Rhetorical Triangle Description The scene in The Pursuit of Happiness opens up with the main character, Chris Gardner, and his son at a basketball court. The son is having a fun time shooting the ball and tells his dad, “I’m going pro”. Chris tells his son that he most likely won’t have much success because he, himself, hadn’t had much success in life. His son then becomes obviously upset and picks up his ball and puts it away. Chris sees his son is discouraged by his words and realizes he just told his son his dreams were unreachable. This really sinks in with Chris because he knows how that feels, so reacts by telling his son to protect his dreams. In telling his son this, he uses different techniques such as structure, syntax, diction and imagery. By the way Chris starts off his speech to his son; he makes his point right off the bat. He starts with one simple word, the word “Hey”, and then seems to get his thoughts together from there. He delivers with a longer sentence that seems to be the main point of his speech. Right after, he follows with short sentences and questions, making the longer sentences stand out more. However, each of the short questions and sentences stand out individually and leave their own impression in one’s mind. Syntax is especially seen when he uses the questions like, “You got a dream?”, and follows by answering the short answer with a quick answer like, “You gotta protect it.” These quick short sentences engage his son and interest him in the advice. By using different lengths and types of sentences and by keeping the overall length short it makes the words very impactful and memorable. In the speech, Chris uses very simple words. By keeping his words simple, one doesn’t get caught on a big word. Each word gets focused on, each word’s purpose is taken in, and together they add up to be a much deeper meaning. If he had used bigger words it would take away from the short impactful sentences. This is particularly important because his audience, his son, is a young boy who may get hung up on