A Rhetorical Analysis of George Saunders's Liberation Day

Abstract

George Saunders's fiction generally explores the struggles of the American working class in a neoliberal society. His short stories transcend the narrative devices that are typical of postmodern literature in order to embrace authenticity and sincerity as potential means to influence his readership. My paper aims to explore the narrative resources this contemporary author deploys in his latest story collection, Liberation Day, as he seeks to generate empathy for his characters and achieve his communicative ends. With this goal in mind, my analysis will mainly tap into James Phelan's rhetorical theory and focus on the progression of the individual stories in the collection and the reader's response to it.