Haller

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Leslie Haller
Ms. Lindsay Hastings
Comp II
September 3rd, 2016
Rhetorical Analysis of Blink by Kristen Cosby
Kristen Cosby, a freelance writer and lecturer2, writes about her
personal experience of being assaulted by a man along with adding tragic
stories regarding injustice towards females and their experience to sexual
assault. In these stories, she includes Cosby wrote this text in order to bring
forth the topic that sexual assault is still a prevalent injustice all over the
world, and comes with harsh consequences. According to the United Nations
Development fund for Women, Honor killings continue to take place in
Pakistan, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Morocco, and
other Mediterranean and Gulf Countries.1 This social injustice greatly
represents the purpose Kristen Cosby makes in Blink, that there is a
noticeable inequality and injustice between men and women when it comes
to daily life and the judicial system.
Throughout the piece, Cosby uses the rhetorical appeal, pathos, to
convey her message. She includes depressing sentences like, She thought
of screaming when he forced her to the ground. But they were miles away
from anything, what would be the point?3 and, Her bagged up body would
look like a white sack of potatoes tied off at the top.3 These quotes target
the readers emotions and make them feel sorry or guilty for what happened

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to these women. She also makes the reader feel helpless, just like these
women did, by including the black-or-white fallacy- to run or die. She
describes how Halil and Semse tried to escape on foot, but they were caught
and stoned to death. By describing the stories of what these women were
going through, she enhances her point that there is an injustice to how
women are treated in regards to sexual assault.
In Aminas tragic story, Cosby writes how Aminas assaulter, Yahay,
didnt suffer any harsh punishment. When Yahays three closest friends
heard that Amina had been charged with zina, they advised him to deny his
involvement with her. Unless there were four male witnesses to the act of
intercourse, he could go free. If he just pleaded that he never seduced
Amina, he would walk away free of charge. Meanwhile, Amina was forced to
take the charges for something that unwillingly happened to her. Cosby
describes Aminas verdict by using short and choppy sentences. Amina
would stand trial for the crime alone. Six weeks later the judge returned a
verdict. In accordance with the Nigerian Sharia Penal Codes, she was
sentenced to be stoned to death. The judge told her to go back to her
stepfathers house to wait for her sentence to be carried out.3 This strategy
conveys the message that the judges verdict was heartless and cold, and
that there was no sympathy for the actions that took place. By making the
verdict appear to be unsympathetic, it enhances the fact that women are
treated unjustly.

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Cosby intertwines each of the short stories by piecing short snippets
together, forming a complete and well thought out piece of work. By cutting
each of the dramatic and tragic stories into different sections and
intertwining them together with her personal story, she creates theme that
sexual assault could happen to anyone, anywhere.
In a way, Cosby is biased when writing Blink because she too was
sexually assaulted by a man to whom she had just met. But, I believe Cosby
effectively relayed her point or purpose to the audience because of her
personal experience. If, for example, a straight white male who was never
sexually assaulted wrote this essay, the message wouldnt have come across
as strongly to the reader as it would have by someone who was sexually
assaulted. The fact that the author shared her personal experience, greatly
strengthened the connection between the writer and her writing.
Throughout Cosbys essay, Blink, her use of the appeal to pathos, the
black-or-white fallacy, choppy sentences, and somber tone effectively
conveys her message that women are treated unjustly. Cosbys personal
experience strengthened her need to write this story and makes the reader
connect to her on a more personal level. By including this personal
experience, Cosby effectively moves the audience and causes the reader to
critically think about the issue. It makes it seem like it could happen to
anyone, anywhere, which is another point Cosby makes in her writing.

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Works Cited
United Nations Development fund for Women. Violence against women:
Facts and Figures.
http://www.unifem.org/attachments/gender_issues/violence_against_
women/facts_figures_violence_against_women_2007.pdf on January
28, 2010
Admin. Kristen Cosby Kristen Cosby. Wordpress, n.d. Web 05 Sept. 2016
Blink by Kirsten Cosby