Rhetorical Analysis
In Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, he focuses on the harm global warming does to our planet. He wants to persuade people that global warming is real, and that they should contribute to the effort of slowing, even completely stopping, global warming. Gore uses a variety of ways to appeal to pathos and logos. One of the first things he does, is explain global warming, he them proceeds to show a short, funny cartoon to describe global warming. While this short is not exactly accurate, and looks like it is taken from The Simpsons cartoon, it is comical, and he uses this short to intrigue his audience. After drawing us in, he keeps us attentive by sprinkling these little emotional holds into his argument. Gore tells us in the beginning about his son being hit by a car when he was five years old. This anecdote causes an overwhelming sense of sympathy and alarm but also wonder of how this relates to the argument. Then, Gore tells us tells us that the awful accident made his realize he wanted to do something important, wanted to do something to change the world, and that something was to spread the “global warning.” Almost fifty percent of the facts Al Gore uses also carry an emotional appeal, but they also are appealing to logos. Such as, if only half of Greenland and half of Antarctica melted water would cover so much land, including the 9/11 memorial, that the world maps would have to be redrawn, and he also tells us that global warming causes intense weather conditions, including hurricanes. Gore provides an audio track of a man describing hurricane reports that were coming in after making this point, and in the track the unknown man repeats “I can’t take it anymore, the water is up to my neck,” creating guilt in the audience. We contributed to that. Al Gore does a great job of presenting an appeal to pathos and logos. Al Gore uses more than just humor and anecdotes to relay information,