Many people feel that nature is beautiful and it needs to be cherished. Edward Abbey, the author of "Down the River", uses imagery to cherish nature, ethos to convey famous peopleโs opinions about nature, and words with strong connotations to strongly describe the solemnity of nature, all in order to effectively demonstrate the beauty and mysteries of nature.
Firstly, the author uses imagery to cherish nature. He describes animals by using specific words such as innards of barren cacti. These kinds of words not only describe animals but also very effectively allow the reader to imagine such animals in front of their eyes. He also claims that the lion melted away when he was describing the movements of the lion, and this kind of description makes the reader feel like a lion is gracefully and quickly moving out of its eyes. The readers of this excerpt might be everyone who can read English, and such descriptions make those people easy to imagine what the author has seen. Therefore, this effectively demonstrates the beauty and mysteries of nature that the author has seen.
Secondly, the author uses ethos to convey famous peopleโs opinions about nature. He firstly refers to Thoreau, a famous philosopher, and writer, so that he can convey the idea of how people can consider nature as their whole world. Since the author is an essayist but not as famous as Thoreau to most audiences, such reference can clearly support his idea about the relationship between nature and the world. By that, the author can effectively build up the idea of how the world is not just beautiful but mysterious in a way that is subjective to every people.
Thirdly, the author uses words with strong connotations to strongly describe the solemnity of nature. The author claims that the winter day is alarmingly short. The word โalarminglyโ establishes an impatient tone rather than a peaceful tone; however, considering that the exigence of this passage is the authorโs witness of grandeur nature, he might have wanted to describe the fast-changing nature with the word that can create an impatient tone. Such word choice can be seen as the author is getting amazed by the work of nature; therefore, this effectively builds up the beautifulness and mysteries of nature that the author has felt through the changing weather. Moreover, the purpose of this essay is to convey the beautifulness and mysteries of nature that the author has felt to the readers, and such word effectively shows how the author has felt at that moment.
To summarize, the author uses imagery ethos, and strong word choices differently but for the same purpose: showing the beautifulness and mysteries of nature. Such rhetorical choices were effective enough to fulfill his purpose.
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Writer: Grace Jun
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