Post 1: Becoming Hitler by Rich Cohen

Rich Cohen

           Hitler’s toothbrush mustache is a symbol of pure evil. Rich Cohen decided to wear the infamous mustache and wrote about his experience in his essay entitled Becoming Adolf. Cohen has been a contributing editor at Vanity Fair since 2006. Articles written by Rich have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Rolling Stone and The New York Times (Daneman). Rich Cohen decided to actually become Adolf in a sense and wear the notorious toothbrush mustache in public to see if he could defuse the negative connotation the mustache brings. The history of the toothbrush mustache goes farther back than the life of Adolf and is explained in detail in the essay. Rich wore his mustache in public and observed the reactions he got from strangers and friends while wearing the toothbrush mustache. The purpose of the essay was to inform readers the findings of the power of Hitler's mustache in modern day. Becoming Adolf was written to target people who have the background knowledge of the Hitler’s reign who are also intrigued by fashion. Ethos was used in the essay and was important to the purpose of the essay. The persona in the writing was little sentences expressing his personality “This is the part where I am supposed to explain just why I decided to write this story now” (Atwan 15). The addition of Cohen’s personality helped achieve his purpose by making it easier for the reader to become more engaged with his essay and view him as a credible writer. I believe that the author was able to accomplish his purpose in the essay. The actual test to see if he could defuse the power of the mustache failed, however by including ethos and history into the essay he was able to inform readers about the strength of Hitler's mustache in modern day.  

Work Cited 

Atwan, Robert, and Adam Gopnik. The Best American essays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.

 Daneman, Kathy . "Author Rich Cohen, Bio." Author-Writer Rich Cohen. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Aug. 2013.       <http://authorrichcohen.com/bio.htm>.