Jason Sheean is an author at
Philadelphia Magazine, where he wrote his article “Hey Santa.” In this article
Sheean tries to use humorous and casual syntax to address parts of the
Philadelphia food community that he feels we no longer need.
Humor is basically the only
rhetorical strategy Sheean uses in this essay. Simply by addressing the article
“Dear Santa,” in his first sentence, shows how he tries to attract his audience
by being funny. However, his “humor” is ineffective and only makes him seem
whiny and flippant. Sheean writes, “Rather than asking for things we need, I’m
asking for things to go away.” This is his primary thesis statement, one that
he undermines multiple times throughout the article. For instance, “I’d like to
see some street other than Easy Passyunk attracting our best chefs…” or “would
it be asking too much for you to give us one solid, high-end Thai restaurant in
town?” here he is consciously asking for something to occur not something to go
away. The way Sheean writes is very simple. He does not go into detail about
his argument nor does he explain his reasoning for wanting and not wanting
certain things. He gives no ethos and no logos to justify his argument, except
for the fact that he simply does not like Italian or “crazy cheesesteak” places.
The Philadelphia magazine readers
Sheean targets will have to have a lot of background information on the
Philadelphia food scene in order for Sheean’s essay to be effective. His humor is ineffective, he undermines his own thesis, and his
purpose gets lost and misconstrued as the article develops causing Sheean to
seem unfocused or off-topic, and makes his argument unsuccessful.
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