Rhetorical Analysis Of TED Talk, Life Science In Prison

Nalini Nadkarni’s TED Talk, Life Science in Prison, argues that change is possible in a prison system. She uses trees as a metaphor for prisons to suggest that trees are dynamic entities rather than static objects, and that this reformative thinking can also be applied to prison systems. Nadkarni advocates for change because inmates are confined behind bars in small cells, and the number of prisoners and reoffending individuals in America is rising. The intended audience for this TED Talk is individuals who are receptive to change, but also who have the power to generate movement in society’s institutions through their education, money, and social influence. In Life Science in Prison, Nadkarni critically evaluates static systems in society and within individuals, and successfully convinces audiences to reimagine movement and transform their thinking. Nadkarni mainly uses pathos – an appeal to emotion, through her verbal and visual elements to create an emotional rapport for the audience; however, occasionally uses logos – an

The images are taken from a bird’s eye view angle to emphasize how small and barren the cells are. In the image the audience can see the plain walls of the cell, and even the toilet which is a mere 4 feet away from the bed. There is nothing humane, warm, or friendly about this image. This generates pathos because audiences feel sympathy towards the inmates for having to spend solidarity confinement in bleak small spaces. This image depicts the space as undesirable which convinces the audience that the time spent out of the cell is that more significant in changing how inmates reintegrate back into society, and how valuable the time spent out of the cell is for the inmate. Nardkarni calls on audiences’ emotions by employing this image in order to persuade audiences that there is a need for images of rainforests in the recreational spaces of