Rhetorical Analysis Of The Singer Solution To World Poverty By Peter Singer

Millions of people are hungry and thousands of individuals die of starvation each day. Meanwhile, the average American spends a portion of their income on luxuries, such as televisions to imported cars. In the article, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” Peter Singer stresses that Americans should donate all of their income that is not needed for necessities to overseas charities and aid organizations in order to resolve world poverty. However, his straightforward proposition to end world poverty lays on a controversial topic that questions one’s morals and rights. Singer discusses hypothetical situations that provoke one to consider one’s morals and ethics and utilizes precise language in the article that establishes strong, motivating

His use of language is effective because he is able to extract the emotions of his audience through his use of language, which attracts the readers and make them take notice of his argument. For instance, Singer’s repetitive use of the word “luxury” brings about the central idea of his argument. By writing about luxuries such as “going out to nice restaurants, buying new clothes because the old ones are no longer stylish, vacationing at beach resorts,” Singer conveys luxuries in a negative connotation by comparing these materialistic things and ideas to helping those who are less fortunate (87). The author consistently refers to the comparisons of luxury and helping others in hypothetical situations, such as Bob and his Bugatti, to emphasize that having luxuries will always be viewed as selfish because helping others is morally and ethically the right thing to do. Singer utilizes this comparison to evoke a feeling of guilt for living “luxuriously” towards his audience. Although Singer efficiently evokes a response of emotion from his audience, his use of language did not appeal to his audience to want to behave any differently or take action upon his argument, rather it had an opposite effect on the audience that the author wanted to express. Rather than feeling a heavy sense of guilt, the audience is feels angry and criticized. The anger that is felt can be from the fact that not only did it feel like Singer was judging the audience for the lack of helping others, but he was also trying to make them feel guilty for it. Singer’s use of language was not effective in influencing his readers to accept his solution to world