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Michael Coccaro

Dr. Miss

UWRT 1104

6 February 2017

Rhetorical Analysis of The Devilish Acts Done Before Me

This analysis will be focusing on a poem called The Devilish Acts Done

Before Me, which is a first-person narrative written by myself, inspired by the

tragic events that happened during the Holocaust. With this analysis, I will

be focusing mainly on 4 things, discussing my affiliated discourse

community, discussing rhetorical devices used throughout the poem to

strengthen the language, discussing textual support and how it affects the

tone and mood of the poem, and lastly discussing the theme and imagery of

the poem and its influence.

This poem was written back in 2014. The assignment was to choose a

person from the Holocaust and write a story depicting how their life likely

was. The person that I chose was named Wolf Himmelfarb. I decided to

write a poem for the assignment. I researched a lot about Wolf and

considered many things when writing this. I considered his 2 siblings, his

dads grocery store, and his time working on machinery he was not familiar

with. All of this was done to make the writing more relatable to what really

happened during this time. In the story, he survives the Holocaust and
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emigrates to America, so I made sure he survived in the poem as well.

Writing this piece greatly surprised me. It was the first thing for school that I

had written that I enjoyed writing. I researched a lot because I wanted to

feel confident that it was very precise. It is a piece I am proud of and still

look back at from time to time. This text is an example of narrative

discourse. I mentioned discourse because my current UWRT class is where I

first really started to learn about different discourses and environmental

influences specifically in writing.

In the past two weeks, I have started to think about my writing and

how it affects who I am. I had never even thought about the primary

discourse community which I am affiliated with. I was raised in a middle

class family who reinforced the importance of being grammatically correct

and being aware of my surroundings. Growing up this way has helped me to

know how to speak and write. I know that writing an academic paper

requires different word choice than texting a friend or talking on the phone

with my grandma. My first semester of college I became a part of the

freshman discourse community, the Belk College of Business discourse

community, and the weight training discourse community. Now that I have

given some background on the writing as well as my discourse, I will dive

into the analysis of the poem exploiting examples of rhetorical knowledge

and techniques that I used throughout the writing.

As I write this poem I wanted to pose questions to add another aspect

and interaction between the reader and myself being the writer. There are
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questions posed throughout the narrative that are examples of the rhetorical

device called hypophora. Were they coming for me? What did we have left?

(Coccaro 4-5). This keeps the reader engaged because more than likely the

audience is also thinking these questions. These questions are answered

within lines of asking them. The poem as a whole is meant to be very

realistic and depict events that likely happened during the holocaust.

Buchenwald was an actual concentration camp in Germany so the

historical context of this camp helps strengthen the imagery in this text. Of

course, there are some dramatic moments but these only help to depict the

severity of the situation. Anaphora is used in lines (31-34) We were so

packed, We were so hot, We were so tired, We were starving, the reiteration

of the pronoun we describes how extreme the situation was. The stanza

repeatedly uses the word we, but this is only to emphasize the union of the

people that were enduring hardships. The poem also uses quoted dialect

which helps personalize the speaker and create a more interactive story.

Tone and mood are a big part of this poem. The tone changes abruptly

frequently. There are many examples of this throughout the poem that help

to over-all strengthen the writing.

The poem begins with a beautiful setting It was such a nice day, the

wind blowing through my hair, the smell of the freshly cut grass (2-4). This

line creates a very optimistic mood for the reader, however within 2 lines of

the poem the tone begins to change drastically. Suddenly, I lost feeling in

my feet, petrified, were they coming for me? (7-9) creates a more
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concerned and anxious tone. This effect of quickly changing the mood draws

readers in and creates a sense of yearning to continue reading. Wolf is very

scared in the beginning of this reading because he is scared that the Nazis

will be coming to take him and his family to a concentration camp. Sadly, he

was right to be scared because the Nazis came to his village soon after. We

watched the Nazis with desperation and hope as they took us away (28).

The use of descriptor words including desperation and hope can give the

reader a sense of sympathy towards the narrator. Wolf had been dreading

that moment for weeks so when it finally happened he didnt even know

what to do. What he didnt know was that his family would be the only one

in the village to leave for the concentration camp. He tries to enlighten the

mood by posing questions. A sense of irony is given through, Were we the

only family leaving? Werent we special? No we were far from it (47-49).

The audience can almost hear the sarcasm in the narrators voice when he

says this. It creates a sense of humor which helps to lighten the somber

tone. After getting to the concentration camp Wolf had made a friend and

just as he was beginning to accept his life and make the best of it his friend

Thomas was being taken from him just like the rest of his family was. We

stood petrified in the cold winter morning watching Thomas die, I would have

cried but I had no tears left (249-251), is very graphic. The audience can

empathize with the narrator and feel his pain. He has been crying so much

that he honestly doesnt have any more tears. He is becoming desensitized

and dehumanized with all the graphic scenes he is suddenly forced to see.
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One quote that helps transition to the next topic is when Wolf is in his bunk

and is too stressed to eat. He looks in the mirror and can see a drastic

change in his body. My emaciated body couldnt handle much more (216),

clearly depicts his health at this point. His ribcage is very noticeable here

and he is losing energy quickly. This image is very disturbing but

strengthens the language of the poem. There are many other dark images in

this poem, they allude to outside events happening in my environment and

at the time. Now that I am analyzing these images I can see that they did

well in making the writing even better.

The dark descriptive imagery throughout the poem seems very harsh

but also tries to depict the severity of the situation. Being descriptive also

symbolizes a dark time that I was going through. At the time I wrote the

poem I was feeling depressed and not in a good place. Being descriptive

helped to transfer all of the feelings I had into something productive. He

shot and killed my brother and sister, he threw them out of the car to be left

for dead (58-59), conveys a dark tone and a very graphic image for the

reader. There are also times where I also reference God. God was becoming

more and more distant lately, what God would let these events happen

(173-174), represents how during the time I was writing the poem I was

struggling with the idea that God might not even be watching over me.

Watching my parents get a divorce was something that I didnt really

understand. At age 16, I didnt understand why God would tear my family

apart like that. I started to be enlightened as we sat in the sleep bunks I

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guess God had been there for me (147,150), this symbolizes that during the

time I was writing this I was also needing some reassurance that God really

was there, but things happened in mysterious ways. My relationship with

God was not very strong at the time and my relationships with people was

not very strong. This is evident when looking at the theme of the poem.

A main theme that is evident in this poem. The narrators father and

he did not have such a close relationship until they were forced to go through

such dehumanizing things. Sometimes it isnt understood why things

happen until after they do I am now stronger than ever, I now know I can

overcome anything that comes down my path (277) is very inspirational and

gives a sense of reassurance that the narrator after going through such a

traumatic experience is going to be ok. Wolf, I love --. Yelled my father, he

was shot on the spot, he didnt even get to finish his last word. (124-126).

Throughout the poem even right before the narrators father dies the

audience can see that in a short time they had gotten a lot closer, the

narrator even used his fathers death as his motivation to persevere in the

situation. I can relate this because although my father did not die, he

attempted suicide and that is something that began to bring our relationship

closer together. The events depicted in the poem were very brutal and as

the reader continues to read this analysis they can also see that the events

in my life were also not very happy events. After writing this the purpose of

this writing becomes more and more evident as the reader can make an
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inference that I was relieving some suppressed feelings throughout the

wriitng.

The purpose of this piece of literature when writing it was to inform the

audience of how brutal the Holocaust likely was by using descriptive

language and taking a very realistic approach when writing it. This analysis

discussed rhetorical devices, imagery, theme, tone, and the audience giving

a lot of textual support. The narrators character changes a lot by the end

and the audience gets to see him grow spiritually and physically. Writing this

poem helped me grow as a writer. It showed me that if I put my mind to

writing something I can write very effectively. After writing this poem if I

ever find myself struggling to write well I look back at this and think about

how inspired I was to write it. It helps to inspire me to write well in whatever

situation I am writing. I now understand more about discourse and literacy

and how they have a huge effect on my writing. Understanding this is a

huge breakthrough in making my writing even better for the future.

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Work Cited:

Coccaro, Michael. The Devilish Acts Done Before Me. 2014.