Rhetorical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 11

Rhetorical Analysis - Essay Example The author achieves this by employing superior common ground, detached diction, and an academic tone to place the reader on a scholarly level observing an ancient disciplinary measures practice. The author in his book wrote about the Panopticon under the title â€Å"Panopticism† where he metaphorically alludes to the way authority takes charge and control of the people. He uses the seventeenth century order and case scenario to show the reader how people’s respect for the ones in power comes from their fear of the authority as opposed to the authority’s actual strength. The order was formulated at a time when the plague rose, and it functioned to separate people one by one from the eldest to the youngest, in terms of towns, classes, as well as individuals. This in terms of rule and authority was the ideal method of running a city. Having isolated everyone to quarters and giving orders to be followed, which the people feared to break for the consequences that would follow. The common ground for â€Å"Panopticism† is surveillance or the watchful eye of the law or authority instilling conditional obedience in its subjects through rule of fear. Theoretically speaking, the Panopticon is a building constructed in the shape of a circle with holding cells in multiple rings, built in a storey form. A tower is erected in the center of the rings in order to observe the prisoner’s activity. Each cell has sufficient room for holding one person and is partitioned by a wall from the next to deter prisoners from seeing each other as well as eliminate chances for mob action. The front side is blocked with bars while the back has a window to let in light so that the prisoner cannot hide. The author uses this model/theory to prove the effect of using fear to quarantine people and make them very submissive to authority. The people in the text were ordered to stay indoors, and none was to leave on pain of death. The syndics were given authority over