An Unsuccessful Plea to Save American Humanity The atomic bomb is the single most destructive weapon that has ever been created. Built in response to the ever increasing threat from the Axis forces of World War II, the atomic bomb packed the force of 12,000 pounds of dynamite and was capable of destroying an entire city. It was in August of 1945 that the United States used the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima killing tens of thousands Japanese civilians in one fatal swoop, and setting in motion the unconditional surrender of Japan. However, many would argue whether the use of the atomic bomb was necessary, and one such proprietor against its use was Leo Szilard. Szilard wrote A Petition to the President of the United States,
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Szilard begins his introduction with a brief background of the current atomic state of the nation then he waits until the third paragraph to express what his petition’s true intentions are. This drawn out structure undermines the intent of the introduction which is to gain the readers interest. Unfortunately, Szilard presents a very plausible alternative to using an atomic bomb, yet he only spends one paragraph expressing it. This is perhaps the most significant example of his poor structure, as he focuses so little on supporting his overall objective. Finally, he goes in to the ruthlessness of the atomic bomb and warfare methods deployed by the Axis forces toward the closing of his petition (Szilard). Again, these ideas were not mentioned in the introduction therefore taking away from the strength of his structure and detracting from the goal of his …show more content…
His conclusion consists of one sentence in which he essentially adjusted his thesis to fit the unstructured direction that his petition went. Szilard’s decision to omit key elements of his thesis completely undermines the true intentions of his petition. Additionally, his word choice of “In view of the foregoing,” draws the reader’s attention to the last idea or last few ideas he presented in the body (Szilard). Given that the last few ideas of the body spoke on the ruthlessness and consequences of using atomic weapons, the reader focuses on that as the main idea behind not using the weapon and again undermines his petition. For these reasons his final sentence created disparity in the direction of how he wanted the reader to view his petition and contributed to a weak
Szilard begins his introduction with a brief background of the current atomic state of the nation then he waits until the third paragraph to express what his petition’s true intentions are. This drawn out structure undermines the intent of the introduction which is to gain the readers interest. Unfortunately, Szilard presents a very plausible alternative to using an atomic bomb, yet he only spends one paragraph expressing it. This is perhaps the most significant example of his poor structure, as he focuses so little on supporting his overall objective. Finally, he goes in to the ruthlessness of the atomic bomb and warfare methods deployed by the Axis forces toward the closing of his petition (Szilard). Again, these ideas were not mentioned in the introduction therefore taking away from the strength of his structure and detracting from the goal of his …show more content…
His conclusion consists of one sentence in which he essentially adjusted his thesis to fit the unstructured direction that his petition went. Szilard’s decision to omit key elements of his thesis completely undermines the true intentions of his petition. Additionally, his word choice of “In view of the foregoing,” draws the reader’s attention to the last idea or last few ideas he presented in the body (Szilard). Given that the last few ideas of the body spoke on the ruthlessness and consequences of using atomic weapons, the reader focuses on that as the main idea behind not using the weapon and again undermines his petition. For these reasons his final sentence created disparity in the direction of how he wanted the reader to view his petition and contributed to a weak