Thomson Zoo Rhetorical Analysis

In the column, “The Case For Closing The Honolulu Zoo,” Bob Jones addresses the issue of Honolulu Zoo’s problems regarding its budget and attendance rates, informing the audience of the controversy behind using the taxpayers money to maintain the zoo’s facilities and such. The purpose of this column is to argue that the $7 million dollars that are currently being used for the zoo’s maintenance should be used for something that everyone needs, like roads and sewers. While stating his claims, Jones is able to use hypophora, understatement, and rhetorical questions to effectively prove to the audience that the Honolulu Zoo is wasting our tax money. To start, Jones uses hypophora in his first paragraph, raising a question that he thinks was not …show more content…
For example, when he talks about the alternatives to zoos, he says, “Recently, I went on YouTube and watched a long and masterfully dones video of elephants mating” (Jones). This statement brought little importance to the “elephants mating” and added some humor to the writing because in normal situations, most people wouldn’t say that to someone else so openly. This also shows that Jones has a very direct tone because he added blunt statements to get his point across and show that the videos were enough for him to not want to go to the zoo. By doing this, Jones was able to support his purpose because he was able to explain his reasoning behind not seeing the significance behind the zoo and persuade the audience that his conclusion was …show more content…
“Do those who voted “yes” even visit the zoo on a regular basis?” (Jones). While the question was not answered anywhere in the column, it leads the audience to the conclusion Jones was trying to prove throughout his column, that the zoo did not need $7 million dollars if a lot of what happens inside the zoo stays hidden, and further proves his point by establishing a question that most people would already say no to. This was able to support his purpose because Jones was able to form a clear thesis supported by evidence from his own experiences and research throughout his column and eventually by the end, persuading the audience to come up with the answer to the rhetorical question proposed that would be most effective to strengthening his argument. In conclusion, Bob Jones was able to effectively achieve his purpose of addressing the problem of the excessive amount of money going to the Honolulu Zoo with the help of various rhetorical devices. The overall message of this column is pretty clear, but sometimes the examples Jones used were irrelevant and it seems like it was just put in there for humor. This column was well written in terms of his relationship with the audience, how he chose to convey his message in a creative way, and his supposed confidence