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Contact me on whatsapp (+254707831614) for essays, quizzes, exams, dissertations and
anything relating to academics
Brandon Bender
English 1020
18 February 2020
A Rhetorical Analysis of Edmund Wilson’s
“Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd?”
Edmund Wilson was a renowned American literary critic and writer whose work went
overboard the American borders to influence other budding authors. From a series of his writings
and literature reviews, detective stories were not his cup of tea. One of those writings that he
managed to have a word on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; a detective novel authored by
Agatha Christie. He titled his literary critic piece: Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd?
Edmund Wilson tries to win over fans of detective stories to his side while at the same time
instilling some sense of staunches to those who don’t like the genre to continue holding onto
their position. His main claim in his essay is that he does not understand why people love
detective stories.
He however fails to justify his claims, using this novel, by just looking down on the
genre through the lenses of a real intellectual and just sniffing at it. The essay begins by Wilson
being literary shocked that some of the greatest authors and intellects like somerset Maugham,
Raymond Chandler and even Jacques Barzun authored articles that were in support of the
Contact me on whatsapp (+254707831614) for essays, quizzes, exams, dissertations and
anything relating to academics
Brandon Bender
English 1020
18 February 2020
A Rhetorical Analysis of Edmund Wilson’s
“Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd?”
Edmund Wilson was a renowned American literary critic and writer whose work went
overboard the American borders to influence other budding authors. From a series of his writings
and literature reviews, detective stories were not his cup of tea. One of those writings that he
managed to have a word on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; a detective novel authored by
Agatha Christie. He titled his literary critic piece: Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd?
Edmund Wilson tries to win over fans of detective stories to his side while at the same time
instilling some sense of staunches to those who don’t like the genre to continue holding onto
their position. His main claim in his essay is that he does not understand why people love
detective stories.
He however fails to justify his claims, using this novel, by just looking down on the
genre through the lenses of a real intellectual and just sniffing at it. The essay begins by Wilson
being literary shocked that some of the greatest authors and intellects like somerset Maugham,
Raymond Chandler and even Jacques Barzun authored articles that were in support of the
