34. So What The Boston Bombers Were Muslims

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/the-boston-bombers-were-muslim-so/275154/

               Megan Garber, the author of the article "The Boston Bombers Were Muslims: So?," takes a different approach from the majority; she believes people should stop turning to "labels in times of crisis" and how such a habit is wrong. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a normal kid, an athlete, a very religious person, nice and cocky. Dzhokar, Tamerlan's brother, was a quiet kid who studied medicine in Massachusetts. Both are brothers and are responsible for the Boston bombings. The author says these are simply "provisional facts" and that the majority of people would call them "Marathon bombers," "murderers," or "Muslims." People usually put labels on others. The author tries to say that such events are "out of the ordinary" and are just "products of highly unusual sets of circumstances." However, people usually ignore the verbs and emphasize the adjectives - the boston bombers are not simply terrorists but A terrorist. And as people continue categorizing and labeling everything they see, the brothers are seen as Muslims and terrorist and it ends this way.
                The author uses several rhetorical devices in her writing. The author's purpose is purely persuasive: the author wants people to stop categorizing and labeling people and uses the Boston bombings as a way to bring about such a change. The tone is very critical and negative and the author uses words that criticize people for their generalizations. The author uses exemplification to achieve her purpose; the Boston bombers are labeled simply as terrorists and Muslims. The author uses this pattern to show how people should stop categorizing and emphasizing adjectives over verbs. The author also uses personal pronouns like "we" to bind up everyone and show how everyone makes this mistake and how everyone needs to stop generalizing.