Rhetorical Analysis

Time is abstract.  However, time also has a flow and a rhythm which carries us through life like a feather on a breeze.  Rebecca A. Demarest uses two prominently acclaimed authors–Kurt Vonnegut and Vladimir Nabokov— to illustrate her point.  Demarest presents the differing opinions on the presentation of time in an autobiography and meshes them together as if they were conceived that way.  Rather than advising her audience the best way to document memories and the past, she gives anecdotes from other authors and passages so as to present a wider range of influences.  According to Vonnegut, time is able to be manipulated.  It can stop altogether, or speed up or slow down at will according to the writer.  From Nabokov’s view, we are like insects in amber; the insect is the memories, and the amber is time.  Demarest also jumps right in addresses the issue at hand, no tiptoe-ing around it.  She never gives her opinion as to which opinion is “right” or “the best”, but presents both sides without bias and even throws in supplemental citations to support each viewpoint.  .  These examples are just one way that Demarest builds credibility towards her audience, while still leaving the audience free to form their own ideas and opinions about time. 

Time is limited; I think everyone realizes that whether or not we want to fully believe it.  Demarest uses the metaphor of life as a highway, and the car’s speed representing time.  Sometimes our lives fly by and we look back and do not remember where all of the good times went.  If we just happen to be cruising that day, we will have memories imprinted in our brains that will stick out and shine, like stars amongst the dust that we left behind in our haste to constantly get older.  This idea gives the audience a concept to relate to, so that the concept of time is easier to wrap their head around.  It makes the issue more personal for each individual.  Also, Demarest presents outside information that hits home, “‘But as long as I live, my past is rooted in my present and springs to life with my present’” (Renza 271-272).  Demarest takes a middle road between Vonnegut and Nabokov’s approaches; time can be used as a structure for an autobiography, or it can just be there for the author to touch on once in a while.

Time is controllable.  Demarest, personally showed me that time can only affect a person and/or their writing if they want it to.  They can let the road pass by all too quickly, or they can control the speed of their lives and enjoy each moment.  An autobiography is a purely selfish work—not in a narcissistic way—where the focus is not on the past or the present, but on what the author feels is important at that present time.  So, author, throw out the rulebook and just enjoy the sweet ride of life.