Cause and Effect

Today in class we discussed Cause and Effect as a rhetorical tool.  Cause and Effect is used in every narrative.  It is the chain of events that leads to the culminating event. These are the events that help the audience to understand why something happened, how things happened, and what was going on. As Cause and Effect is used, it help us predict what will happen next. For example, we can look ahead of a story to  know what the outcome will be if a girl ventures all alone into a dark alley in a bad part of town with no protection.  She is going to get hurt, maimed, or killed.  The story would not make sense if there was no cause to the outcome.  She has to put herself in danger in order for that part of the story to relate to the audience.

 The beginning of narratives generally start with the least important element and advances to the most important element,using Cause and Effect to show the pathway leading from one event to the next. As the story advances, the Cause and Effect continually trade places showing how one event leads to another. For example, in Aesop's Fables, we learn of a tortoise and a hare who race each other. The initial cause is that the hare is a fast runner and wants to prove to the tortoise that he can outrun him.  They begin the race which is the initial effect. At the beginning of the race, the hare speeds far ahead, this is now the cause, which effect is to cause him to feel overly confident. This confidence becomes the cause of him laying down to rest which is now the effect.  Laying down to rest becomes the cause of him falling asleep, and so on throughout the story. Thus laying a chain of events leading to the culminating event of the tortoise winning the race through persistence.