TOW #21

The Disposable Rocket is what I am writing about this week. It is an essay by John Updike, an American novelist, poet, a literary critic and a short story writer. These traits make him credible knowing that he has written many stories, especially some being published in The New Yorker. This essay is about what the author thinks about human males and how they treat their bodies as being disposable to gain the physiologic purpose of reproduction. He compare's men and women's bodies and the physical changes that they go through, such as gaining more weight when you're older, and how they take their bodies for granted while they are young. The context of this essay is that men take their bodies for granted and they don't think ahead and they don't realize that it will affect them later on and they'll end up regretting it. The audience of this essay is towards everyone but mainly towards males. We all need to hear someone telling us what we're doing wrong and how we can fix it but Updike specifically uses males as examples throughout his essay. A rhetoric device Updike uses is tone. His tone is humorous and he also uses metaphors. An example of a metaphor that he uses is that he compares a mans body to having a bank account. The author's purpose of writing this essay tell the audience about their body and try to explain that when you're older, our 15- year old body is not the same as our 30 year old body or how we eat so much and think it won't affect us but we'll start to see change later on. I think that Updike did a good job with accomplishing his purpose because the way he uses metaphors describing the human body (male) it helps the reader understand his purpose more and he also uses his own life example, proving his point.