TOW #18: How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg (IRB Post)

“How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous,” is written by author Georgia Bragg, who wrote two other books, one of which is also about famous people.  In the book, Bragg goes into detail about the deaths of nineteen famous figures in order to show the medical conditions of the world at the times when the celebrities died as well as to convince her readers how lucky they are to have modern medicine.  She writes, “Readers will be interested well past the final curtain, and feel lucky to live in a world with painkillers, X-rays, soap, and 911.”  In order to entice her younger audience and accomplish her aforementioned purpose, Bragg uses sarcasm and humor and unrealistic illustrations.  Bragg uses sarcasm and humor to appeal to her younger audience while also getting her points across.  In an excerpt of the book, she writes, “Doctors "treated" George Washington by draining almost 80 ounces of blood before he finally kicked the bucket.”  By having treated in quotation marks, Bragg demonstrates that she is making a sarcastic remark about the treatment of George Washington before his death.  As most people know, kids and teenagers love to use sarcasm so her use of the device establishes a sort of credibility with her readers as someone who is similar to them.  Also, by demonstrating how he died, without any real medical care, Bragg is able to accomplish her purposes of showing the medical world as it was back then and making her readers appreciate the world that they live in.  The unrealistic illustrations drawn by Kevin O’Malley also appeal to her audience because they are not very graphic and are in the form of cartoons.  Kids love cartoons.  Anyway, since I have yet to read the book, I don’t know if they aid in accomplishing Bragg’s purposes or not but I’m sure they will be relevant.  In conclusion, the rhetorical devices that Bragg uses seem to help accomplish her two purposes.  

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9111463-how-they-croaked