TOW #14- The Sociopath Next Door P.2

The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout, is an informative book comprised of riveting facts with regards to the inner workings of sociopaths. Within this book, Stout not only aims to inform her audience, but make them knowledgeable enough to have a basic idea of how to cope with sociopathic beings. By directly addressing the audience and using hypothetical scenarios, she informs people about the evil of sociopaths and what to do about them.

            By directly addressing her audience, Stout is able to make a personal connection with the audience, and make herself more credible. The audience, who would be a common person, may have personally come in contact with a sociopath. For example, Stout asks her audience to think about, “the way we think about moral dilemmas” (Stout, 180).  By directly addressing her audience, she simultaneously pushes her audience actively think about the subject matter and relates to them. By relating to a non-sociopathic audience, the audience can trust her as it becomes clear that Stout, like them, is not a sociopath. In another section of the text, Stout lists what to do about sociopaths. By directly telling her audience to, “question authority”, for example, she directs her audience and connects to them. Directly addressing her audience with the words “you”, “I”, or “we”, Stout makes herself seem human and not objective to the subject matter at hand.

            Hypothetical scenarios are actively used throughout the text to make the idea of a sociopath more relatable and real. To an audience composed of common people, reading a book packed with facts would be neither appealing nor helpful. The scenarios that Stout constructs both illustrate the point trying to be made and make the point into something that could be feasible in the minds of the audience. For example, Stout describes the life of a sociopath named Tillie through the eyes of neighbors. By exploring a real person through the eyes of others, Stout can point things out in a way that the audience can picture and thus connect with the given information.

            Through her scenarios and direct addresses to her audience, Stout is successfully able to inform common people about the evil within sociopaths and instruct people on how to deal with them.

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout
http://bhsreads.wordpress.com/welcom/social-studies/the-sociopath-next-door-by-martha-stout/