Aristotle would approve of Susan Sontag

Throughout reading this text, I could not help noticing the different ways in which Susan Sontag's writing choices in Trip to Hanoi adhere to the ones prescribed by Jay Heinrichs in Thank You For Arguing. Sontag was able to weave a beautiful narrative about the struggle that she experienced with matching her preconceived ideas about the situation in Vietnam and what she actually observed with her own eyes while visiting Hanoi. Sontag was able to convey her ideas in a logical manner that is easy for her audience to understand by using the techniques explained by Heinrichs.

Sontag clearly states the main point of her argument not only in the introductory paragraphs, but also scatters references to the thesis throughout the text. The last sentence of the introduction is the actual thesis statement, "My problem was that I was now actually in Vietnam for a brief time, yet somehow unable to make the full intellectual and emotional connections that my political and moral solidarity with Vietnam implied", which prepares the reader to jump right into making sense of the journal entries that follow (Sontag 212).

The author makes great use of vivid situational descriptions throughout the article, which closely follows one of Heinrichs' tenets, "The more vividly you give the audience the sensations of an experience, the greater the emotion you can arouse" (Heinrichs 80). Establishing the right mood and stirring the reader's emotion is one of the most infallible ways to stir the audience's reaction and opinion in favorable direction. By giving the reader lengthy, detailed, and emotionally charged descriptions of people, events, and setting, Sontag ensures that he will most positively "take her side", so to speak. 

Sontag also stresses importance of word choice in discussing the necessity of stylized language, which makes use of "simple declarative sentences" (Sontag 216). She also concedes that much of what has been said between her and the people of Vietnam was inevitably lost in translation because of the different meanings loaded in each word or phrase. She also states that it was important to learn to pay more attention to whatever was constantly reiterated, commonplace, in order to discover the standard words and phrases to be richer than she had thought. 

The author also speak at length about decorum both in the manner of dress as well as accepted behavior. Sontag discovered the importance of adhering to the preconceptions and standards of the group you belong to in order to be accepted and understood. She also realized that she had to change her frame of thought (that of an American) to that of the people that she was surrounded with.

Overall, I found this article to be incredibly emotionally charged and very moving. Sontag achieves her goal of making the reader understand the situation in Northern Vietnam and to sympathize with the people of that country by using many of the techniques that Jay Heinrichs lays out in Thank You For Arguing.