Persuasive Elements In Paul Bogard's Let There Be Dark

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In “Let There Be Dark,” Paul Bogard uses persuasive elements such as facts, visual descriptions, and examples from his own life for evidence to support his ideas expressed. Bogard uses these certain elements in order to further persuade his readers.
In order to create an emotional response from the readers Bogard describes a memory from his childhood. Bogard begins with explaining his time as a child at his family cabin, which leads to him furthering his argument by explaining how his time at the cabin would not be the same without the darkness. By explaining his time at his family cabin he is connecting with the readers to create an emotional response. His visual descriptions such as “smoky trails across sugary spreads of stars” and “woods so dark that my disappeared before my eyes,” are used to accomplish a response from the readers by painting a picture in their head.
The connection between the reader and Bogard benefits from his use of the rhetorical question: “Who knows what the vision of the night sky might inspire in each of us, in our children or grandchildren?” He knows most of his readers will respond to this because no one wants his or her child or grandchild to go without opportunities. He also references Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” which points out that the night sky has inspired very valued things in …show more content…

The facts presented prove that too much artificial light can be toxic for people, he states “Our bodies need darkness to produce hormone melatonin, which keep certain cancers from developing, and our bodies need darkness for sleep.” He uses the facts to convince the reader that the darkness is very beneficial to their health and the artificial light is very unbeneficial. Bogard states from a credible source, NASA, there are pictures that show that the sky is getting about six persent lighter every