Barbara Kingsolver, the author of Lily’s Chickens and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, is widely known for her variety of published works. In fact, she was even named one the most important writers of the 20th Century by Writers Digest. Although Kingsolver addresses sensitive topics regarding the food industries across the world, she uses several rhetorical strategies including humor, logos and ethos to create a connection with the reader, in hopes that she can guide the food-buying public towards healthier choices.
In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Kingsolver uses humor to get the reader to relax while reading about her ideas and experiences. Almost immediately, Kingsolver incorporates humor into Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life while describing her family’s slow adaptation to change. She jokes that, “Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel.” Through this strategy, she shows that she is also subject to imperfection while working to change. By comparing herself to the reader, Kingsolver is able to encourage the reader by showing that if she can change, others can change too. In Lily’s Chicken she admits, “I am trying to learn about this complicated web as I go, and I’m in no position to judge anyone else’s personal habits, believe me.” Had Kingsolver not addressed that she also had trouble adjusting, her points would be less valid and her ideas could be considered extreme and unrealistic.
In addition to humor, Kingsolver employs logos to strike the reader’s logic and reasoning by using statistics concerning how far food travels from around the world. In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life she says, “Our average food item covers fifteen-hundred miles to reach us. Because of industrial farming and food transport, we are now putting almost as much gasoline into our diets as into our cars.” Through her use of logos, Kingsolver provides a shocking fact to both intrigue the reader and support her idea that we do not pay enough attention to where our food actually comes from. Without facts, her statements would have no justification and would not be taken seriously by the reader. She also incorporates logical suggestions that could benefit our nation as a whole. Kingsolver suggests in Lily’s Chickens that, “We could make for ourselves a safer nation, overnight, simply by giving more support to our local food economies and learning ways of eating and living around a table that reflects the calendar.” This logical assumption proves to the reader that not only our health would improve but our safety could be improved too.
Lastly, Kingsolver uses ethos to appeal to the reader’s emotions. In Lily’s Chickens, she expresses her love for her family and encourages the reader to change for the safety of not only themselves, but most importantly, their loved ones. Kingsolver reminds the reader that, “Health is an issue, too: My growing girls don’t need the hormones and toxins that lace American food in regulated quantities (the allowable doses are more about economic feasibility that about proven safety).” This fact is given to the reader to stir their protective instincts and to encourage them to create a better diet for their family’s health.
Through her uses of rhetorical strategies including humor, logos and ethos, Kingsolver’s style intends to educate, inform, and persuade the reader to pursue a healthier lifestyle. Despite the sensitivity that can be found within the topics of industrial food production, Kingsolver establishes a connection with the reader, in hopes that she can guide the food-buying public towards healthier choices.
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