Critical Evaluation Essay

Matthew A. Torres
Gina Crawford
English 102
April 21, 2013

What is your purpose in writing this essay? In your response, explore the deeper meaning of this question. The goal is not just to complete the assignment but instead to convey a message. What do you plan to accomplish with this essay? What do you hope the reader takes away from this argument?
My purpose is to get the reader to agree that this petition was plainly ignored by our leader. This petition was generated for American 's and the world 's safety, and if properly handled could have prevented many current world affairs. I hope the reader can take away from this assignment how much our current lifestyle with North Korea and Iran threaten with nuclear warfare is affected by construction of the atomic weapons by the United States.
What did you learn from completing this assignment? Did you experience a new understanding of the topic? Did you change your perspective after completing the essay?
I learned that our President chose to ignore this petition, and authorized the use of this weapon killing many innocent people. Going into this assignment, I knew our government was curious on the effects the atomic bomb would have on human cities. Now at the end of the assignment, I feel the same way.
What difficulties did you encounter during the writing or editing phases of the assignment?
With this assignment my greatest difficulty was generating an effective thesis. I always want my thesis to grab the reader, yet to be able to tell what I am going to write about. I always tend to over think things, so hopefully I have achieved my goal through the readers eyes.
What did you enjoy about this assignment?
The thing I enjoyed most about this assignment was the actual reading of the petition. I had never known this existed, and love history!
Which essay did you chose? Why did you choose it?
I chose A Petition to the President of the United States of America. I chose this article for it contained the most interesting information to me. I am a history buff, and when I find something that I had not know before, especially as impressive as this piece, I like to evaluate it.
Is there anything else you would like for me to know before I read your essay?
Something, that I unfortunately did not get to work in my essay is how come I do not know about this piece. Why is this petition not taught in school systems today? Are we ashamed of it?

Matthew A. Torres
Gina Crawford
English 102
April 21, 2013

Declaring the United States President 's power over the utilization of the atomic bomb is clever, but overall unsuccessful. Leo Szilard created a very powerful piece that proves inspirational and true. His petition was directly to our leader, The President, and yet it was ignored. Leo Szilard 's A Petition to the President of the United States was a direct method of communication to the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. It is obvious that the argument was to not have the atomic bombs used on Japan. It is also very clear that the argument was unsuccessful in the end. If anyone was to read this writing, they would agree that it was both moving and motivational, easily grabbing the attention of the reader and many others seeing how it did get 59 signatures supporting the petition stand alone in the one version. As stated in the common young student 's history class, there were two atomic bombs used in Japan in World War II. The intention of the writing was to convince our leader to take into consideration the effects if these weapons were used. Not only did Szilard use the immediate effect it would have on the cities of Japan, but the future of warfare and the safety of Americans and the rest of the world. No one will ever know for certain if the use of the atomic bombs by the United States in Japan may have caused with a long ladder of cause and effect with current world affairs involving nuclear weapons, but it is for certain that the United States of America began the new era of war, nuclear war. When discussing the Logos of the petition, the logic used to support the claim, the author nailed it. He used great detail in order to support his argument. A perfect example of this was by stating the U.S. May in fact be attacked by a similar weapon in the war. In saying this, the author put the fear in the President about current nuclear war, and for the future as well. Szilard used the U.S. Governments curiosity of seeing the weapon in use, and its affect on human population as guilt, and knowing if this atomic bomb was to be used, it would mean the United States will be setting up the world for a dangerous future. Szilard used so much vivid language in his writing, Pathos. “Ruthless annihilation of cities” (Szilard, 1945) was a part of sentence the author used, showing what the atomic bomb will do, killing many innocent people. The author used the comparison of American air warfare that replicated similar German 's used when attacking England. By stating this it was obvious to be able to ask, to what lengths will the U.S. Go to win the war? The most motivational word and piece of information is the use of “Commander-in-Chief” (Szilard,1945) repeatedly. With the use of this rank so often, it was direct that all of the responsibility of current and future warfare relies heavily on the President 's shoulders. This petition was meant for one thing, to get the United States of America 's President to refrain of using the atomic weapon. Leo Szilard wrote this petition in order to preserve the innocence of warfare. With the utilization of atomic weapons, showed the United States and the rest of the world in what they are truly capable of. With this knowledge, every capable nation began the race to build as many nuclear weapons as possible, and to build stronger ones that anyone else can. With this type of though process, the safety of the world is now at jeopardy from nuclear war. At any moment the world could end due to nuclear weapons, and if this petition was not ignored, just maybe, the constant fear of nuclear war could have been prevented.

Works Cited
|Szilard 's, L. (n.d.). A petition to the president of the united states. (1945). Retrieved from |
|http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/ManhattanProject |

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Cited: |Szilard 's, L. (n.d.). A petition to the president of the united states. (1945). Retrieved from | |http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/ManhattanProject | ----------------------- 6