Corn-Pone Opinions by Mark Twain

            This essay was written by Mark Twain who is a novelist and humorous. He is a major icon when it comes to American literature. This essay was about how Mark Twain listened to a black slave give a sermon and how he learned an important lesson from it. The lesson that was taught is that we are a people that conforms to each other. All trends are caused because of a chain reaction between one person following a trend, then another person following them, and so on. And this was a purpose of his essay: to argue how there aren’t any individual ideas anymore. Everyone is influenced by what the majority is doing.

            This article, which was written for an audience that contemplates individualism, got its point across by using rhetorical strategies. One of the most prevalent of these was ethos. In the beginning of the essay, Twain establishes himself as the main character and the one who experienced all the events that took place in the essay. This adds to his credibility. Also, Twain uses a lot of reference in his essay including Shakespeare and political parties. This adds even further to the credibility of the essay.

            Then once Twain establishes his credibility he uses logic to explain the rest of the essay (logos). He makes many different logical arguments. One of which was discussing the trend of the hoopskirt. He explains that at first this was nothing. Then some nobody starting wearing one, and then another person saw this and starting wearing one, and a chain of events occurred until this skirt became a trend. This logic gives Twains essay a big backbone that supports his purpose.

            I believe Twain achieved his purpose well because of the rhetorical strategies he used. Because of that his argument was a good one and his audience will definitely listen.

(Picture of a quilted skirt, which is said to be the latest fashion trend. Credit: http://www.brooklynblonde.com)