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

In this excerpt from his book, Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv uses anecdote, rhetorical questions, and wistful tone to illustrate the stark separation between people and nature. Louv opens his passage by describing an incident where a friend, looking to purchase a car, was repeatedly badgered by a salesman to buy a backseat television monitor add-on, ostensibly for her daughter’s benefit. He appeals to the incredulous audience by continuing his anecdote: “‘The salesman’s jaw dropped when I said I didn’t want [this attachment]...he almost refused to let me leave the dealership until he could understand why.’” (29-33) Louv includes this anecdote in order to highlight the effects of a society that had begun to untether itself from nature:
He appeals to the shared experiences of the veteran audience by recalling, “We stared with a kind of reverence at the horizon, as thunderheads and dancing rains moved with us. We held our little plastic cars against the glass and pretended that they, too, were racing toward some unknown destination. We considered the past and dreamed of the future, and watched it all go by in the blink of an eye.” (67-74) Louv joins in this time of reverie in order to mourn for one last time a romanticized age - an age when man and nature were locked in inseparable unity - that had long since died, drowned in an unforgiving sea of luxury cars and backseat television monitors. This recollection of memories gone past conveys a wistful and mournful tone that signals to the audience that the short halcyon days of man, side by side with nature, have retreated to the annals of history forever. Louv’s nostalgic recollections of the past mourn the passing of an age where people did not wish to sever the ties between them and nature.
In this excerpt from his book, Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv uses anecdote, rhetorical questions, and wistful tone to illustrate the stark separation between people and