In China, Families Bet It All on College for Their Children

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/business/in-china-families-bet-it-all-on-a-child-in-college.html?hpw&_r=0

       In the United States today, college has gotten to be extremely competitive. The same thing is to be said for the country China. Families in China bet it all on college for their children. This article, by Keith Bradsher, describes the troubles Chinese parents go through to send their children to higher education.
      The purpose of this article is to inform Americans about how college in China has become a strain on parents, but is their one main goal for their children. The audience is Americans who read the New York Times and are interested in learning about the college process in China. The exigence of this article is the heavy financial burden that millions of lower-income Chinese parents now endure as they push their children to obtain as much education as possible.
      Keith Bradsher uses many rhetorical devices to get his point across. For example he uses pathos to appeal to the readers emotions. Throughout the story he describes a family who has put it all on the line to send their daughter to college. The dad works in coal shafts everyday of his work life and only makes $500 dollars a month for "choking dust in claustrophobic tunnels". The mom " toils from dawn to sunset in orchards every day during apple season in May and June. She earns $12 a day tying little plastic bags on at a time... the rest of the year she works as a store clerk, earning several dollars a day." By describing this heart-breaking story of a struggling family, he creates a sense of sadness that makes readers not only feel bad for this one family but also all the struggling families in China. Keith Bradsher also uses logos to get his point across. For example, he writes "Yet a college degree no longer ensures a well-paying job, because the number of graduates in China has quadrupled in the last decade." This allows the reader to fully grasp the idea that the number of college graduates is increasing in a drastic amount of time. He also describes "For a rural parent in China, each year of higher education costs six to 15 months' of labor..." This not only appeals to a readers emotions, but the use of statistics, allows them to understand the time and effort a rural Chinese parent has to put in in order for their children to got to college. Lastly, he uses description and imagery to get his point across. He immensely describes the living conditions of the rural Chinese parents. Understanding these poor living conditions allows the reader to imagine what it would be like to live their and thus allows them to understand what the parents have to go through.
    I think that the author, Keith Bradsher, does get his point across. Through the rhetorical devices he uses, the reader is able to fully imagine, understand, and relate to the troubles that the Chinese parents go through to send their children to college. After reading the article, it becomes clear that many Chinese parents do put it all on the line to send their children to college and that they take it very seriously.