Lovely Hannah

¶ … Language, Literary and Cultural Studies The piece of writing reviewed in this document is the initial paragraph in Hannah Arendt's essay entitled "Lying in Politics: Reflections on the Pentagon Papers." This paragraph is typically trenchant, as virtually all of Arendt's work is. However, one can understand the incisiveness of this paragraph by evaluating its structures and the literary conventions the author employs throughout it. Doing so reveals that this paragraph primarily functions as an introductory paragraph to an essay about the commonality of lying in politics.

The basic structure of this paragraph is from broad to narrow. For the most part, the final sentence of the paragraph functions as the thesis of the entire document: essentially that the Pentagon Papers -- which was a government ordered manuscript about the reality of the Vietnam War and the deliberate deceptions that were used on the public to manipulate its conception of this martial encounter -- exposed the deception that took place with the media campaign behind this war.

The opening sentence of the paragraph is a broad one, which helps to serve to get the attention of the reader. It mentions the Pentagon Papers which, having been published in the early 1970's, were certainly cause for attention to Arendt's audience in 1971 when this work was published. The other sentences in the paragraph refine the author's scope and focus until she concludes with her thesis. One of the most salient stylistic devices that the author utilizes in this paragraph is referencing.

As previously denoted, she opens this paragraph with a reference to the controversial Pentagon Papers. In fact, the author references this work twice -- which is indicative of the fact that this is a strong reference and one on which her thesis is based. The author also references another publication -- the New York Times -- which released the Pentagon Papers and makes reference to the war in Vientam. All of these references are for contextual information so the reader can understand the nature of the author's thesis.

Arendt has a noticeable lack of authorial stance within this paragraph. She does not refer to her eminent credentials as a writer, academician, or a social activist; nor does she refer to herself in the first person or in any other way. However, her attempt at generating reader engagement is fairly transparent. She partly bases her thesis on the fact that most readers have denoted that the Pentagon Papers were largely about deception.

She states that such a fact was "obvious" and that it had to be the objective of those who compiled the Pentagon Papers. Her references to other readers help to corroborate her thesis, as well as to persuade the readers of her article that her thesis is correct. The impersonal stance she adopts helps her to retain an academic tone, and to maintain her credibility as an authority on this subject as such. Another salient structural device that Arendt employs.