Heather's Analysis of "When Nice Ain't So Nice"

A Not So Nice Critical Analysis

Elouise Bell, in her article “When Nice Ain’t So Nice”, tackles the universal problem of bottling up one’s anger. Bell argues that being nice, when a situation calls for the opposite, is a problem that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints specifically have. While her assumptions may be correct, though contradictory to my experience, Bell’s examples fall short when trying to support her opinion. Bell also argues that nice people aren’t always so nice after all; that they are in fact the ones to be cautious of. While Bell’s arguments stem from mainstream thinking, it’s hard for one to agree with her due to her ineffective usage of hyperbole, metaphor, and examples that are not harmonious with her targeted Mormon audience.

Throughout Bell’s article, she lists various examples of nice deeds following them with acts of aggression. When describing how nice students at Brigham Young University are, Bell states that they would “…walk clear across campus to turn in stray Number Two pencils to the Lost-and-Found depository.” While this statement is a clear exaggeration, or hyperbole, it didn’t have to hurt Bell’s argument. However, Bell laid the groundwork of this particular paragraph on the basis that BYU students are nice. Bell’s desire to convince readers that the very same BYU students were writing “…letters dripping with innuendo, invective, and scripture-laden scourging” is not achieved due to her hyperbole. Students do not in reality walk across campus to return Number Two pencils. Readers will most likely question the validity of her argument due to part of it not being believable. This is not the only instance that Bell uses a hyperbole that does not have the desired effect.

Toward the end of Bell’s article, she mentions the Nicene Creed. She changes it into the Nice Creed and lists the beliefs of nice people. Much of the creed invokes laughter at nice people and the lengths they go to, to maintain their composure and niceness. Bell stretches herself too far on the creed though, going as far as to say that they would say “…nothing in response to…being run over by the bus”. This is yet another clear exaggeration calling into question Bell’s validity. If Bell has to exaggerate the points she is trying to make, she then leaves readers questioning how much of her argument is true. Instead of persuading her readers to believe as she does, even possibly to take action and end this fake niceness, Bell has the effect of making a reader question her credibility. Not only does Bell have the tendency to hyperbolize, but she also is also prone to digressing from her argument.
Bell creates a very detailed metaphor about a Queen who awakens to find that her newborn baby has been abducted. While metaphors are typically effective rhetorical tools expanding one’s understanding; this one is not. At first there are clues of the baby but as time passes the mother of the Queen urges her to break off the search, accuses her daughter of being selfish, and then even goes as far as to offer her another child that is much “nicer” than her own. This metaphor is ineffective for two main reasons. The first reason being that if such a situation were to happen in real life, the mother of the Queen would not have behaved at all the way she did. No mother would call her daughter selfish for trying to find her abducted child and then try to force another one upon her. Furthermore, this metaphor is ineffective because the point that Bell is trying to make is unclear. Niceness is not mentioned at all within the metaphor besides saying that the replacement baby is nicer. The resemblance or comparison that Bell tries to make is lost within her ineffectual metaphor.

Lastly, Bell argues that nice people do not like to know about poverty and death, for these are, respectfully, “distinctly not nice” and “unequivocally not nice”. Bell has made it clear that the church and its members are those especially guilty of niceness, which is what makes this argument so very confusing. Poverty is indeed a matter of concern for the church, not because it is un-nice though, but because the Lord has commanded church members to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. When it comes to living amongst those in poverty, Mormons are not alone in this. I would go as far as to say that all people would like to live in better neighborhoods where poverty is not an issue. As for death, LDS religion focuses on it and the afterlife heavily. Bell however states that they are “Not wanting to know, not willing to know, not about to know.” Death is not an occasion that anyone jumps for joy over, whether someone is nice or not does not matter. To say that Mormons are not willing to know about it is a mistaken belief. Here is yet another example of a futile argument made by Bell.

While there may have been some truth to Bell’s statement that “…it is niceness which can corrupt all other virtues”, she does a poor job of convincing her readers. Bell’s ineffective examples, hyperboles, and metaphor are but a few of the rhetorical tools that she failed to take advantage of to assert her view convincingly. After reading this article, I still feel comfortable in saying that I am a nice person, which is clearly not the outcome that Bell was aiming for.

Bell, Elouise.“When Nice Ain’t So Nice.” Readings for Intensive Writers. 5th ed. Comp. Susan Jorgensen. Provo: BYU Academic Publishing, 2007. 170-174. Print.