A Rhetorical Study Of Crossing Boundary In The River Between Us

The River Between Us,tells the growth and epiphany of fifteen-year-old young protagonists Noah,Daphne and Tilly after the baptism of the American Civil War.The novel focuses on the living conditions of the Duval sisters and the Pruitt family who cross the racial boundary in the war,support each other and live in harmony.The novel inspires people that the boundary is actually the construction of human discourse,and the division of colored people and whites is man-made rather than essential.This study uses Aristotle's rhetoric theory and Wayne Booth's rhetoric of fiction as the theoretical background to explore the rhetorical image of the Mississippi River and the theme of the novel,that is,cross the boundary of the South and the North,the white and black,the living and the dead,space and time.The binary opposition between the South and the North,the whites and the blacks,war and peace,men and women,the living and the dead are fully reflected in the novel.This paper first analyzes the causes of the civil war and post-war effects from the perspective of economy and slavery.The Civil War is the result of the binary opposition between the South and the North,and it has done great damage to the United States.Delphine and Noah symbolize the South and the North respectively.They fall in love and cross the ethnic boundaries.The plot arrangement of mutual love suggests that the North and the South have a close relationship like a lover,which signifies that the North and the South can cross cultural differences and economic system boundaries and make a reunion.The river in the novel refers to the Mississippi River.As an important rhetorical image,it divides the South and the North and connects them as well.The Mississippi River geographically separates Missouri and Illinois,but it is also the river that brings the Duval sisters to the Pruitt family.The Mississippi River and the steamships promote the development of the river transportation industry and become the main source of life and information transmission channel for the residents of the Grand Tower.This thesis combines Aristotle's “modes of persuasion” and Booth's “implied author” to discuss the reliability of the narrators,and further reveals the theme that the South and the North,the white and the colored can cross the boundary and accept each other.Aristotle divides the rhetorical method into three aspects: ethos,pathos and logos.Through creating a clever,honest and kind narrator Tilly,Peck gains the trust from readers;the representation of the historical events makes Peck's story reliable.By using Booth's theory of the implied author,the thesis explores how Peck uses various of explicit or concealed means to show his attitude towards the characters and the events.Peck creates a series of charming free-colored women in the novel.His rhetorical choices indicate that there is no difference between free-colored women and white women.In addition,Peck presents the stories of the Pruitt family and the Duval sister in the way of recalling,which allows the narrator to stand in a relatively high position to give the reader the maximum perspective to view the past.This plot arrangement shows the value of rhetorical choice.