Rhetorical Analysis: The Plague Of War

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” Friedrich Nietzsche encapsulates the paradox of humankind — a desperate desire to save the world coupled with a dangerous susceptibility to becoming the very monster to be slain. Man’s ability to rationalize allows him to rebuff the guilt over his most treacherous decisions, but the guilt remains, pilfering away at his faith in his own morality. Does the atrocity of war justify the atrocities committed? The leaders of the United States of America made the decision to drop atomic bombs upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing thousands of innocent people and obliterating parts …show more content…
In his poignant editorial, James Agee urges the public to consider the implications of the atomic bomb, and cautions the public about the force they have unleashed. Agee argues that the detonation of the bomb has polarized man’s legacy, splitting history into commitment and consequence. He describes the weapon as “a merely pregnant threat, a merely infinitesimal promise,” giving the impression that the bomb’s scar upon Japan marked the awakening of a darker force. His diction of pregnancy and promise directs the reader into the future while remaining vague, leaving the nature of the turning point subjective. Furthermore, he writes of the bomb as “a bottomless wound in the living conscience of the race,” using the metaphor to imply that the bomb has tainted the status of humankind’s morality, creating a trauma in desperate …show more content…
He illustrates the power of the atomic bomb with an allusion to Prometheus, detailing man’s “most Promethean” conquest over “the fire and force of the sun itself.” The quotation reveals the scope of the power than man has stolen for himself with the atomic bomb by contrasting notoriously chaotic elements such as fire with human control. Furthermore, he hints at the inevitable catastrophe and suffering that accompany power, foreshadowing the punishment man will pay with the reference to Prometheus’ eternal suffering after granting man the gift of fire. In addition, Agee states that “with the controlled splitting of the atom, humanity… was brought inescapably into a new age in which all thoughts and things were split — and far from controlled,” compelling the public to consider the implications of a humanity’s turbulent global relationships paired with the power to obliterate the world. He also illustrates the irony of man’s ability to control the separation of an atom, but his inability to control himself, depicting a humanity unfit to hold the power of such destruction. Though, Agee uses these examples to highlight the disastrous capabilities of an irresponsible world, he does not refute the possibility of a trustworthy humanity. He describes that man’s ability to control the atomic bomb is ultimately a war waged “between the hands of reason and spirit,”