Johnson C. Montgomery, the author of The Island of Plenty, uses many figures of speech in the article to support his opinion. Lots of different rhetorical devices are used such as comparison and repetition. In passage 8, author mainly uses the comparison which is a rhetorical strategy and method of organization in which a writer examines similarities or differences between two things. The article says that future of the world need children; however, there are some preconditions. ‘But it is with the nourished, educated, and loved children.
It is not with the starving, uneducated, and ignored. ’(Montgomery, Page 541) the purpose of Montgomery using comparison in this sentence is to tell audience that if there are too much children in the world, less resources can be shared with each child and there will be more uneducated and ignored children. But the fact is: our future needs children who are been taken good care of. With the comparison, the readers can understand the importance of birth controlling better. Cause no one wants to live in the terrible future.
In passage 11, he also mentions that ‘if everyone shared equally, we would all be suffering from protein-deficiency brain damage-and that would probably be true even if we ate every last animal on earth. ’(Montgomery, Page542). Montgomery compares personal interests - if we don’t share resource with others, on one hand, we wouldn’t encounter many potential dangers, on the other hand, we are able to have sufficient food for ourselves, for our children. Everyone wants to give their offspring best resources.
Through comparisons, the tone of Montgomery can be passed to the audience strongly - the birth control and no sharing with others are substantial. Also, repetition, another rhetorical strategy by using a word, phrase, or clause more than once in a short passage to underline the author’s idea, is used in passage 3. ‘The problem is not that there is too little food. The problem is there are too many people – many too many’ (Montgomery, Page540). With the repetition, the author highlights his point of view over and over again.
The purpose of this is to tell the audience that main problem in front of human is that there are too many people in this planet instead of shortage of food. On the other hand, by using ‘the problem is not…’, ‘the problem is…’ Montgomery clears up the misconception that the main reason why we shouldn’t share with other. Also, repeating the world ‘problem’ help the author reinforces the issue is really urgent. If Montgomery didn’t uses the comparison and repetition to convey his idea in the context. The audiences may feel the article is less persuasive for just telling the advantage of no-sharing with others, and his tone will not be strong enough to express his attitude to the target readers.
