Preserving Natural Darkness In Paul Bogard's Let There Be Dark

In Paul Bogard’s article “Let there be dark” he’s making an argument to persuade his audience to preserve natural darkness. Bogard builds his argument in a different ways. Bogard uses a personal story, he appeals to emotion, and he states benefits of having natural darkness, and no artificial light.
By using a personal story Bogard allows his audience to connect and relate with him. The personal story shows that the issue of preserving natural darkness isn’t just some silly topic to discuss, but something that he honestly cares for. In his personal story Bogard uses great imagery making the audience picture what he saw and maybe make them want to know what that’s like too. Bogard is very passionate and believes strongly that people should preserve

natural darkness, his passion and relatability can move people to want to experience what he feels for the dark.

Bogard uses examples that would appeal to people’s emotions. In the article he wrote “Those of us over 35 are perhaps among the last generation to have known truly dark nights.” This statement appeals more to the younger generation’s emotion. Many of the younger generation truly care about the earth and want to do anything to help and preserve it. By stating this the younger generation will want to have the chance to experience such natural beauty and be able to share with the older generation. This would probably help convince his younger audience the get on board with him and stop using so much light when it isn’t necessary.

Bogard writes about the benefits that natural darkness actually produces to help further convince the audience. In the article he states that the dark helps the body create melatonin (a hormone that keeps certain cancers from developing). He also states that without darkness it isn’t possible to sleep correctly, and without correct sleep the body could get harmed. Causing diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and many more concerning ones. These examples show how truly beneficial the dark is and how much it actually helps, and the author knows how much people care about their wellbeing. This also helps appeal to an audience that might not really care for the beauty of darkness but care for their own personal health.

Bogard uses different appeals and rhetorical devices in order to persuade his audience. The different features also help him in appealing to a larger audience that has different needs, and concerns.