A Walk in the Woods Rhetorical Analysis

A hysterical story conveys Bill Bryson's strong opinions on American wilderness preservation.

In the early 1980s, Bill Bryson, a passionate, comedic, and best-selling author, decided to hike the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail with minimal previous experience. He had felt the desire to be a true outdoorsman, and decided that the rumored "AT" would provide a true once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Departing with an old friend, Katz, Bryson traversed the eastern U.S. on foot, and then wrote A Walk in the Woods to describe his experiences. He writes for a broad audience, but he does seem to directly appeal to environmentally conscious readers. Because his book is not simply an entertaining story about his travels, Bryson's purpose is to educate his readers on the dire state of conservation in America. He does this primarily with statistics, establishing his credibility. When talking about the U.S. Forest Service's logging ventures, he states "Of the Forest Service's 150 million acres of loggable land, about two-thirds is held in store for the future. The remaining one-third – 49 million acres, roughly the size of Ohio – is available for logging" (47). This statement uses facts provided by the Forest Service themselves, and are irrefutable. He then goes on to make the logical argument that logging "brings out huge, reckless washoffs that gully the soil," (47) and ends with an appeal to pathos using words with strong connotations: "This isn't science. It's rape" (47). Bryson filters through a large amount of information in these sections of his book, which are placed periodically throughout his narrative. They typically relate to what he is experiencing, displaying logical organization and allowing him to use anecdotes. As part of his description of the U.S. Forest Service's weak service, he describes their pitiful maps of the Appalachian Trail. Just after this, he finds himself in a blizzard, consulting his map to no avail. I think that Bryson's use of rhetoric is very successful. His narrative conveys the beauty of his experience, and his logical arguments regarding conservation concisely convey that there is much work to be done to preserve the Appalachian Trail.

I have a sneaking suspicion he will find one of these, and I can't wait.