Benjamin M. R. Sirica Kurt Vonnegut The letter that Kurt Vonnegut sent to the school board in North Dakota chairmen was an amazing use of rhetorical devices to display the main theme of the letter. It was sent to the board of education in North Dakota, to tell the school that burning of his books was a bad idea. He never meant for the books to be portrayed in the way it was and its use of "obscene language". Vonnegut used pathos in his letter to prove that the books were harmless to the children. Kurt stated in his article," Those words really don't damage children much. They didn't damage us when we were young. It was evil deeds and lying that hurt us." Right, there goes to prove how the books are really harmless, way back when Kurt was younger