Low Stakes Paper: The Shepherd’s Horn Essay

In â€Å"The Shepherd’s Horn†, persuasion plays an essential role throughout the entire story. Persuasion can be an extremely powerful tool and through telling this story, Hansen illustrates just how significant it can be. â€Å"The Shepherd’s Horn† tells the story of a young couple, Ragnhild and Guttorm, who are prevented from having a relationship by Ragnhild’s protective father, Thord. Together, Ragnhild and Guttorm have a child out of wedlock, therefore forcing the couple to hide their relationship as well as their child from Ranghild’s mother and father in fear of disapproval. However, with the help of Caroline, the story’s narrator, the couple is finally reconciled with her parents because Caroline’s abilities to persuade are no match for Thord. Caroline’s curiosity in the story is essential because without it, the story may not have had such a happy ending. His recognition of the sound from the mysterious horn in his dream is what ultimately leads him to learn about the story of Ragnhild and Guttorm and to his surprise, their child. Touched by their romantic story, Caroline was able to convince Ragnhild and Guttorm to have courage and tell her parents the truth about their relationship, as well as their child. This is where the first major instance of persuasion occurs in the story. Caroline’s influential approach was the first step in having the couple confess to Ragnhild’s mother and father the life that they had been hiding for many years. After he was able to convince them to lay â€Å"their fate in [his] hands†, they proceeded to find Thord. Ragnhild and Guttorm had been hiding this child for months, and their relationship for even longer, so the fact that Caroline was able to convince them with such ease to finally admit this story shows that Caroline is a very skillful persuader. However, rather than flat out telling Thord the truth, Caroline first went about telling him in a very clever manner. Caroline started by telling Thord a â€Å"tale† that paralleled the story of Ragnhild and Guttorm, easing the idea of the reality of the situation onto Thord. As he saw Thord grow more and more intrigued in the story, he skillfully explained at the end, how the story taught, â€Å"about your royal lineage†¦here lies the word of the Lord, which teaches that we are the same before God. It teaches humility and forgiveness, mercy and love†. His choice to compare his tale with that of Ragnhild and Guttorm’s was witty as he was first able to explain the moral of the story before Thord became too enraged to listen, which may not have been the case if he had only heard the story of Ragnhild and Guttorm. After Thord had heard everything that Caroline had to say about how, in fact, this story taught valuable life lessons about forgiveness, Caroline decided to proceed right into revealing Ragnhild and Guttorm’s child. At first, Thord and his wife were angry and upset. However, it was Caroline’s continuous efforts to persuade the couple combined with the respect that the couple had for him that eventually lead to their forgiveness. Much to all of their surprise, Thord was able to forgive Ragnhild and Guttorm and open to making peace with the situation. The story ended with Ragnhild and Guttorm happily married and the child was named after Caroline as a means of respect for what he had done for their family. After reading this story, I was able to see how prevalent the idea of persuasion was. It occurred throughout the entire story in instances that may have gone unnoticed, such as when Caroline convinced his driver to drive to the location after hearing the horn, as well as in very impactful places, when Caroline convinced Thord and his wife to forgive their daughter. Whether it was a climactic or part of the story or not, Caroline was very tactful in his methods, which ultimately lead to the happy ending of this story. While sometimes persuasion can be seen as manipulative, in â€Å"The Shepherd’s Horn†, it illustrates how the persuasion of even strangers can have such a positive impact. Caroline was able to use things such as diction, reasoning, and other persuasive strategies in order to achieve his goals of easing the reality of the situation on Ragnhild’s parents. Not only does persuasion take a lot of strategy, but it also requires courage. If it weren’t for Caroline’s persistence and persuasive methods, Ragnhild and Guttorm may not have had the courage to tell her parents and would ultimately live in hiding for the rest of their lives.