Rachel Peterson

Rhetorical analysis
A day in the life of a house girl
By: Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
A day in the life of a house girl was written by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani. It was
published on September 8th, 2015 at 1606. The text was published by Poverty &
Development on Aljazeera's website. The essay talks about a young girl being taken
away from her family so she can work and earn a living to help support her family.
She begins challenges she never thought she would have to face. As the years go
by she even forgets the name of her family members. Titi, the young twelve year
old girl then proceeds to work for different employers. The event takes place in
Nigeria, Africa, even though Titi is not from Nigeria, but the Republic of Benin. Titi
faces many struggles as the years past. She is even given the opportunity to attend
school by her employer, she calls Mummy and Daddy. The intended audience is
anyone. The author just is trying to make people aware of the situation. So anyone
that is concerned or interested in the topic are the intended readers. Although in
the essay "A day in the life of a house girl" the author shows strong support of
pathos, but lacks to add logos and ethos.
In the text a weak form of logos is the "broken system". Titi has worked since she
has been 8. The money she makes is suppose to go to her family to help. She found
out her first employer failed to give any money to her family. And with the new
family she is working for she is unsure if her family is getting money. This is a lot

different then what us Americans are use to. If I work I expect to receive money for
my time, and work. It is a very weak form of logos, but it is the logic of the situation
Titi is in. Although she knows the money may not be going to her family, she still
continues to work. I would like to know more facts and details. It lacks pathos
throughout the whole story. If the author added more background information it
would make the story more understandable and relatable. The writer may not know
of any situation like this, making it hard to really get into the story. Logos makes the
story believable. So that being said who knows if this is a real story. It lacks
reasoning and explanation of the situation. Thus being said I do not believe what
the writer is saying, because it lacks a lot of background. It would be more relatable
if the author included a little about Titi's life before all of this happened. We do not
know what her lifestyle or living conditions were before. Is her being sent away
better for her in the long run?
Pathos is shown very strongly throughout the piece. First Titi is faced with child
abuse. Then she is notifying a couple of hours before her mother sends her away.
Titi is only twelve years old at the time. It is a very emotional thing for her to go
through; she is very unsure what is even happening. The whole passage makes you
feel for her, especially when she is traveling to her new employers. She is put in a
car with unknown people, and lots of them. The car is packed; some people are
even on the top. Her age adds a huge pathos connection. At a young age we believe
children shall be kids. But Titi is far from being treated like a kid. She has learned to
be a grown up and take care of herself from a very young age.
At the end of the text Titi says she does not even want to go home. Why would
she want to go somewhere where her family did not even care for her. At lease her
employers are feeding her and letting her further her education. That whole

situation really speaks to me, at such a young age she faces these challenges. Titi
even says she would rather stay with her employer so that she can continue to go
to school. If she returns home she has no way of knowing what it will be like
because it has been so long. Titi is a very strong and brave girl.
Another form of pathos being use is as I said before is that she is not being paid.
Her mother said that she never received any money from Titi's work. This would
bother me a lot if it were me. I would never work if I was not going to be rewarded
for my tasks. It makes you feel very compassionate for her. The author does not
include how it makes Titi feel though. She keeps a distance from Titi and the reader
by not using Titi's dialect. So at first the writer draws you into this story, but then it
loses the connection. There is nothing emotionally tying the reader and writer
together. The author explains how Titi's first employer was wicked. She slept on the
ground with the other girls that worked. This was also the employer that did not pay
her what she deserved. It would be nice if the author added Titi's opinion more,
because the whole story is about her.
I had a very hard time finding any ethos. There is nothing about the author in the
text. Some may feel obligated to research and find out more of the author. I do not. I
do not think that it is by job to have to research anything. The author should add
her credible and relation to the story. We know nothing of the author. Therefore she
really lacked ethos. It makes the whole story incredibility. How do we know if
anything she said is real. We do not know her background, if she lived in Africa or
not. What if she has never been to Africa and she is just writing the story to write it.
It is not my job to find out what the author has to do with the story. I do not believe
anything in the text actually happened do to the lack of ethos.

In conclusion the essay "A day in the life of a house girl is not credible. It has
strong passages of pathos, but lacks any ethos and logos. There are weak and
unsupported logos, but nothing to do with ethos. It draws you in at first and then it
disconnects the reader because of the lack of background and knowledge. The
writer lacks to provide the information so the reader knows it is a true story, and so
that they can actually connect with the piece of writing. If the writer included more
background the whole story would have been better and more understanding. We
do not even know if the reader knew Titi. She could have made up the whole ordeal.
Especially because there is no dialect from Titi, it removes the emotional
connection.