The Rhetorical Analysis of Germs
In the article “Love the Grandkids, Not Their Germs,” Susan Reimer discusses her disgust with getting sick after her grandchildren come home. She focuses on the appeal to pathos and logos and casual diction to express to the readers why grandparents get sick around their grandchildren and how to stop it. Immediately, Reimer appeals to the audience through her emotional love for her family and how they have returned to “fill [her] empty nest.” She uses this emotion as a method in explaining how grandparents cannot resist their grandchildren or the love that they need to convey to them. In turn, they hug, kiss, and cuddle with them until the germs spread and they get sick. Reimer specifies why and how grandchildren make their grandparents sick with facts from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). NIAID states that “with children in school, the number of colds can be as high as 12 per child per year,” but adults over “60 on average have less than one cold a year.” Therefore, once the adult whose antibodies are weaker than a child’s gets around their grandchildren, the risk of getting sick heightens. This logic proves Reimer’s point that grandchildren will make their grandparents sick, therefore, it remains up to the grandparent to fix this problem. The author uses a casual diction throughout her article including when she says, “And for heaven’s sake, don’t share silverware or cups no matter how much the baby wants to feed Grandma some of his treat.” Reimer has grandchildren and has experienced getting sick after being around them for a while. For that reason, she wants the audience to feel comfortable enough to listen to her advice for avoiding the germs of their grandchildren. The casual diction relaxes the readers, and in turn, they want to listen to what the writer has to say. In all, Susan Reimer’s focus on emotion, logic, and casual word choice support her point that grandparents can gain illnesses from their grandchildren, but it can also be avoided.