinity in sports (paragraphs 6 and 7)
3. Manliness in the literary field (paragraphs
9, 10, and 11)
Step #5: Identify and Discuss the
Persuasiveness of Con Arguments
• “Of course, there is a female version of this
male affliction” (paragraph 3).
• “There are people who might deny this, but
that is because the American writer, typically,
has been so at pains to prove his manliness
that we have come to see literariness and
manliness as mingled qualities” (paragraph 9).
• “My wanting to become a writer was not a
flight from that oppressive role-playing, but I
quickly saw that it was at odds with it”
(paragraph 9).
Step #5: Identify and Discuss the
Persuasiveness of Con Arguments
• “There would be no point in saying any of
this if it were not generally accepted that
to be a man is somehow—even now in
feminist –influenced America—a privilege”
(paragraph 12).
Step #6: Discuss the Purpose and
Effect of Internal Strategies
• Definition: To be a man “means: Be stupid, be
unfeeling, obedient, soldierly and stop thinking…”
(developed in paragraph 2).
• Comparison: “Of course, there is a female version
of this male affliction” (developed in paragraph 3).
• Cause and Effect: “At an age when I wanted to meet
girls—let’s say the treacherous years of thirteen to
sixteen– I was told to take up a sport, get more
fresh air, join the Boy Scouts, and I was urged not to
read so much” (developed in paragraph 5).
Step #6: Discuss the Purpose and
Effect of Internal Strategies
• Example: “He man proves his manhood in America
in old-fashioned ways” (developed in paragraph 10)
– Writers who are drinking, killing lions, fighting,
riding horses, hunting, and being monster…and
writing about it!
Step #7: Discuss the Purpose and
Effect of Rhetorical Devices
• Simile: “This version of masculinity is a little like
having to wear an ill-fitting coat for one’s entire life”
(paragraph 2) + “boys are enjoined to behave like
little monkeys toward each other” (paragraph 3)
• Metaphor: “I imagine femininity to be an
oppressive sense of nakedness” (paragraph 2) + “he
spends the rest of his life finding women a riddle”
(paragraph 3) + “you were sent to camp—boy’s
camp, of course: the nightmare” (paragraph 5)
Step #7: Discuss the Purpose and
Effect of Rhetorical Devices
• Sarcasm: Without boys camps we would have “no
Elk Lodges, no pool rooms, no boxing matches, no
Marines” (paragraph 5).
• Allusion: “It does not surprise me that when the
President of the United States [Ronald Regan] has
his customary weekend off he dresses like a
cowboy…” (paragraph 8) + Authors such as
“Hemingway” + “James Jones” + “William Faulkner”
+ “Norman Mailer” + “Jack Kerouac” + “Joyce Carol
Oates” + “Joan Didion”
Step #7: Discuss the Purpose and
Effect of Rhetorical Devices
Rhetorical Question: “how can one think about men
without considering the terrible ambition of
manliness?” (paragraph 2).
Personification: “masculinity celebrates the exclusive
company of men” (paragraph 4).
Hyperbole: “there is no manliness without
inadequacy” (paragraph 4) + “Nothing is more
unnatural or prison-like than a boy’s camp +
“Everyone is aware of how few in numbers are the
athletes who behave like gentlemen” (paragraph 6)
Keep These Questions in Mind
• Does this strategy/device make this essay
more persuasive?
• Does this strategy/device effectively support
the author’s thesis?
• What is the desired purpose of this
strategy/device for the essay?
• What is the ultimate effect of this
strategy/device on the essay?