The given text is an article published in the “London Review of Books”. It has been written by Gavin Francis. The writer’s primary audience are the readers of the magazine. These readers are likely to be adults and reasonably educated because the article was published in the “London Review of Books”, a literary magazine and because the article makes frequent use of medical terms.It can be said that the secondary audience are other doctors due to the scientific nature of the article. The text has been written from first person point of view and the writer has addressed the reader quite frequently. The text aims to depict the beautiful practice of listening to someone’s heartbeat with the naked ear or with a modern day instrument. The text achieves its purpose by transforming this seemingly mundane practice into a wondrous experience while being scientifically relevant through the use of alternating style shifting between literary terms and explaining the mechanisms behind this practice.
The text presents the practice of listening to someone’s heartbeat seem relevant even in front of modern technology. The writer is able to accomplish this through the use of scientific facts spread throughout the article which portray this practice as being quite evaluative for judging the conditions of a heart and actually useful in the case that only this medium be available. The writer says,”The first sound is made…as the two largest valves close” The use of scientific terms here provides credibility to the practice. Thus making sure that readers grasp the usefulness of this practice in the world of science. Then the writer says, “The second sound is made by…two other valves”. This statement ensures that readers understand that there is some level of science behind the practice. It also ensures that they comprehend that the practitioners do understand the heart’s conditions by listening to its sound without a stethoscope. Broadly, this may even mean that the readers begin to acknowledge that there may be other such relatively straightforward processes with deep scientific reasonings that they are not aware of.
Lastly, the text aims to project this practice of listening to the heartbeat with an instrument or just plainly, as a “unique and intimate experience” through the use of personal anecdotes. The author says, “I was reminded of holding a conch shell as a child, listening to the imagined ocean within”, the use of visual imagery here helps the audience really understand how this is a special experience for the writer which reminded him of his childhood. The use of this personal anecdote here, also evokes nostalgia within the reader. This emotion holds a lot of power and it may push the reader down the memory lane and reminisce a similar comforting experience, in the process, really understanding how one-of a kind this experience is. The author’s use of a personal anecdote has helped the reader apprehend that this experience is more about comfort than anything else through ensuring that they relate to him and reflect on their experiences to seek out similar ones. The author also says,” Perhaps it’s the womb… a deep memory of my mother’s pulse.” These words again hit the reader’s emotional side, circling back to the concept of comfort and nostalgia.Overall, then the narration of a personal experience really helps the reader contextualise how this experience feels to him in their own terms.
To conclude, the writer makes use of both scientific facts and emotional appeals through narrations of personal life experiences to convey that listening to someone’s heartbeat is a pleasing experience which is special. Today, we live in a fast paced and technologically advanced world, where there are better listening methods to the listening to someone’s heartbeat method. However, the author’s argument is effective as the reader sees that this practice may be valuable for its credibility as well as its emotional value. The author’s structure and style is decidedly one-of a kind as seldom are there such pieces with equal value given to the scientific as the emotional.