Let There Be Dark Rhetorical Analysis

Why We Fight, a 2005 documentary that was directed by Eugene Jarecki synthesizes multiple sources and uses various rhetorical techniques to raise questions about America’s motivations for combat historically and in the present day. In George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant, a british police officer experiences effects of Imperialism even as the oppressor in Burma during the time of British Imperialism. Although these two different work involves different situation, there is still an idea of imperialism that is running through. United States is acting as an imperialist country, trying to spread its policy throughout the world while Burma was going through British Imperialism. In the documentary, Why We Fight, Jarecki argues that the reason we

Hey guys, welcome back to another video. This isn’t going to be my conventional sort of video, but rather a call for change. This is a topic I’ve been wanting to talk about for a long amount of time, and I’m ready to open up. I’ve come to a point in life where there needs to be a change. What better time to use the platform I have, than now?

Seeing an increase in light pollution and a decrease in natural darkness, Paul Bogard in his essay “Let there be Darkness” uses logic to persuade the reader to preserve darkness. Opening the essay with a personal experience from the past, he convinces the reader of the danger of light pollution. The author uses statistics, pathos, and science to support his thesis.

This postcard builds suspense in the reader’s mind. Alex saying that this adventure could kill him makes the reader interested in finding out more. “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man.” (Krakauer 3).

Advertisements are everywhere. From billboards, to magazines, to newspapers, flyers and TV commercials, chances are that you won’t go a day without observing some sort of ad. In most cases, companies use these ads as persuasive tools, deploying rhetorical appeals—logos, pathos, and ethos—to move their audiences to think or act in a certain way. The two magazine ads featured here, both endorsing Pedigree products, serve as excellent examples of how these modes of persuasion are strategically used.

The first aspect of this essay to be analyzed is the authority that the author has. Klinkenborg is a well-established writer that has a Ph.D. in English from Princeton. He has appeared in the New Yorker, National Geographic, Harper’s, and other magazines as well as written his own books. To go with this, Klinkenborg was raised in Iowa and California in rural areas. Because he has experienced low amounts of light pollution being away from big cities, he has experienced and seen the effects of light pollution in major cities. With his past and education, Klinkenborg’s word is more easily trusted through the essay and this helps his argument.

In Holly Wren Spaulding’s essay, “In Defense of Darkness,” her main claim is that we have fallen away from darkness and immersed ourselves in a society of lightness. Furthermore, she claims this has lead humans to lose touch with basic human emotion as well as the sensual and spiritual experience true darkness has to offer. Spaulding makes this claim evident through exceptional use of personal testimony and copious appeals to value.

Nonconformity allows people to go against a prevailing rule so that they may do as they please.

“McCandless didn’t conform particularly well to the bush casualty stereotype.” Jon Krakauer, in his book Into The Wild, argues that McCandless was a unique personality who yearned for adventure. He supports his claim by the usage of epigraphs, interviews with McCandless’s acquaintances, and various maps that are indicative of where the protagonist travelled. Krakauer's purpose is to use an argumentative structure in order to convince the audience that McCandless was more complex than previously known. He uses a nostalgic and commanding tone in order to emotionally appeal to an audience who may have originally had different opinions on McCandless. In Into The Wild, Krakauer employs techniques of ethos and speaker in order to thoroughly convey

Many people wish they can drop everything important to them and isolate themselves from society; very few people will even attempt this, but Chris McCandless breaks societal norms to accomplish this goal. In Into the Wild, John Krakauer tells the story of this young man’s life to inspire the audience to chase their dreams through the use of logos, involved sentence, and anecdotes.

A prosecutor’s job is to find evidence to support his case against an individual accused of breaking the law while a defense attorney tries to present evidence to prove the innocence of the person accused. Neither can be truly be unbiased about their evidence but each of them is motivated to confirm a particular position. Much like a defense attorney, in his biography, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer attempts to prove that McCandless’s tragedy was not due to his incompetence or lack of knowledge about the wild. He asserts emotions and rational onto McCandless’s experience as well as drawing similarities between his personal experience and McCandless’s in order to create a more sympathetic response from readers.

Nat Turner: Mr. Garrison I do wish I could agree, but few of these men (looking down at Fitzhugh and calhoun) have shown no respect for god.

To begin with Equality believes his eventual assessment of his sins are wrong. He is too tall and too smart. He feels so absolutely terrible about how he looks. He truly believe he is sinning by looking the way he does. He discovers electricity, he wants to tell the Council of Vocations. He is very scared that he is going to get into a lot of trouble and be banished. Equality wants to be a scholar, but he knows that the Council of Vocations will not allow that. Equality states “we know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it.”(Pg. 18) This statement proves that Equality honestly believes he is evil, terrible, and a horrible sinner.

The readings for this project helped me understand the meaning of how we (humans) ignore the details and love to just see the stuff that matters for us and that is it. Klinkenborg in his paper about light pollution said, “We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing” (243). He talks about how we human forget about other species which live with us on the same planet and that we just care about ourselves and think that the humans only one that matters. We do not see something like light pollution as something that is ruining the planet.

In his newspaper article, “Let There Be Dark”, Paul Bogard tries to persuade his audience to stop light pollution by pointing out the negative effects light pollution is causing. He always tries to persuade them by using personal anecdotes to get on the light-hearted side of his audience. Bogard discusses the health issues that accompanies a lack of darkness to make his audience understand that the effects touch everyone and not just a certain group of people. By mentioning that our bodies need the hormone melatonin, and without this hormone our own bodies would soon begin to create a war with our health, he urges people to cut the use of too much light and embrace the darkness. This makes Bogard’s audience come to realization about the importance