CR Piece #1: The Wreck of Time: Taking Our Century's Measure
Annie Dillard makes considerable points in her piece about the human population and the amount of people who have died in past years. Her basic claim is that 'while a single death may be considered a tragedy, a million is a statistic.' She definitely enforces a pathos approach when referring to tragedies such as Ted Bundy's murders, and the 138,000 people who drowned in Bagladesh. This tactic points the reader towards a deeper thinking about the world and individualism. She asks the reader questions about certain events like 'Where were you when this happened?' and 'What did you feel in that moment?'
To expand her ethos appeal, she uses many different cases and examples to support her argument, like a quote by paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, or the many statistics she uses about human population. These things help appeal to her accreditation as an author and they help the reader grasp what she is trying to say.
I think I could analyze this piece rhetorically because Dillard uses so many rhetorical tactics: ethos, logos, pathos, examples. Her language helps shape her argument because of the way she can relate her text to anyone who reads it. Her argument in itself is incredibly fascinating, and I think she does a really good job of carrying it out, making this piece a prime source of rhetoric.
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