Lost child in the woods rhetorical analysis essay
Reconciling the Metaphysical and Corporeal in Nature
The evolution of Homo sapiens has had a marked effect on our geographical environment—much as it usually does with the evolution of any species. This is especially notable with humans, considering how we have evolved to the point where we not only impress upon our environment to assimilate for survival, but we also mold it to the whims of our convenience. During the dawn of the human species, we left footsteps as we gathered roots and berries. During the more recent era, we have eliminated crows due to their excessiveness, bred pandas due to their scarcity, and yet we have done little to nothing about the excessiveness of the human population. As a species, we have claimed unspoken responsibility and procured control over the existence of other species for our own advancement. Now, we would like to synthesize it. Another such case can be found in the selection, “Last Child in the Woods,” where Richard Louv presents the reader with the possibility of using genetic technology to advertise in nature. Use of rhetorical strategies such as logos, ethos, and pathos imply his opposition towards this idea.
In the first third of the essay, Louv uses logos to present the current situation to the reader, the possibility “for moving ads out of the virtual world and into the real one…through which [we] can choose the colors that appear on butterfly wings,” (Louv, line 3-8). Simple word choice such as “move” and “choose” denote usage of a casual tone, demonstrating an almost aggressive detachment from our “virtual world” and nature’s “real” one—as if the choice were as inapt and insipid as deciding which breakfast cereal to have in the morning. Subsequently, logos is employed to elaborate the “cultural importance” that these forced genetic mutations would leave on society—as if the capitalist ideals these experiments contributed to were all that cultural in the first place. Through these blatant displays of negligence, the
The evolution of Homo sapiens has had a marked effect on our geographical environment—much as it usually does with the evolution of any species. This is especially notable with humans, considering how we have evolved to the point where we not only impress upon our environment to assimilate for survival, but we also mold it to the whims of our convenience. During the dawn of the human species, we left footsteps as we gathered roots and berries. During the more recent era, we have eliminated crows due to their excessiveness, bred pandas due to their scarcity, and yet we have done little to nothing about the excessiveness of the human population. As a species, we have claimed unspoken responsibility and procured control over the existence of other species for our own advancement. Now, we would like to synthesize it. Another such case can be found in the selection, “Last Child in the Woods,” where Richard Louv presents the reader with the possibility of using genetic technology to advertise in nature. Use of rhetorical strategies such as logos, ethos, and pathos imply his opposition towards this idea.
In the first third of the essay, Louv uses logos to present the current situation to the reader, the possibility “for moving ads out of the virtual world and into the real one…through which [we] can choose the colors that appear on butterfly wings,” (Louv, line 3-8). Simple word choice such as “move” and “choose” denote usage of a casual tone, demonstrating an almost aggressive detachment from our “virtual world” and nature’s “real” one—as if the choice were as inapt and insipid as deciding which breakfast cereal to have in the morning. Subsequently, logos is employed to elaborate the “cultural importance” that these forced genetic mutations would leave on society—as if the capitalist ideals these experiments contributed to were all that cultural in the first place. Through these blatant displays of negligence, the