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Rhetorical Analysis Of Richard Louv's Last Child In The Woods

Decent Essays

In Richard Louv’s, Last Child in the Woods, he develops an argument relevant to today’s times about the separation between people and nature and how little nature is actually appreciated. His conversational, yet crisp diction, didactic tone, and use of allusions to the past strengthen his argument. Louv’s diction can be classified as the diction one would hear at a public speaking event. He carries a conversational diction to assuage the reader into becoming relaxed, yet willing to listen. Louv doesn’t use colloquialisms, and the lack thereof results in a crisp diction as well. His conversational yet crisp diction comes out in lines 57-59, “Perhaps we’ll someday tell our grandchildren stories about our version of the nineteenth-century Conestoga wagon.” Louv’s use of the pronouns “we” and “our” establishes feelings of mutuality and togetherness among the audience and in return, the audience is keen to listen. …show more content…

He doesn’t shove his argument or view down the throats of his audience, but he does present them. He uses litotes to support his argument for closing the gap between people and nature, an example being, “But the logical extension of synthetic nature is the irrelevance of “true” nature-- the certainty that it’s not even worth looking at” (lines 17-19). In these lines, Louv hints at his disagreement towards the ever growing gap between people and nature. Like a pastor referring to scripture to support or negate his arguments, Louv refers to quotes from other people, Richtel and Brooks, to support or negate his own arguments, which expands on the didactic tone. Louv’s use of rhetorical questions in lines 43-47 targets didactic behavior as

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