Throughout Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, there are many details that help give the reader a deeper, more profound, meaning of the book 's intended purpose. Krakauer is one of the most renowned American writers, publishing many books specifically focused on nature, and people’s struggles with nature. Through much of the book, Krakauer incorporates many literary techniques, such as connotation, diction, ethos, pathos, logos, imagery, and syntax, to help each reader grasp the essence of the book. These aspects are utilized many times throughout each chapter in his book. By using a wide range of literary techniques, Krakauer is able to communicate the events that transpired during the book, in a way that pertains to each
In the World War II extermination camp Chelmno there were 150,000 deaths, the camp Belzec had 435,000 deaths, and the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau camp ruled with over 1,000,000 deaths. In the unbelievable novel Night by Elie Wiesel, the author gives the audience a first person look on his experiences throughout his time at several prisoner of war camps as a Jewish teenager. Through the use of motifs about the night and a person’s eyes, Wiesel writes about the deeper meaning of how he kept his dignity in the face of inhumane cruelty. By analyzing the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, one can interpret the central theme of the story into a deeper meaning from the descriptions of the night and eyes, which is important because it helps younger generations to understand clearly what Holocaust survivors endured.
The bold and brash approach on life by transcendentalists was truly an ambitious lifestyle. Such individuals like Henry David Thoreau, Chris McCandless, and Jon Krakauer have renounced all of their mainstream agendas to lead a more fundamental life, but not without the criticism other have faced. The actions portrayed in their novels demonstrate how important it is to incorporate others’ ideas when one’s own choices.
In her poem “Borderlands,” Gloria Anzaldua strategically exposes readers to the true form of the Borderlands region as she conveys the internal incongruity that is rife with this state. As she characterizes the nature of the Borderlands, extending the idea of the Borderlands from a geographical region to an extensive social phenomenon, Anzaldua emulates an experience that is shared by many; conquered by fear.
The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.
In the 2013 online article, “The Chris McCandless Obsession Problem”, author Diana Saverin describes the Alaskan wilderness travel phenomenon along with attempting to uncover the ‘McCandless Pilgrims’ “root of motivation. Sparked by the release of both Jon Krakauer’s and Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild”, numerous individuals pack their backpacks and eagerly step into their (sometimes newly-bought) hiking shoes and tramp into the Alaskan Wild to pay homage to their hero Chris McCandless. Filled with personal anecdotes and interviews, Severin’s Outside article takes a new approach Into the Wild commentary by directing attention to the lives McCandless’s story affected indirectly rather than critiquing on McCandless himself. In response to what appears to be a huge amount of troubled McCandless-inspired tramping stories, Saverin provides an unbiased rationale as a attempt to explain why so many are “willing to risk injury, and even death, to..visit the last home of Alaska’s most famous adventure casualty”.
Stephanie Malinowski wrote an op-ed article questioning Thomas L. Friedman’s Optimism in “30 Little Turtles”. In addition, Malinowski criticizes Friedman when he generalized the Indians and how he based most of his article on his personal experience. Not to mention that Malinowski used quotes to support her evidence and make the reader question Friedman’s credibility. Malinowski is effective when she summarizes by telling the reader what she is criticizing, her use of paraphrasing to help the reader understand her point of view, and her use of quotes to support the evidence she gives.
Alexie says in his text “My mother did her best to explain to me…” (330). This quote shows that the truth and reality do not just depend on the person who is telling the story. When people tell a story, they do their best to make the story seems real and true. However, it does not depend only on the story teller. It most depends on the audience or the person who is listening to the story. With this quote, Alexie wants the readers to understand that reality is tied to the audience. The audience can make a true story seems false and vice versa. O’Brien says “Sanders made a little sound in his throat, like a sight, as if to say he didn’t care about if I believe it or not. But he did care” (560). This quote from O’Brien’s text explains Alexie’s idea that the truth depends on the audience. People care about the audience. When someone tells a store, he or she will care about his audience. He or she will think if the audience his taking that story as true or not. The audience determine what is true or real and what is not. In other words, the listener will make his interpretation in the story, and take the parts that seem true to him and ignore the parts that seem false. O’Brien’s and Alexie’s ideas about reality support each other. In the other words, they want to
Carter introduces the audience to his argument not by giving his statement or "mission" immediately but by telling the audience a story of a personal experience that helps the audience sympathize with his point of view. The way Carter describes the beauty of his trip to the Wildlife Refuge and how it was a very personal experience makes the audience feel they are being let in on a personal level to the President's point of view against the drilling in the Refuge. The story of the migration of the porcupine caribou gave the his audience an idea of what the refuge really means and emphasizes how it would all be destroyed if industrialization on the Refuge were to happen. By giving his personal experience first, Carter is able to draw his audience in and let them sympathize with his cause before he actually gives his real argument and calls people to
The article Bag Ban Bad for Freedom and Environment, by Adam B. Summers, argues that a ban placed on plastic grocery bags would be detrimental to the environment as well as to people. Summers builds his argument with the use of pathos, ethos, and statistics throughout the article.
The documentary film Blackfish, by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, is a daring venture, which claims that orcas in captivity become dangerous to human beings, as well as to other orcas. Cowperthwaite points to SeaWorld, in particular, since this world-renowned tourist attraction has had many examples that support her claim. In producing this film, Cowperthwaite hopes to bring about an end to SeaWorld’s practice of using killer whales as performance animals since the limited environment is ultimately doing more harm than good for both the whales and their trainers. The purpose of this rhetorical analysis will be to determine whether Blackfish offers a compelling argument.
As early as the second paragraph, Carter uses pathos, or emotion to connect with his audience. He effectively uses vivid imagery with phrases such as, “ancient Caribou trails”, “brilliant mosaic of wildflowers, mosses, and lichens,” and “braided rivers that meander toward the Beaufort Sea.” This helps to captivate the audience and makes them feel attached to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. When he later puts the image of his refuge being destroyed, the audience feels hurt, or angry. He craftily uses contrasting words such as “forever destroy”, “disturb… animals,” and “tragedy”. This helps to introduce the idea of turning the Refuge into industrial development as very negative and something that must never happen.
Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals is a book about persuasion. Foer seeks to convince his readers to take any step in reducing what he believes is the injustice of harming animals. To achieve this, Foer employs many persuasion techniques and often changes his approach when he targets specific groups. His strategies include establishing himself as an ethical authority and appealing to his readers’ emotions, morals, and reason.
When thinking of the wilderness one might picture a scene from a camp site. Untamed dense forest, and endless jungle probably come first to mind and although this might be one meaning of wilderness, Mellor’s perception of wilderness and pastoral opens our thoughts on how we view the unpredictable and the known. In “Lure Of The Wilderness” by Leo Mellor, he shows the meaning of the unexplored wilderness and the surprises that come with the unknown, while humans try to tame what is wild and create a pastoral environment around them. Mellor’s writing helps understand hidden aspects in the short story “Wild” by Lesley Arimah, when Ada is blindsided with a plane ticket to visit her aunt in Africa. She travels to a place mostly unknown to her, besides the relatives living there. It might seem that Ada does not like to reach out and try something that could be considered out of the norm. Yet, she travels to an unknown mostly foreign to her given the past years of her childhood. It challenges Ada to change her perspective on certain aspects of her life, helping her overcome the wilderness she finds emerged in. Thus, when Mellor’s idea of wilderness in his essay are applied to “Wild”, it can be realized that Ada not only journeys into the wilderness, but starts to let it transform her into a new person, helping her develop a more pastoral environment around her and making her realize that the relationships back in the U.S. meant more to her than she had previously thought.
Media in our modern era is the main source of information. What the media reports and says is what shapes our societies views and ideas on certain issues or events. Therefor the media is a powerful industry but sometimes they can be misleading and fickle. In Crocodile Tears Steve Irwin, an aussie icon, is brutally abused and targeted by the media but when he dies the media instantly changes its brutal view into a "heartfelt" sorrow attitude. In Crocodile Tears author Jack Marx uses stylistic features to make people aware of the harsh truth of how the media operates, through manipulation and fickle beliefs they can damage a person image and