This excerpt from Last Child in the Woods displays Richard Louv’s appeal to pathos, causing technology drive Americans to ponder how the separation between people and nature has grown:“We considered the past and dreamed of the future, and watched it all go by in the blink of an eye”(lines 71-73). Louv’s nostalgic passage presents the growing disinterest in nature among Americans through devices, such as syntax, appeals to pathos and ethos, sarcasm, rhetorical questions, and anecdotes.
Appeals to both pathos and ethos, as well as the odd use of quotations in the beginning paragraph suggests the subject of the passage. For example, the introduction presents an odd syntax: many quotations from writer Matt Ritchel are presented. These quotations
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“Yes… we actually looked out the car window” (lines 61-62) does so. A large impact is created by suggesting his grandchildren will react to the idea of actually enjoying nature during car rides. His sarcasm implies how he anticipates the separation between people and nature will continue to grow. The insertion of a rhetorical question in lines 43-47 develops the argument by prompting the reader to stop and ponder. It plants the idea in their heads of how technology has disengaged our youth. Lastly is the use of an anecdote in the final paragraph. Though it is fictionalized, it further drives the extent of how detached our youth will become from nature. By Louv telling his future grandchildren how he spent his childhood, it is assumed they live contrasting youths. Through sarcasm, rhetorical questions, and anecdotes, Louv further develops his subject.
Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods presents the argument of the growing separation between humans and nature. Through his use of rhetorical devices, such as syntax, appeals to pathos and ethos, sarcasm, as well as rhetorical questions, and anecdotes, he further develops his