Last Child In The Woods Analysis

Considering that technological advancements are controlling of the modern world, the disinterest in nature is developing a society surrounded by “synthetic nature.” Last Child in the Woods, the luddite novel, forces the populous to reexamine their lives, which are being taken over by the latest techno craze. Through the use of anecdote, hypothetical situation, and rhetorical question, Richard Louv asserts the disconnect between people and nature.
With an anecdote from his friend, Louv illustrates the separation between the natural world and the material, emphasizing how important it is to pass through generations. The friend, a mom, was “shopping for a new luxury car to celebrate her half-century in the material world.” The salesman can not believe that she is against getting the in car television set, “‘multimedia entertainment products’” as they are called in the automobile industry, installed for her daughter. “Parents… will pay a premium for a little backseat peace,” they would rather have a child attached to a screen than bothering them in the slightest, ignoring the
It is directed towards his grandchildren, who at this point will not be able to understand his behavior because technology is so ingrained into them. He uses anaphora to call attention to how absurd his actions in the car will compare to those of future generations “‘we actually looked out the car window’... we saw birds… we were fascinated with roadkill.” The modern child does none of this. The disconnection between the older generation’s views on nature and the future’s being so ridiculously antithetical that there cannot be any mutual understanding about appropriate behavior during a car trip, or that looking out the window during a car ride is an