"On a Monument to the Pigeon"

            In the article “On a Monument to the Pigeon” Aldo Leopold uses a strong word choice to inform the reader of the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon.  Although, this article didn’t persuade me as much as previous articles did, it was effective in building sorrow for the extinction of the animal.  The rhetor used many appeals to pathos, through the usage of diction and syntax.  He would end sentences with “but the feathered lightning is no more,” or even begin with “but no pigeons will pass.”  These strong phrases are effective because what came before it.  The author would build the image of beautiful nature that occurs around the audience, but then after informs them that the pigeon will no longer will be part of it.  It leaves the reader feeling sorrow and that they are missing out on one of nature’s beauties, even if prior to reading the article the reader has never heard of the animal or did not care about seeing the bird.  The writer also uses imagery to capture the beauty of the bird and its environment it lived in.

            I think the article was less effective for me, personally, because I felt that the whole time they were building up how remarkable this bird was, but I never really understood what the bird did that was so heroic.  I understand that animals can be magnificent for the fact that they are animals and that they can be beautiful.  But I felt like they were building up this bird for like a big revealing and its significance and I never truly reached it.  One reason that the article may not have affected me as much is because I may not have been the audience they intended for the piece.  I feel if I had a little more on the background of the bird I would have been more affected by it.  However, in the end, it did build my sorrow for the animal; for the sake that an extinction of an animals that was cause by humans is upsetting and that many will never see it’s true beauty.