Title of Book: Heaven Is For Real
Author: Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent
Section I read: 6 Page prologue with first 9 chapters (Pages 1 - 47)
The book is a memoir about the author's son Colton. Todd Burpo (the father) is a young pastor from Imperial, Nebraska who has shared more then his fair share of medical atrocities in his life. He has a wife named Sonja and two children, Cassie and Colton. The prologue is a scene taken from somewhere near the end of the book, while the first chapter starts a year before the prologue. This section of the book explains Todd's life before his son had his medical emergency that brought him to the brink of death. Todd had suffered a broken leg, kidney stones, and a breast cancer scare all within the same seven months. Then the month came where he was not limping anymore and he took his family to an insect "amusement park" where they were celebrating Todd's renewed health. But the trip took a devilish turn when his son began to get sick. After about five days of non-stop throwing up and two hospitals that gave no answers, Todd and his wife take Colton to a different hospital where they rush him into surgery to clean his body from an ruptured appendix. The section ends where Colton is now home from emergency surgery and is being taken care of my nurses who come to their home and by his parents.
Although the book is about Colton's near death experience and how he begins to have visions of heaven and angels, that part of the book has not happened yet. The context of this section was during a time of needed faith by the Burpo family and their struggle to keep their family together. Todd's purpose for writing this book was to get his true story out to the public to prove to the world that heaven and God IS indeed real. His audience is anyone who picks up the book to read it.
Rhetorical Devices:
Pathos: Todd uses extreme imagery to describe his son and his near death experiences. He uses words like "sunken eyes" and "weeping silently" and uses family to appeal to the audiences emotions.
Anaphora: On page 27 Todd says the words "we wanted" or "we needed" in about 6 consecutive sentences in order to get a point across to audience by using this kind o repetition.
Appositives: Todd uses appositives to explain the doctors and hospitals and situations more clearly.. for example on page 11 he explains who the doctor is by using an appositive.
The purpose Todd is trying to achieve by writing this book is effective because it is already convincing me that heaven and God is real and I am only a fourth way into the book.
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