In reference to climate change and the ongoing rise in carbon dioxide emission, which in turn is forcing indigenous people near Arctic ice cap regions to move away from their native homelands, Daniel Wildcat’s Red Alert! seeks to offer guidance in combating this environmental problem by suggesting the use of indigenous knowledge and stressing the importance of a change in mindset about humankind’s relationship with the earth. Also tackling the topic of environmental issues, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring seeks to warn the public about the dangers of pesticides being widely administered without discretion for the environment nor consent from the public, and emphasizes the value of knowledge and truth in dealing with said pesticides. Prominent
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Still, there must be a sense of level-headedness in the argument to avoid it being labeled as sensationalized and cast aside. Carson opens her argument with a fable depicting a “town in the heart of America” that is swept with an illness that rids the town of its once beauty and prosperity, and ends the story by revealing that “The people had done it themselves” (1-3). By having the town be in “the heart of America,” Carson appeals to the emotions of her primary audience, which is the American public, and causes them to have feelings of care and responsibility to this town as it is one of their own. Then, by revealing that it was “themselves” who have plagued the town, Carson evokes feelings of guilt and shame as it is the American public that has destroyed the natural beauty of their beloved environment. Yet, while this story is fiction, Carson states that the disasters that unfold in the fable are rooted in truth (3). Therefore, the story effectively pulls on the emotions of Carson’s audience while having the necessary reasoning—the fact that the fable’s disasters are real—to provide validity to her …show more content…
Contrastingly, Wildcat’s work, while including a handful of scientific and historical facts, as well as offering logos through the means of indigenous knowledge, is heavier handed on its appeal to pathos as seen in the work’s charged and emotional diction. As seen, both Carson and Wildcat effectively appeal to logos to ground their argument in reason and provide validity to their claims. However, it is Carson’s skillful balance between pathos and logos that makes her rhetoric extremely powerful. Therefore, in order to effectively appeal to an audience and enact change, environmental authors must carefully consider their pathos and logos use and strive to strike the perfect harmony between the
Still, there must be a sense of level-headedness in the argument to avoid it being labeled as sensationalized and cast aside. Carson opens her argument with a fable depicting a “town in the heart of America” that is swept with an illness that rids the town of its once beauty and prosperity, and ends the story by revealing that “The people had done it themselves” (1-3). By having the town be in “the heart of America,” Carson appeals to the emotions of her primary audience, which is the American public, and causes them to have feelings of care and responsibility to this town as it is one of their own. Then, by revealing that it was “themselves” who have plagued the town, Carson evokes feelings of guilt and shame as it is the American public that has destroyed the natural beauty of their beloved environment. Yet, while this story is fiction, Carson states that the disasters that unfold in the fable are rooted in truth (3). Therefore, the story effectively pulls on the emotions of Carson’s audience while having the necessary reasoning—the fact that the fable’s disasters are real—to provide validity to her …show more content…
Contrastingly, Wildcat’s work, while including a handful of scientific and historical facts, as well as offering logos through the means of indigenous knowledge, is heavier handed on its appeal to pathos as seen in the work’s charged and emotional diction. As seen, both Carson and Wildcat effectively appeal to logos to ground their argument in reason and provide validity to their claims. However, it is Carson’s skillful balance between pathos and logos that makes her rhetoric extremely powerful. Therefore, in order to effectively appeal to an audience and enact change, environmental authors must carefully consider their pathos and logos use and strive to strike the perfect harmony between the