Bogard’s “Let there be dark,” review
The second Bogard uses Logos. He starts at paragraph three when he talks about how “Our bodies need darkness to produce the hormone melatonin.” He explains a physical benefit in order to create a base. By throwing out small facts one at a time, he builds layers to make his higher examples that much more persuasive. He later states how “nocturnal and crepuscular species of birds, insects, fish, and reptiles” depend on darkness in their daily lives. This fact adds another layer of detail and adds to the base he has created. In paragraph seven, he makes a logical counterpoint about how “Paris, named ‘city of light,” turns their lights off at 1 a.m., and the building’s lights at 2 a.m. This final piece of evidence that Bogard uses. He gives evidence explicitly from another perspective so that the reader understands his logic further. Since Bogard uses evidence from the opposite argument, it creates an even higher point than before. He takes into account anybody that wants to argue against him and proves his point with overflowing evidence and perfection.
In Bogard’s “Let there be dark,” he uses a variety of literary devices to persuade the reader. The first literary device he uses is word choice. At the start of the first paragraph, he sets the tone of the piece when he says, “I knew the woods so dark that my hands disappeared before my eyes.” The words “disappeared before my eyes” creates an image of power. Before Bogard goes into any evidence to support his claim, he first wants to demonstrate to the reader what kind of an impact that darkness can have. He then appeals to the reader’s feelings in the next sentence; “But now when 8 of 10 children born in the United States will never know a sky dark enough for the Milky Way, I worry we are rapidly losing night’s natural darkness before realizing it is worth.” He first uses the words “never know a sky dark enough for the Milky Way” to suggest how times have changed, creating a theme of urgency. He also uses “rapidly losing” later in the sentence, enforcing the theme of importance and urgency that he just stated earlier. He keeps adding more and more layers and themes to build his argument. Later that paragraph, he uses the words “natural darkness” and “irreplaceable value” to create a theme of beauty and timeless value. He is using distinct and elegant words to grab the reader’s attention before he even states any of his evidence. From the start of the first paragraph, Bogard uses varied word choices to create different themes, such as power, urgency, and beauty, setting up his evidence later in the piece.