What
Killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones?
is an insight into the current state of affairs in the city of Detroit. It
starts off with the death of Aiyana, an innocent girl shot on May 16, 2011 by
the police in their efforts to catch murderer Chauncey Owens. The police broke
in and shot without reason. They then attempted covering up the truth. Thus
begins Charlie LeDuff’s essay in which he highlights the murders and corruption
that take place on a daily basis Detroit. He describes the city’s constant
crimes, failing police system, ineffective education system, and the poverty in
which most people live in.
Written for Mother Jones magazine, LeDuff proves his credibility through
providing facts about the city that he clearly spent time to scrounge around
for. Many of LeDuff’s stories and facts are pulled through interviews with
police or people who live and work in Detroit. Through illustrating the
hopeless state Detroit is in, LeDuff’s purpose is to bring attention to the
fact that Detroit and its people need help. Due to the fact that this essay was
published in Mother Jones, a
political and economic magazine, LeDuff’s target audience is most likely any
educated middle class or high class citizen outside of Detroit.
Pathos is the most common rhetorical
device that LeDuff utilizes. He does so through quotes of family of those
murdered, and other citizens of Detroit. For example, LeDuff includes a quote
from Aiyana’s father; he says, “I can accept the shooting was a mistake…but I
can’t accept it because they lied about it,” (LeDuff 121). Also, LeDuff goes to
great lengths to describe the impact these murders have on the family and the
community. He describes Aiyana’s funeral through many details: “Aiyana’s
pink-robed body was carried away by a horse-drawn carriage…the same carriage
that…had taken the body of Rosa Parks to Woodlawn Cemetary” (LeDuff 122).
His use of pathos is well placed, and
achieves its desired effect; thus, LeDuff does achieve his purpose of alerting
the people who read this essay of the tragedy that is now the story of Detroit.
However, it is doubtful that readers will take more action than just shaking
their head and going on about their day.
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