Summary Of The Seperation Of Nature By Richard Louv

The message Richard Louv conveys in his essay about the seperation between people and nature is clear, simple, and well written. The rhetorical strategies he uses such as repetition, diction, pathos, facts, and lists are what aid him in giving his message meaning to the audience, and makes it obvious what his opinions on the subject are. From the very first sentence of the passage, he is already using rhetorical strategies in getting his point across; Louv thinks that technology is to blame for the increasing separation between people and nature. At the beginning, he starts off with information given from researchers at the State University of New York, a statement that can’t be argued about. However, his first sentence including that information isn’t the main focus of his essay. Louv only uses it to transition into more complex examples of how technology is changing us in negative ways. He never once comes out and states that technology is bad, because that would be an opinionated, generalized statement. Instead, he uses facts (and examples further on) to lend credibility to his message.

Sure, he uses more advanced words like “synthetic” or “irrelevance”, but he also decides to use the word “worth”. He could’ve said we simply ignore nature, but using the word “worth” gives the audience the idea that something important is being overlooked. He uses this word in line 46 as well when he asks, “More important, why do so many people no longer consider the physical world worth watching?” In giving nature this air of importance, Louv indirectly implies, again, that technology separating us from it is