Why Dakota Is The New Keystone Analysis

In Bill McKibben’s article, “Why Dakota Is the New Keystone,” McKibben expresses through vivid word choice, aggressive tone, and sentence structure, why the New Keystone should be in the Dakota’s. He brings together these elements to paint a vivid picture to persuade the reader into believing it too. McKibben uses words that clearly show what he wants the reader to picture and shows how he wants to shape this piece. He illustrates this by stating that there are “shocking images of the National Guard destroying tepees and sweat lodges and arresting elders” (McKibben). This shows McKibben painting the picture that the National Guard are no longer protecting the people of our country but destroying precious parts of their life and memories. He uses aggressive words to show the terrible things the government …show more content…
In the beginning of this article, McKibben states that the matchup between the Native Americans and the United States Army has “almost always ended horribly, and nothing we can do now will erase a history of massacres, stolen land and broken treaties” (McKibben). This provides the reader with a feeling of sympathy towards the Native Americans and he uses pathos to do it. Further in the article, McKibben uses ethos and his credibility with a fact stating, “the company building the pipeline has pushed the local authorities to remove protesters from land where construction has already desecrated indigenous burial sites” (McKibben). He provides this evidence to show that extreme measures need to be changed to make a difference. It cannot be changed with a few protestors and article is bound to change that. Finally, to wrap up, he uses a simple sentence to link back to the beginning. He states, “If we use them wisely, a fresh start is possible” (McKibben). This short simple sentence brings back to the reader the emotions that were originally