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Rhetorical Analysis Of Edward Abbey's Essay 'Down The River'

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Down the River Rhetorical Analysis
In his collection of essays entitled Down the River, American author Edward Abbey shares many of his experiences and conclusions from exploring the world. Abbey’s writing demonstrates his adventurous side and his willingness to go out into the wilderness. From his adventures, he learns more about the world than most people, which he shares with his readers. Edwards Abbey uses rhetorical strategies such as anecdotes, diction, and hyperboles to achieve his overall purpose of how much knowing and experiencing the true beauty of nature is mostly unknown by most people living their busy lives.
Edward Abbey uses anecdotes to convey his true feelings and expressions to give the readers a deep understanding of what he saw and experienced in nature. He discusses his first time coming face to face with a mountain lion describing how he was in awe and the mutual curiosity he felt between him and the lion. Abbey tells this tale when he states,”I stopped, the big cat stopped, …show more content…

His choice and stylistic manipulation of words creates a significant effect on passing his purpose onto us of the alluring beauty of nature. The author uses an intriguing word choice when he states,”...world is not nearly big enough and that any portion of its surface, left unpaved and alive, is infinitely rich in details and relationships, in wonder, beauty, mystery, comprehensible only in part.” Throughout this sentence, he uses many words to help the reader picture even a slight glimpse of what he is talking about throughout the essay. Abbey describes how every portion of nature not taken over by humans has endless details to find if you just stop to glimpse even for a minute. With this word choice, Abbey effectively makes the readers fascinated with the possibilities they could find from exploring

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