TOW #5- Article: The Parent Who Wants to Fall Asleep

One of the most difficult tasks to accomplish is to put little kids to sleep at their bedtime.  In an article from The New Yorker, Rebecca Mead uses allusions and comparisons to show parents why the newest bedtime story, The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep, isn't worth their money.  Her audience is parents with little kids because through the article, Mead tries to convince parents why the book is not a good bedtime story to be reading to their children.  One way she does this is through allusions and comparisons to other popular stories.  For example, she alludes to Peter Rabbit when she writes, "...Peter Rabbit demonstrates that children can be enthralled by a good story even when its vocabulary might be regarded as demanding.  (Peter becomes entangled in Mr. McGregor's gooseberry netting and almost gives himself up for lost. 'But his sobs were overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew o him in great excitement, and implored him to exert himself,' Potter writes, in one of my favorite passages in literature.)" (Mead para. 4)  Mead uses the allusion to Peter Rabbit to compare a classic bedtime story with a new one that doesn't quite live up to the standards of good literature for children.  She shows the difference in vocabulary used in each bedtime story.  She also explains the importance of challenging language in children's books so parents understand why the new bedtime story isn't worth reading to their kids.  Also, the author alludes to the story Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown when she writes, "Brown's masterpiece, first published in 1947, manages to be both warmly reassuring and transcendently awe-inspiring at the same time: it might have been subtitled 'A New Way of Giving Children an Insight into the Human Condition While Introducing Poetry Into Their Souls.'" (Mead para. 6)  By emphasizing the greatness that this bedtime story has achieved to help kids grow as readers, Mead compares Goodnight Moon to The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep by showing the differences in their poetic style.  Mead conveys to the audience that although the new bedtime story can make a child fall asleep, it does not accomplish the job of a children's story, which is to help them grow as young readers.  Using allusions and comparisons to famous texts also makes an appeal to ethos because the author of the article uses other famous and well-known texts to compare to The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep.  Mead accomplishes her purpose by using strategies to appeal to the audience, the parents, that the new bedtime story that everyone has been talking about isn't all it's made out to be.