Week 5: "Why Bambi Must Go" Rhetorical Analysis

Daniel Cristol begins his article by heavily relying on imagery to paint a picture of Central Park in New York City. The problem that he identifies is that of the high deer population is taking a toll on the lives of people, forests of the area, and its wildlife inhabitants, and there is not much that could be done about this population issue. He assumes his readers are not to well informed about the subject at hand, thus providing many details about deer population, its history, and other animals of the Central Park area. His purpose is to provide a solution for the problem. In order to accomplish this purpose, he appeals mainly to wildlife managers. In this essay, Cristol addresses the main argument against his thesis, the idea that the conservation methods of the early 20th century were extremely successful and managed to keep the deer population at a desirable number. He refutes his argument by saying that perhaps the efforts to manage the deer reflects negatively upon the rest of the ecosystem. Finally, he concludes by making the point that a healthy balance between management and the course of nature is much needed. He acknowledges the need for better methods of management while simultaneously pointed out that too much management may not always be a good thing. Overall, the argument Cristol makes is ineffective because he emphasizes greatly upon the problems, not not necessarily enough on the solution. If there were more support, more elaboration , and more focus on the solution, his argument would prove to be very effective.