Growing Up

As with Katie's post, I would like to make my own focusing on De Inventione and De Oratore also, expounding more particularly upon the later portion of the post and adding my own thoughts accordingly. 

What better transformation to use as an example than that of
the Bald Eagle from child to adulthood?  America!

At the time of its writing, De Inventione was indeed authored by the young adult Cicero of about twenty years.  Cicero must have been proud of his work, as it was the best that he could accomplish at that time; even for such a fresh new member of the rhetorical society, Cicero left a very noticeable mark.  If not, people of today would not be reviewing it.  Still, though Cicero spelled out the concepts expressed in the branches of oratory and the five components in arrangement, the format could be considered a bit forced and rigid—unnatural, even.  This is not to say that the piece is a poor instance of writing, but that it is only the first attempt made by Cicero in his new career. 

On the other end of the spectrum, there is Cicero's De Oratore, which is a masterful work laid out carefully in a way that demonstrates fluidity, knowledge, experience, and overall better presentation than his previous endeavor.  Perhaps this is most notable in the fact that, as Katie said, Cicero's role changes in De Oratore, a product of his later years.  In this newer work, the fledgling rhetorician Cicero has shorn away his young down and taken to the skies of discourse with his seasoned, developed wings.  Probably the most notable demonstration of this is through Cicero's use of distancing himself from the text (as he personally narrated De Inventione) and instead hashing out the words through the discussions of third party characters.  In this way, readers focus less on Cicero and more on the nature of what he is telling through the characters.  Due to this dialogue form, he is able to take himself directly out of the spotlight and strictly put his creations up for display.  Still, at the end of the performance, it is the puppeteer who has the final applause.  Cicero merely disappears for a time only to reemerge at the opportune moment and harvest when the field is at its ripest. 

Cicero's puppets are a direct and indirect means of siphoning
more of the praise from his audience for himself.

In summation, from his early De Inventione days, Cicero practiced and refined his rhetorical skills in order to produce De Oratore in its highly polished state.  Part of this involved change associated with experience, but also dealt with learning that there was needed change in his old ideas—that putting them into a more appropriate form of dialogue would yield better results.  Now, seeing as I have taken this idea of Katie's further, and I sort of have the floor, I would like to ask if anyone wishes to expound upon any of the portions contained within my post.  Either that, or maybe a segue from Cicero within Cicero to a comparison of his De Oratore with Plato's Gorgias would be interesting.  What do you think?  Where will this discussion end up?