Last Child In The Woods Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Richard Louv, a novelist, in Last Child in the Woods (2008) illustrates the separation between humans and nature. His purpose to the general audience involves exposing how the separation of man from nature is consequential. Louv adopts a sentimental tone throughout the rhetorical piece to elaborate on the growing separation in modern times. Louv utilizes pathos, ethos and logos to argue that the separation between man and nature is detrimental. Louv uses pathos to illustrate his disdain with man’s separation from nature. He mainly uses pathos through his personal anecdotes with nature. For instance, Louv recounts on how witnessing nature through a drive “was the landscape we watched as children. It was our drive by movie” (55-56). By stating

For example, he uses the experience of Elaine Brooks in describing the severity of the separation. Brooks recounts an experience with a salesperson whereby the “salesman’s jaw dropped… when I said I didn’t want a backseat television monitor” (29-31). The personal experience from Brooks highlights how common backseat technologies have become; the resulting consequence involves an increasing disengagement between man and nature, which comes at a risk of valuable visual connections. In addition, Louv addresses the counter argument in his rhetoric. He concedes that “true, our experience of natural landscape ‘often occurs within an automobile’” (20-21) and refutes that “now even that visual connection is optional” (21-22). His concession and refutation further proves that even though the time spent by most of society may be limited, it is still valuable because of the apparent disengagement of man from nature. Consequently, the separation of man from nature has resulted in the loss or reduction of any connection with nature.
The mutual relationship between man and nature has evolved from a contract to a sad reality. The harsh reality surrounds the fact that as time and technology advances, the separation between people and nature increases as well. Louv, in his rhetoric from Last Child in the Woods (2008), argues why the separation between society and nature is distressing.