Jimmy Carter Rhetorical Devices

In former United State’s president Jimmy Carter’s Foreword to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Season of Life and Land, A Photographic Journey by Subhankar Banerjee, he states his opinions on the topic of turning the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into a building for industry. In this foreword, Carter uses three main rhetorical devices in order to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument of protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. These three rhetorical devices: ethos, pathos, and logos, are considered universally as the three necessary tools of persuasive literature.
Ethos is the appeal to credibility or ethics. As a former president, Carter’s appear trustworthy to there who voted for him and believed in him back

then. His status as a former president established him as trustworthy since a man who governed the United States of America what he is talking about. Furthermore, during his time as president Carter “signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act… that safeguard more than a hundred million acres of national parks, refuges, and forests in Alaska” (5). The act of signing this Act allowed Carter to establish trust with the people who are eco-friendly. This proves to them that Carter’s words in the foreword are truth and not lies since he previously showed his involvement in protecting the wildlife. As a result, former president Jimmy Carter uses ethos to establish trust and credibility in his foreword which helps strengthen the persuasive of his argument.
Pathos is the appeal to feeling and emotions.

In his farewell, Carter states that a decade year ago, his wife and him took a trip to the Arctic Refuge. Carter claims that they “walked along ancient caribou trails and studied the brilliant mosaic of wildflowers, mosses, and lichens that hugged the tundra” (2). By using such descriptive language, that appeals to one of our five senses, sight, Carter is able to help the American people image the amazing Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that they might teardown. They would feel pity for the plants and animals. Furthermore, Carter claims that most of the unforgettable experience of his trip was when they saw the migration of caribou. He described the migration with the words “the sweep of tundra before us become flooded with life, sounds of grunting animals,... clicking hooves filling the air” (3). All of his descriptive language in his foreward helps his audience, the American people, imagine that they were the ones who actually took a trip there. In addition, this also builds up Carter's credibility because he has actually been to the Refuge, his opinions of the place came from the bottom. Also, Carter later descended the refuge as “consumed by a web of reddis and pipelines, drilling rigs, and industrial facilities” (4). When he adds in a scenario of the great wilderness of the refuge being replaced by tools, the American people can image the destruction of the place which makes them feels angered and say. Carter uses pathos by appealing to the feeling of pity, anger, and sadness to strengthen his

argument.
Logos is the appeal to logic. In his foreward, Carter states that if the American people decide to turn the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into an industry, it would be pointless. Carter brings out statistics and states that “at best, the Arctic Refuge might provide one to two percent of the oil out country consumes each day” (7). Jimmy Carter basically asks that what is the point of turning an amazing space of wilderness into an industry for a small amount of oil when there are better methods of gaining oil. He rebuttals that “ we can easily conserve more than that amount by driving more fuel-efficient vehicles” (7). Carter provided real statistics as his evidence for his main argument of not turning the Refuge into an industry. Carter appeals to logos by bringing an argument and supporting it with real evidence such as facts.
Overall, it is clear that in former United State’s president Jimmy Carter’s forward to Arctic national Wildlife Refuge: Season of Life and Land, a Photographic Journey by Subhankar Banerjee, he uses three rhetorical devices to communicate the American people not to turn the Arctic National Refuge into an industry. These three rhetorical devices ethos, pathos, and logos, helps Carter build up his argument by strengthening the logic and persuasiveness of it.