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Joselyn Salazar
Professor J
English 114B
12 May 2014
Rhetorical Analysis
Dystopian fictions make people question whether what they are doing in the present will
affect them tragically in the future. A big issue around the world like overcrowding, extinction of
animals, and human misery can be the results of a world where people made the wrong decisions
to cause a sad life. The authors of dystopian novels exaggerate the problem most of the time, but
the issue in their book is real. The current event in places like Indonesia has the problem of
animals like the rhinos or elephants becoming extinct. It is a topic that a lot of people do not find
serious because they do not see with their own eyes and they do not have to deal with it. Without
animals the world would be sad because animals impact our lives. People do not think about how
the world would be without animals. Dystopian stories inform people about current issues like
the one of the extinction of animals which is important because people need to know that they
are the cause of the dilemma.
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was passed to help the animals that were endanger
not become extinct, but people thought it was not important. The law did not end up helping as
many animals as they expected so the United States Congress wanted to get rid of the law
because they believed this was not going to make a difference to the animals. They claimed to be
spending too much money to try and save the endangered animals. The article, The Endangered
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Species Act Turns 40-Hold the Applause, by Damien Schiff and Julie Macdonald says that
while creating a cottage industry of litigation that does more to enrich environmental activist
groups than benefit the environment. In fact, only a few animals were being saved and too much
money was being wasted according to the ones that said it was not helping so they decided the
worst. The U.S. Congress cared more about how money was being wasted instead of thinking
about the animals that have been saved. It is better to help a few animals than saving none at all,
but they did not see it that way. For this reason, this is something to put into consideration
because if the Congress, people who have power, do not help the animals, others will not care to
solve the problem either.
In addition, many countries people do not realize how cruel it is to kill the animals
because people do not think about extinction. It is not considered how the future would be
without the animal they are killing. Many people see animals as a reward or trophy. Even though
they know it is wrong to kill the animal, they are willing to pay money for the animal. The
animal is worth more than just money. An article, A Trophy Hunts Thats Good for Rhinos, in
The New York Times by Richard Conniff says, thats the case with the $350,000 payment by a
trophy hunter intent on shooting a black rhino (Conniff). As a consequence there are not many
rhinos left, but hunters do not care about that. They might think it is impressive for a man to be
able to pay so much money to shoot an animal. It only takes a few seconds to make a huge
difference. Killing a black rhino makes a huge difference because they are endangered. There are
a few people that do care about these animals, but there are also many like this hunter willing to
pay thousands, not caring about extinction.
Moreover, some people take the homes of the animals by making companies in their
shelter without thinking of the effect. Other people kill them without thinking of the harm they
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are doing. The CNN article, The Battle to Save Sumatras Elephants from Extinction, by Jenni
Watts comments, No villager or farmer thinks that killing one elephant threatening his home
will wipe out the entire population. In other words, the villagers do not think that killing an
elephant will make a great difference, but they are wrong. People in other countries poison the
animals. They do this to get rid of the animals so they have room for themselves. They only think
about their own success. Making money is what they find important and it is a problem because
people do not care about the animals so they end up killing them. This shows that killing an
animal does not hurt their feelings or affect their lives so they are going to keep doing it and
animals are going to keep dying.
My story is related to the topic of extinction because I made it about a few animals
surviving in the future. The cause was not any type of disease; the cause was the people. Like in
the articles, people are selfish and building their companies in the homes of the animals. There is
no space for the animals to live, but people do not think about where the animals are going to
leave to after they make their homes or companies in the animals shelter. People are only
thinking about what will benefit them and how they profit from what they built in animals
homes. This is an important issue because people are not stopping this and animals cannot do
anything for themselves. If humans do not help animals no one can save them because animals
are not capable of stopping people. Either people build their projects in their home or they end up
killing the animals. No matter what the cause is the effect is all the same; the animals will
become extinct.
In my story, there are a few people that truly care about the animals. The main character,
Natalie, cares about the few animals that are left. The wealthy people in my story do not care
about any of the creatures or the people that care about animals so they made their own place
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where only people that do not believe animals should exist live. The issue of extinction is not a
problem to them. The wealthy people kill all the animals they come across. The story was
exaggerated in a way where it would make people think about how sad it would be if there were
not many animals left in the world. The character, Rose, stopped caring for animals when she
started thinking about herself like how people in the present only care about their own needs.
People need to think about issue that not only affect themselves, but also animals.
The issues in real life are connected to the ones in the dystopian I created because it
discusses how people in the present do not value the things like animals. There are some that are
selfish and maybe they build things to help other people, but they do not think about helping the
animals that are in need. People should not kill any animal because they are important to the
world. A place without animals is the same as a world without humans. They need each other for
the world to be complete. It is needed for people to learn about the problems going on in the
world in order to be able to stop them. These books help people learn about issues by tying what
they find from the story to the problems in the world.
Lastly, people have tried to stop this issue, but they think the effort they put into it has not
been effective. There are still many animals in the world, but it would be sad to think about
animals being extinct. Not having a certain type of animal in the world anymore would be tragic
because it would only be part of history. There are a few people that do not think about the
animals and in my story it shows how people like Rose slowly start caring less about animals. It
is an issue that is not discussed very often so people do not see it as an issue. They might care
about it for a while, but then they do not see the issue affecting them so they stop caring.