“What saddens me is that, while correctly judging their wrong actions, we should be so blind to our own” (235). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Montaigne's essay "On Cannibals" is a critique of how "civilized" man judges others too harshly while ignoring his own actions. This is especially evident when he read accounts of conquests in the New World. He expresses this idea through the presentation and use of evidence, rhetoric, and thoughtful structure of his essay. Known for his idiosyncratic examples and anecdotes, Montaigne also proves himself to be a skilled rhetorician; in particular, he demonstrates the ability to anticipate his reader's points of preconception or resistance and to circumvent these obstacles to persuasion. Montaigne always seems to put the correct evidence with the idea at hand to shape the reader's mind towards his main idea. . His brother lives on the coast and faces a retreating coastline; this fact is created to fit Montaigne's idea that changing boundaries affects how people interact and see each other, but how good is the example? "The locals say that the sea has long been pressing against them so hard that they have lost four leagues of land." This is not hard evidence, but Montaigne recognizes when to use more subjective evidence to explain a topic and when to provide factual information such as the battle of the Spartans or Jacob's many wives in the Bible. What this does, however, is create a sense of security with the facts and information provided by Montaigne, so that all examples given are held to the standard of the most supported example given. This proof being an example from the Bible, the rest of the proofs are held to the same esteem. Not to say that's a bad thing. In order for his idea to be as clear as he intended, you need to “come along on the journey.” This journey is sarcastic, skeptical and cynical through the human condition. The tone of your work sets the mood for how well it is received by the reader. “I fear that our eyes are bigger than our bellies, our curiosity more than we can bear. We grasp at everything but grasp nothing but the wind” (229). Montaigne identifies with the group he is criticizing in an attempt to engage the reader in the discussion, assuming that the people who read his work conform to Western European culture. A pause in the text allows for a moment of reflection and impact that the reader will remember. Montaigne adds them to separate his main ideas and to add some style, whether it is an editor's choice or not, the breaks are written in the original language in which they were intended. As this publication noted with a [B], many of these quotes were written before his death in a revision of his essays. With the interruptions and frankness behind his work, a little comic relief helps keep the reader engaged. Montaigne's casual nature can also be detrimental to his main idea. The predominant idea is that Western culture is too critical of new and different cultures that it fails to see the problems within its own society. He uses quotes from two natives brought back to Europe with whom he had spoken, but prefaces the information with an apology for not remembering all three points the natives talked about. This slightly discredits Montaigne as an accurate narrator of information. Although Montaigne's lack of solidarity in his interview with the natives is troubling, the way he approached the.