Ehrenreich writes this purple prose to highlight the …show more content…
She validates attending Fleece U with number values, “now weighing in at $39,210 a year, or $50,000 with room and board” (par. 4) or “graduate with a respectable-sized debt of $20,000” (par. 7). Ehrenreich knows, that as debt accumulates, ignoring the numbers is much easier than facing them. This falls in line George Orwell’s insight “Ignorance is Bliss’. Money is often taken for granted and Ehrenreich attacks this by astonishing the reader with the grand prices.
Entangled within her sarcasm there are allusions to the truth about student debt. Many times her hyperboles are obviously swayed containing a sarcasm that pushes the reader to question them. When she says “your real purpose here is to shake off the pointless freedom” (par. 4), she comments on the societal expectations that guide a student to the pathway to debt. Small allusions like this are crucial when writing a facetious rhetoric. Through these references the reader is reminded of the underlying message instead of being completely distracted by