Summary Of Last Child In The Woods By Richard Louv

Throughout the centuries, technology has been advancing nonstop. Whether it be a television, some gunpowder, or even a watch, humans keep on creating more contraptions. However, accompanying these inventions is the increasing separation between mankind and the world. As Richard Louv discusses in a passage from Last Child in the Woods, scientists and researchers continue to invent technologies that they claim to better connect humans and nature, although in reality, they are doing the opposite. In the passage, Louv debates against these technologies with the use of anecdotes, imagery, and anaphoras.
To allow the audience to better relate to his argument, Louv uses an anecdote. From lines 23 to 33, he describes a situation where a friend of his was badgered to purchase a car that came with a television monitor. When his friend told the salesman she was against the idea, his “jaw dropped.” She continues on and explains how the salesman “refused to let [her] leave the dealership until he could understand why.” Many people find it hard to comprehend why others would not want to be as close as possible to all kinds of technology. Yes, they are useful and do make numerous things

faster and easier, but too much of anything isn’t always good. By incorporating this anecdote into the passage, Louv provides a situation where the reader can easily relate to and understand his frustration.
In his passage, Richard Louv also includes many uses of imagery.

From lines 48 to 54, he describes in great detail what children back in his days used to see during car rides— “the empty farmhouse at the edge of the subdivision; the variety of architecture, here and there; the woods and fields and water beyond the seamy edges—all that was and is still available to the eye.” By writing about the beauties of the world, Louv hopes to pull the audience closer to nature and away from the confinements of technology. The imagery used here lets the reader vividly envision the landscape Louv used to observe as a child, to remind the audience what they are missing out on. Introducing a splash of imagery helps strengthen Louv’s claim that technology is disconnecting humans from the world they live

in.
Another rhetorical strategy Louv uses is anaphoras. This can be exemplified with lines 62 to 73. In these lines, the author, Louv, repeatedly begins his phrases with “We,” following it with pieces of what he saw when he looked out the car window during a ride. “We stared with a kind of reverence at the horizon, as thunderheads and dancing rain 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,” wrote Louv. His use of anaphoras generates an effect on the audience, bringing them back to childhood— when they might have also watched the rain pour down from the inside of a car, or maybe pondered about what the future would be like.
As days go by, more and more people— children, and even their parents— become preoccupied with the technologies near them. They frequently forget to take a few seconds out of their technology-filled lives and admire nature. However, using rhetorical strategies such as anecdotes, imagery, and anaphoras, Richard Louv shares his belief that it is not too late to stop the separation between humans and nature.