Father Holding Baby review
“Father Holding Baby” is a short essay that tells the experience of a man when he was left with his child for a few hours by his wife. The man explains that throughout the time that the wife was away, the child cried until the mother came back. From the description, it is evident that the man tried everything he could to make the child stop crying in vain. However, the crying ended when the mother came.
“Father Holding Baby” is a well-written essay since it is convincing and adequately informative. The writer uses several rhetorical devices to appeal to the audience and convince them of his experience during that period. For instance, he appeals to the pathos at the beginning of the story by telling the audience that he has always been a good father. This is an attention grabber for the reader that not only makes the essay sound interesting but also draws them to its content (Emmanuel, Camila and Marcos, 5). In the introduction, the writer also ensures that the ideas move from the general to the specific in line with the topic of his essay. He moves from the fact that he has always been a good father which is a general assertion to a more specific time when Sarah was a few months old. By so doing, the writer gives the reader a road map to the essay.
As the writer continues with his narration, he gives evidence and support for the assertions he made at the beginning of the story. Although the essay is not arranged in paragraphs, it is evident that the ideas are organized logically. There is an order of time in the piece – he begins with the child being a suckling infant which forms the basis for why she would miss her mother. He also gives a spatial order where he describes the various places he lay the child as he tried to make her feel comfortable and sleep. The transitional words that accompany the changes from one location to the other and from one moment to the other create proper flow to the entire essay. Besides, they are also accompanied by corresponding actions that also elaborate on the emotions of the moment. They also serve to support his initial assertion that he has always been a good father and only felt that he failed his child when she was a few months old.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the essay that makes it a good one is the writer’s use of literary devices. The writer primarily uses imagery to take the reader through his experience. For instance, he paints the picture of the baby playing with the colored rings on the blanket on the living room carpet. The baby then starts to cry again, and he picks the kid up, kisses her, coos her, and even tries to sing to her lightly to make her stop crying. The picture drawn by this instance is one of a concerned parent who does all he thinks would make the child stop crying. However, the child does not stop crying. He also uses imagery to draw a picture of their faces when the mother finally comes back. He describes their faces as yellow to show the anguish that they had been through for the period when she was away. He was yellow from all the effort he had put to calm the child, while Sarah was yellow from all the crying. The arrival of the mother made them glow “in the dimness of the house.”
The tone of the essay conveys the attitude of the writer to the subject matter (Pal, 824). The tone of this is essay is also quite humorous and informal. This makes it quite relaxed and more conversational. This tone makes the essay quite catchy, and the reader connects with the writer at a more personal level. Besides, it also makes the essay rather interesting, and the reader moves with the flow of the story. It also has broken syntax and makes it seem like the writer is speaking directly to the audience. The speaker uses rhetorical questions such as “Did the young suckling baby miss her mama?” Using rhetorical questions in an essay further appeals to the pathos of the reader and increases their interest in the topic. His diction is also somewhat simple, and the tone conversational.
It is prudent to note that in some instances, the writer uses the third person to refer to himself, while he also uses the first person to refer to himself. The use of the third person is used mostly in painting an image in the mind of the reader. It sounds more convincing and is used to help the reader form an opinion of the subject matter. The first person in the essay describes the actual feeling of the writer (Troyer, 26). The use of an informal tone alongside the use of catchy literary devices and the relaxed tone make essay rather interesting and well written.