20. Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp

     Joy Williams in Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp, has a new take on the topic of saving the environment. She targets the audience directly, using first person pronouns such as "you". The main topic of the essay is to show how humans are a contribution to the destruction of the environment. She also tackles how humans can change their actions to change the environment. By addressing and accusing the reader on the first paragraph, Williams ensures that the reader will pay attention to her arguments. She then argues how we use nature as a form of entertainment, one example would be the zoo or the circus. She also argues how we use nature as machines, to undo the pollution we already did in the environment. She talks about who humans also tend to love things to death, and this is the case with the shrimp extinction. She then shifts her attention to how people need a change of consciousness and character, in order to help save nature and the environment.
   
     Joy Williams appeals to logos, pathos and ethos as a basis to her essay. Her essay is mainly effective due to the connection that the author establishes with the reader. She uses irony to make the reader realize who they are affecting the environment. Due to this, in the end of the essay there is a high probability that the reader will agree with her. She also does a good job in setting herself apart from the reader. With this she is able to make direct and efficient accusations. She uses a extremely direct attack that is efficient in transmitting her thesis and arguments and actually makes the reader think about her point. She also has many credible examples to support her argument. I think that if she had generalized her essay, it would have less effective. When a person is talking directly to you, you pay closer attention than if she was talking to a group you were in. It is the same strategy she uses, and she is actually successful in changing the readers point of view.

https://disassemblingwalle.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/savethewhales1.pdf