Analysis Of The Power Of Introverts free essay sample

Chains main argument States that introverts are frequently deemed less valuable in workplace and classroom settings, in part, due to their inherent aversion to increased social stimulation; whereas, extroverts, ho crave this stimulation are considered ideal employees. Cain asserts that society idea of extroverts being absolute because of their naturally outgoing nature and their predilection toward group-work, unfairly gives them the advantage over introverts in settings such as the workplace.Cain insists introverts ultimately have the same, if not more potential to achieve success, they just possess an affinity towards independent studies and are noticeably more shy by nature, which should not discredit their value to society or leadership capabilities. Cain recognizes the need for a balance of people from OTOH ends of the spectrum to cultivate a creative and successful society, and is not campaigning against extroverts.She is simply imploring Americans to stop adhering to the habits primarily displayed by extroverts in todays workplaces. Stating that, by allowing introverts to comfortably work within their zone of stimulation without judgment, and likewise allowing extroverts to do the same, we create an environment where every individual can maximize their creative talents. (Cain,2012) Cain uses a multitude of rhetorical devices to effectively persuade her audience that introverts are an integral set to society and they should be empowered not repressed.Starting with the introduction of the speech and throughout its entirety, Cain creates an ethical appeal to convince the audience she is credible enough to speak on introversion and to explore her ability to appeal to the audience as a whole, not just to the introverts. The first of many examples where Cain effectively achieved this outcome is during the opening story, where she describes a summer away at camp, and explains she arrived as a shy girl who preferred to read books as opposed to participating in group activities, and left a confused girl, very aware of how people perceive her introverted style of being.With the confession of her struggles at camp and a suitcase as a visual aid to add a persuasive dimension to her speech, she immediately gains the trust of her introverted audience by classifying herself as one within that example. However, she further explains that since leaving camp that year, she unwittingly abandoned her introverted ways to model herself after an extrovert throughout most of her adult lifer which eventually led to her successes as a Wall Street attorney. This caused her to appeal to people in the audience who were on the other end of the spectrum, who might have initially been skeptical of the direction her speech.Thi s rhetorical tactic prevents Cain from alienating extroverts in the audience while simultaneously staying true to her position. She continues to impress the opposition with the use of ethos by admitting that some of the most cherished people in her life are extroverts, further adding to her fair mindedness on the subject and maintaining balance and trust from her audience. The interest and respect of her audience peaks once she integrates social appeal to bolster her ethical appeal, by way of summarizing the work of Carl Jung, the psychologist who first popularized the terms extrovert and introvert. She explains that his scholarly research concludes that there is no such thing as a pure introvert or a pure extrovert. She credits him to saying that, Such a man would be in a lunatic asylum, if he existed at all. (Cain, 201 2) Using logical evidence from a credible source, she again eliminates any opportunity the audience may have initially had to assume her position wasnt relevant to them, clarifying that everyone in the audience, is in fact, her intended audience by definition.Another example of how Cain validates her credibility to the audience is towards the end of the speech when she explains how her permanent, yet voluntary sabbatical from practicing law, led to the publication of her book titled, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Cant Stop Talking. She confesses that her segue from attorney to author was extremely satisfying and successful because of a deliberate choice to abandon methods she was encouraged to practice in her previous career as a means to accomp lishing tasks; tasks typically congruent to those who display heartsickness of an extrovert, such as constantly working in groups.By actively adapting to her need for a more independent working environment, and embracing a zone of stimulation more compatible with her introverted nature, she Was allowed to work freely without the restraints Of a contrived workplace, thus elevating her creativity and productivity, likewise her overall happiness. This section of the speech is a particularly crucial moment for Cain, because this is where she efficiently establishes her credibility on the subject of introversion through her subtle yet powerful acknowledgement of err recent literary accomplishments. This allows Cain to establish herself as someone worth listening to. Moreover, this is the portion of the speech where she displays positive results on what is obviously a systematic plan designed to convince the audience that her character is important to her argument. She ensures that her character IS perceived as a valuable influence by modestly narrating her personal experience from a time when the societal norm for producing results in the workplace wasnt conducive to her introverted lifestyle; her capability to convey that she has a close association o the topic is realized.She then further expands on her ethical appeal by confessing that when it was time to share her book with the world, she struggled to revert back to traits customary of an extrovert, such as utilizing public speaking as a forum. Despite her struggles she persevered in efforts to introduce her angle of vision. Her clear recognition of a need for the alternative position, which in this case is the strategies p romoted by extroverts to function productively in the workplace, effectively maintains respect from her extroverted audience.Cain subtly concedes to the strengths f the opposition to build the audiences trust and to give her the opportunity to point out its flaws. Duplicitous, she injects her personal mistrust in society ability to implement balance between the two positions and later elaborates on the oppositions limitations, specifically, in relation to introverts. In addition to her skillful use of ethical appeal, she compounds logical approach to deepen the persuasive capabilities of her thesis.The logical structure is clear throughout her speech, and her calculated balance between quality and quantity of evidence is appropriate. For instance, Cain begins the body of her speech by introducing a statistic that estimates a third to a half of the population are introverts. Immediately proclaiming, So thats one out of every two or three people you know. So even if youre an extrovert yourself, Im talking about your coworkers and your spouses and your children and the person sitting next to you right now all of them subject to this bias that is pretty deep and real in our society. (Cain, 2012) Cain delivers the statistic confidently and with au thority despite the fact she never divulges the source to which her data can be accredited. She immediately shifts her voice to reflect an intimate tone when she connects the statistic to people in the audiences lives to assimilate the information. Chains statistic blatantly lacks substantial proof. Likewise creates opportunity for the audience to assume, based on mathematics alone, the majority of the population are extroverts. Or worse, to hypothesize that if the majority of people are extroverts, why is favoring their habits Wrong, further, why is it a debate?Her clever and immediate transition from logical to pathetic appeal distracts the audience from uncovering these fallacies. Using pathetic appeal to romanticizes unsound logic, allows Cain to divert the audiences attention away from the specifics of the statistic, and onto identifying how closely associated they are to the topic. Introducing this side issue successfully throws her audience off track by inciting unnecessary emotions about an otherwise less relevant point, eliminating the need to solidify her evidenc e.However, when researching the statistic, her estimation proves to be true, according to first official random sample by the Myers-Briggs organization in 1 998 showing Introverts 50. 7% and Extroverts 49. 3% of the U. S. Population. (Smith, 2014, Para. 3) The foundation of this specific rhetorical approach by is logos centered, but the ability for Chains argument to remain clear and appear soundly developed through the use of statistics, relies heavily on pathos. Pathetic appeal is exercised to indicate how the consequences of continuing to favor extroverts will eventually affect the lives of the audience and their loved one. Another way Cain uses logos in her speech is when she provides information gathered by researcher and professor, Adam Grant. She summarizes his work at the Wharton School when saying, Introverted adders often deliver better outcomes than extroverts do, because when they are managing proactive employees, theyre much more likely to let those employees run with their ideas, whereas an extrovert can, quite unwittingly, get so excited about things that theyre putting their own stamp on things, and other peoples ideas might not as easily then bubble up to the surface. (Cain, 2012) As Grant has more than seventy publications in leading management and psychology journals, his research appears Irrefutable to the audience, therefore establishing that Chains use of supporting evidence is inefficient to the persuasiveness of her speech. (Adam Grant Wisped, the free encyclopedia, 2014) She uses his credibility to further convince the audience of hers. While allowing the importance of her message to be advocated with the help of Grants accolades, she reiterates her assessment that introverts are commonly overlooked for leadership position, unjustly.Cain uses a similar logical approach in her speech when she provides examples of introverted leaders throughout history. She lists Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks and Gandhi as examples of transformation leaders who animally relate to introverted qualities such as shyness, but nevertheless, boldly took the spotlight, when critical. (Cain, 2012) Cain chooses these famous introverts logically and used their successes to endorse her thesis. She sets a precedent of notable people who maximized their creative talents working by within a zone of stimulation desirable to them.Cain doesnt explain in great detail how Roosevelt, Parks and Sandhogs achievements explicitly help advocate her argument, however, she refers to them with such admiration in a manner that allows their reputations to precede them. Although typically synonymous with fallacies Of an ethical nature, this appeal to false authority aids Chains logical approach favorable. Much the same as Cain successfully employs the use of logos; her prudent plan to incorporate pathetic appeal achieves equal results.This is evident when she elaborates further on the previously mentioned story of her summer away at camp. Towards the end of her speech she shows the audience what is inside the suitcase she used a visual aid to enhance her camp story. And surprise, its books. However, Cain admits they arent her books, but some of her grandfathers favorites. Cain then lovingly describes her grandfather as a rabbi who lived alone in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, spending most of his time reading and passionately formulating sermons so inspiring, people would come from all over to hear them.She goes on say, But heres the thing about my grandfather. Underneath this ceremonial role, he was really modest and really introverted so much so that when he delivered these sermons, he had trouble making eye contact with the very same congregation that he had been speaking to for 62 years. But when he died at the age of 94, the police had to close down the streets of his spinsterhood to accommodate the crowd of people who came out to mourn him. (Cain, 2012) Cain then relates the struggles her grandfather faced when speaking to his congregation to her similar dilemma of preparing to advocate her book through public forums such as TED talks, as it doesnt come natural to her, either. This nostalgic story is probably Chains most effective use of pathetic appeal in her speech. As it is natural to feel strong emotions about tragedies and victories, Cain uses her experiences with these topics to manipulate the audience away from logic allowing them to think notionally about her argument.She conveys strong feelings through her words and noticeably chokes up when she speaks of her grandfathers passing thus creating emotional goodwill from the audience. Not only does she provoke the audience to grant her sympathy, but again invites them to assimilate her grandfather to someone in their own lives, which allows the audiences association to her overall message to once again become personal. This results in Cain swaying the audiences emotions favorably to her side, allowing them to see the benefits in her proposed adaptations in oracles, as it applies to introverts.In addition to her ability to elicit emotion through storytelling, Cain effectively utilizes visual aids to e nhance her overall pathetic appeal. Cain gives the audience a glimpse into her life when she reveals her suitcase is full of books, which confirms shes still that shy, introverted girl from camp, who just wants to read. All the rhetorical tactics Cain uses throughout her speech come together to provide support when she reaches her carotid moment in the final minutes. The culmination of her entire speech leaves the audience with three calls to action.Cain urges the audience to stop the madness for group work, unplug once in a while to get inside their heads, and lastly to take a look at whats inside their suitcases and why they put it there. Chains belief and hope that she persuaded the audience to share her vision is the driving force that inspires her to encourage them to react, specifically in those three ways. (Cain, 2012) The rhetorical complexity of Chains speech allows her to build her inductive argument successfully. Specifically, how she continuously infused emotional personal anecdotes into her evidence-based arguments.