Close Reading Assignment

Shades of gray for SEAL book 'No Easy Day'

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/story/2012-09-17/shades-grey-no-easy-day/57797934/1

In this editorial, the author (whom I will assume to be male in order to avoid using "he or she" everywhere) addresses the book about the killing of Osama bin Laden, No Easy Day.  The book is a best-seller, topping the list of USA Today's best-sellers.  The article, however, focuses specifically on the controversy publishing the book has caused; he had signed non-disclosure forms to never reveals classified secrets and some believe the publication of the book broke the agreement.  The author of the article addresses and emphasizes this ambiguity through different aspects of rhetoric.

As it is written for the average population, much of the diction in the editorial is casual.  Phrases such as "kiss-and-tell" are scattered within the text and there is minimal technical jargon.  Such an effect allows readers of most backgrounds to understand the writing, without the need for particular training in specific fields.  Since the author's purpose is to share his opinion, this makes the job a lot easier by ensuring that the opinion can, at least, be understood.  Other words also emphasize the ambiguity in the author's tone, as if he does not want to commit too heavily to a side of the discussion.  The words seem skeptical at times, such as the usage of the term "far-fetched", and fair-minded at others, as is evident in the phrase "but other considerations cast the book in a different light."  Such wording reminds the reader that there is more than one side to the tale and both need to be considered.

Figurative language also grace the article.  From the very beginning, the title alludes to another book whose name is widely known: Shades of Gray.  In the editorial itself, however, the usage of the term has been more of an expression, emphasizing the meaning of the title itself rather than the book.  There are continued references to color.  The situation is claimed to be "anything but black and white" and the article itself ends with the phrase "'shades of gray''.  The references help emphasize the popularity of the book No Easy Day, as the beginning of the article states that the book has passed Shades of Gray, which is perhaps infamously widely known, in the USA Today best-seller list.  It also provides emphasis on the ambiguity of the situation which can be sensed through other aspects of the author's writing.  The use of understatement in the line "Then there's the inconvenient fact that SEAL Team 6 carved itself a unique place in U.S. history, and at great risk" also illustrates the controversy.  The weakness of the term "inconvenient" reminds the reader that it is far more than inconvenient, but it does not help arrive at a solution.  However, the situation has no easy way of being resolved.

The formation of the sentences continue to illustrate the controversy of the book's publication.  The paragraphs that are not used for description or detail are short.  This provides a feeling of almost hesitance, as though there is not much definitive to say on any particular topic.  Short transition sentences in the article are placed as separate paragraphs, which points them out to the reader.  The sentences themselves remind the reader of the ambiguity in how to treat the book's publication and the formatting of these sentences keep them from hiding in the shadows of other sentences.  The usage of questions to move forward the writing also helps highlight the controversy.  Lines like "So what to do?" explicitly announce the problem with the situation and asks for a solution.  They keep the audience's mind focused on the problem at hand and suggest that there may not be a good idea at the moment.

Through its use of rhetoric, the author of the editorial gets his message across clearly in ways other than simply the meaning of the sentences themselves.  Aspects of his language, his diction, and his syntax provide emphasis for the controversy of the publication.  This article is effective in communicating the gray area that the publication of No Easy Day resides in.