Sunday, February 8, 2015

20. Save the Whale, Screw the Shrimp

       Joy Williams, the author of this powerful article, talks about how people mistreat and do not care about the environment anymore. She guilt trips the readers fore eating the abruptly killed animals and into thinking about the ads or photographs about them that they just ignored or simply did not want to think about it. Williams gives many examples of how humans refuse to think about others, the animals, and act completely selfish; farmers using poison on their crops, shrimp and shrimpers refusing the use TED and completely ignoring the fact that the nets used to catch the shrimps kill other turtles, fish and dolphins. She criticizes tourism stating that it brought more buildings and pollution, which leads to acid rain and causes the destruction of wildlife. She concludes by saying that such environmental problems are hard and take time to fix, she blames society for thinking that nature is some sort of human material when truly it is something to be appreciated. At the end, the reader can realize that by changing the way he ignores the harm humans do to the environment, he can help make a bigger change.

        This article was very informal and all over the place. The author uses “you” and “I” many times and she jumps from one subject to another which can make her article at times confusing. Her purpose was obviously to inform the reader about the harm and mistreatment that men do on a daily basis. She accuses the reader of being conscious of all the injustice men do; however, he chooses to ignore it rather than taking a stand. Her essay is a very fast paced essay and she creates an emotional appeal towards the reader. The informality and emotions cause the reader to relate to her and somewhat agree with her; making him think again before ordering a burger. For the reader who did not know about the mistreatments she was talking it is certainly an eye opener and causes them to feel guilty and pity all those who were harmed; which is her purpose. Williams had strong arguments and expressed herself very well throughout the whole article, standing up to what she believes is right.



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