Joy Williams wrote this essay, "Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp", directed towards the human race, and explaining how nature is being ruined by us. Although the human race is a giant part of this earth, and not everyone can be blamed for the ruin of nature, she claims that we all have a role in this destruction. That is, except herself. The author is constantly upraising nature, as one would usually do with God. In the end the author blames the reader, and all of humanity, for the killing of Nature.
In her essay, the author uses all of the rhetoric devices, (logos, pathos, and ethos) in order to make her writing more effective. Williams writes in a way that gives herself authority over all humans, and portrays her sense of pride and arrogance. The author uses quotes from outside sources, and does have evidence for her claims. However, her writing is so influenced by anger and resentment, that the reader is not able to take Williams seriously. There is a hopeless and depressing tone used by the author that influences the reader. At one point she even makes a claim that the reader does not "believe in Nature anymore." This is the appeal to pathos, used by the author very frequently, in order to make the reader feel bad. The author uses the second person to make the reader feel blamed and guilty, as if it were the reader's fault for the killing of animals in the world. According to Williams, we can't do anything to change the situation since, according to her, we are all too late for nature.
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