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1) "A man, my dear Asem, who talks good sense in his native tongue, is held in tolerable estimation in this country; but a fool, who clothes his feeble ideas in a foreign or antique garb, is bowed down to as a literary prodigy. While I conversed with these people in plain English, I was but little attended to; but the moment I prosed away in Greek, everyone looked up to me with veneration as an oracle."

2) "To let thee at once into a secret, which is unknown to these people, themselves, their government is a pure unadulterated logocracy, or government of words. The whole nation does everything viva voce, or by word of mouth..."

The first document from Mustapha Rub-a-Dub Keli Khan gave off a superior tone; the diction used in the first letter was powerful and all knowing. This second expercept from him, however, transitioned into a much more contradictory tone. The above two quotes display this very well. The first one explains how a man who fakes knowledge (i.e., a language foreign to him), is the one that attains respect, not the actual person who understands the power of words. The next page, however, contained diction that gave off a new, clueless tone. The second quote contradicts what the narrator first said- he was now speaking in a language that was foreign to him (the language was also quite absurd. It was not belieavable in the least).

By transitioning these two letters from Mustapha Rub-a-Dub Keli Khan from wise to clueless, Washington Irving created a new meaning in his work. Mustapha is not an intelligent, respected leader, but the prototype he had always degraded. This indirect imagery displays a rhetorical scenario with no true answer; everyone constantly contradicts themselves, and even though the human race will always attempt to be perfect, we will never be able to.