Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth: Rhetorical Analysis In Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, he focuses on the harm global warming does to our planet. He wants to persuade people that global warming is real, and that they should contribute to the effort of slowing, even completely stopping, global warming. Gore uses a variety of ways to appeal to pathos and logos. One of the first things he does, is explain global warming, he them proceeds to show a short, funny cartoon to describe global warming. While this short is not exactly accurate, and looks like it is taken from The Simpsons cartoon, it is comical, and he uses this short to intrigue his audience. After drawing us in, he keeps us attentive by sprinkling these little emotional holds into his argument. Gore tells us in the beginning about his son being hit by a car when he was five years old. This anecdote causes an overwhelming sense of sympathy and alarm but also wonder of how this relates to the argument. Then, Gore tells us tells us that the awful accident made his realize he wanted to do something important, wanted to do something to change the world, and that something was to spread the â€Å"global warning. †Almost fifty percent of the facts Al Gore uses also carry an emotional appeal, but they also are appealing to logos. Such as, if only half of Greenland and half of Antarctica melted water would cover so much land, including the 9/11 memorial, that the world maps would have to be redrawn, and he also tells us that global warming causes intense weather conditions, including hurricanes. Gore provides an audio track of a man describing hurricane reports that were coming in after making this point, and in the track the unknown man repeats â€Å"I can’t take it anymore, the water is up to my neck,† creating guilt in the audience. We contributed to that. Al Gore does a great job of presenting an appeal to pathos and logos. Al Gore uses more than just humor and anecdotes to relay information, however. He also uses expert testimony, and quantitative data by presenting a variety of charts, graphs, and pictures created by scientist, to prove his point. Gore uses a chart that shows how carbon dioxide and temperature correlate. When carbon dioxide rises, so does the temperature. At the time of the documentary, the carbon dioxide level was higher than it has ever been. He also uses a chart to show the ten hottest years in history, at that point in time, they all occurred within 14 years before. He places a higher thought of the two charts and other unmentioned, by saying that they were before unseen by the public. In addition to humor, anecdotes, expert testimony, and quantitative data to prove his point, he also throws just a few plain old facts at us. For example, Gore tells us that 200 towns and cities in the west have broken temperature records, and that science textbooks have had to be rewritten because it was before thought impossible for a hurricane to take place in the South-Atlantic, but then there was one. The hurricane was caused by warming of waters ocean wide. Al uses his variety of vehicles to present information to his advantage. While Al Gore does do a nice job of making his point, it would all be somewhat of a waist without established ethos. If he had no ethos, we would not take anything he said into consideration. When Gore introduces himself, he says, â€Å"I’m Al Gore and I used to be the next president of the United States. †Some people think that this may hurt him, but it is very untrue. He has to be a highly intelligent and well thought of man to run for president, and the votes were said to be â€Å"too close to count. Gore also establishes ethos through his dress; he is very well put together and professional. Al Gore has also written a book about global warming, and he would not be well enough equip to do so if he did not know a vast amount about it. This little piece of ethos helps him most to be taken seriously and for his audience to know that he knows what he is talking about. His audience is almost important to his ethos, and his audience is simply everyone in the world. Global warming is an issue for everyone who lives on this planet and Gore makes sure that he gets the word out. He even said that he knows that he has given his speech over one thousand times worldwide. Al Gore’s high level of ethos helps him to better appeal to the people of the world to spread the word on global warming. Al Gore was highly successful in furthering his message. When you take everything that he says and the methods he used to relay information, there is no doubt that he did. If he tells a small, or large, group of people about global warming, they are going to tell people they know about it and the word will spread. The way Gore gives his message was key. Everything he says is easy to follow and understand. He avoids anything that could cause confusion and backs up everything he says with something that correlates. For instance, the frog animation. Some people do not believe in global warming because it is gradual, but when you put a frog in water and slowly raise the temperature it also is unknowing. This example can turn skeptics into believers. Everything Al Gore says and does in his documentary adds to the success in thoroughly presenting his message. In Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, he uses an appeal to people’s logos and pathos through various techniques to persuade his audience that global warming is here and harming. His high level of ethos and knowing his audience well helps him to be taken seriously on this matter and over all being successful in giving his message to the world.