Aaron Swartz Analysis

Aaron Swartz, by The Economist is an obituary, or a notice of death, which could be found in a newspaper, typically including a brief biography of the deceased person. According to the obituary, Aaron Swartz was trying to create a world where knowledge was not hidden to public, but rather would be available to all who were seeking to obtain it. He would do so by hacking into private networks such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s network. The obituary states, “His aim was to download as many pages as possible from an archive of academic journals called JSTOR, which was available by paid subscription only to libraries and institutions” (The Economist 2). Although his intentions were good, his method of doing so was not. He later was arrested and charged on several different counts of theft and wire fraud. Furthermore, the author of this obituary was very supportive and tries to show Swartz as a hero rather than speaking about him from a neutral perspective. He attempts to inject a feeling of pathos to the readers. This injection is evident in several places of the obituary. The first of these places is the very beginning of the obituary, in fact, it’s shown in the first couple of sentences. It states, “SMALL, dark, cluttered places were …show more content…
The author shows that he is supportive of Aaron Swartz when he describes the way Swartz spends his time. Giving readers the idea that he was simple and did not really seek attention. Next, he speaks about how Swartz isn’t greedy, and could not find friends that he could relate too. Additionally, he tells us that Swartz never really cared too much about his appearance, but always showed a confident look, showing the readers that Swartz only cared for changing and improving the world around him. In conclusion, although the author does attempt to be objective, he shows glimpses