Rhetorical Analysis Of Richard Louv's Last Child Of The Woods

In "Last Child of the Woods," Richard Louv criticizes the common people for losing interest and separating themselves from the true nature of the world, and how the people have solely bound themselves towards synthetics. Louv provides exemplum, rhetorical questions, and satirical humor to argue that humans are separating themselves and taking advantage of nature.
Louv utilizes exemplum to argue that adding mechanics into nature corrupts its true glamour. He states that, "Advertisers already stamp their messages into the wet sands of public beaches," providing an example to the audience that synthetic nature has taken the authenticity out of true nature. The mechanics cause the worth of original nature to decrease, further causing people to lose interest and separate themselves from nature, "The children can watch 'Sesame Street' or play Grand Theft Auto on their PlayStation without bothering the driver." He hints to the parents in the audience that children will only become more familiar to synthetics if parents keep turning their backs on true nature. …show more content…
"Why do so many Americans say they want their children to watch less TV, yet continue to expand the opportunities for them to watch it?," Louv asked, accusing the parents and industrial workers that they are hypocrites, and attempting to persuade the audience that people must have more control to focus less on electronics and more on the beauty of nature sitting on the doorstep. Louv believes that the separation from nature is incomprehensible by stating, "More important, why do so many people no longer consider the physical world worth watching?. Louv's usage of rhetorical questions supports his argument and criticism by influencing the audience to think and change their hypocritical