Lab Girl: Rhetorical Analysis of Hope Jahren’s Memoir

In Hope Jahren’s memoir Lab Girl, Jahren uses diction, personification, tone, and imagery to not to write in an enriching way but to also show us her purpose and to have an effect on her readers while they read her book. So let's research this book more detail in "Hope Jahren’s Memoir Lab Girl: Rhetorical Analysis Essay" paper.

Using metaphors and personification, we see the link between Jahren and the seed. She relates to the seed. Jahren talks about how a seed know how to wait and how long it should wait. Jahren is using this as a metaphor and compares it to her own life in relation to her waiting to build her own lab. Her use of personification is especially visible in the last part of the quote in relation to jumping off the deep and taking chances. It is not realistic for a seed to jump or to take chances but it shows us how she feels. When Jahren opens up her lab she is taking a chance and she is jumping off the deep end. By opening up her own lab she defies the social and gender norms that women don’t belong in the field of science. While analyzing Jahren's tone we hear the struggle and obstacles she must overcome in order to achieve her goal. She tells us that in order to achieve big you must have patience and start small. Nothing will come without trying and working hard. Every time you open a new chapter of your life you are building on to all the experience that you have accumulated in the past.

Jahren's diction shows us that her lab is her life. When she uses a simile to compare her lab to going to church we see her principle and moral. Her lab is where she does her best and it is her safe place. It is open to her any day at any time for her to retreat or to think of something. Jahren did grow up in a church and we see her bond with her lab when she says that she would never be able to walk away from it. When Jahren introduces us to her book she uses rhetorical language to hook the reader and get them interested which is what makes the book so intriguing. Her last sentence about telling stories keeps the readers on their feet wanting to know what happens next. Another example is when she tells the readers to guess what you are a scientist. It gives people the feeling and the hope that they can become anything they want if the tried and worked hard enough.