In
America Needs its Nerds, Leonid Fridman uses vivid diction and powerful syntax, to express his disgust with the injustice of the treatment of "the intellectually curious and academically serious." His essay is a call to all of America: to it's typical anti-intellectualists, and to its humiliated nerds, calling them both to change their ways.
At the beginning of his essay, Fridman uses words that enforce the contrast of the nerds of reality, and how nerds are viewed in America. He explains that nerds are "ostracized" and are called "derogatory terms." According to Fridman, nerds have been treated as "social outcasts" for so long that they have become "ashamed" and "deprived" and even in the midst of encouragement, like the "prestigious academic institution" of Harvard, few feel comfortable to "pursue knowledge." Then, Fridman shifts. "Enough is enough." Before the shift, the author is simply analyzing the injustice of American culture almost scientifically, and bringing in a definition from Webster's New World Dictionary as a form of ethos. After the shift, his emotions begin to appear. He first calls to the nerds themselves, asking ordering them with the word "must" and telling them to "stop being ashamed." His words become inspiring to them, like a motivational speech from a coach before a game, or a general to his troops before a battle. He summarizes the other army. They are " persecutors" who have "haunted" them, and "pervade our society." He then attacks America itself, by comparing it to other countries. He then assaults the reader, by asking them how they can reasonably "expect" to be great when we shame our nerds and "emphasize social skills and physical prowess over academic achievement." In his last sentences, the author forces us to take a side in the war for nerds.
Fridman uses three extremely effective forms of syntax. He often balances out his sentences, which is great for the many comparisons he makes. In the first paragraph he uses conjunctions and words that balance each other to enforce his descriptions of smarter people in society. and on each side of the conjunctions, the words balance each other out. "nerd and geek" and "intellectually curious and academically serious." He uses this technique numerous times throughout the passage: "learn adequate social skills and acquire good communication tools," "of their daughter studying mathematics instead of going dancing, or of their son reading Weber while his friends play baseball." Even the most important sentence in the entire passage is balanced: "Enough is enough." His use of chiasmus, greatly strengthens the impact of the entire essay. The sentence "Enough is enough." is more then just an addition to the chiasmus in the essay. It is also one of the only simple sentence structures in the entire passage. It is also it's own paragraph. It is to the point, and foreshadows the main point: that it is time to stand against the social views of modern America. The third importance in syntax of the essay, is the paragraph consisting of questions. The last paragraph contains only rhetorical questions, made to make the reader think, and come to a conclusion, a side in the war for nerds. All of the chiasmus, and rhetorical questions, as well as the lone sentence in the middle of the passage, are meant to recruit soldiers to fight for intellectualism.
Leonid Fridman recognizes the social order relating to nerds as a enemy of battle, and uses intense words, and intriguing sentences to express this belief. But even more so, he uses these to recruit warriors for his war. He recognizes nerds as the future of America, and uses all his literary resources to protect them.
