"On a Monument to the Pigeon"

In Aldo Leopold’s “On a Monument to the Pigeon” he writes about the extinct passenger pigeon. He shares the effects of their disappearance and reasons for why that matters to humanity. Leopold’s use of a sad, grieving tone built pathos for himself and the article. He writes in a tone that makes his readers feel what the pigeons feel, sadness. He also uses lots of personification and builds the relationship between human and pigeon. 

I enjoyed how Leopold attempted to get his point across from this writing. He used very attention-grabbing sentences. There was multiple examples of imagery in each line. I liked how he included himself with his readers by saying, “we” and “us.” By doing this, it makes it seem like he’s not calling other humans out for the extinction of these pigeons but as if he knows its all of us as one. And that it’s all of us that will be able to save the lives of other species. 

The ending of this article made me feel sorrow for the pigeon as well as others who may be going in extinct. Although the article didn’t make me see what was so important about the animal because it’s an animal and i believe they are all important, I didn’t think much of it. After reading this article, I do hope that Leopold was able to send a message out to his other readers and hope for the best of other species.