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Matthew Johnson

Kade Parry

English 2010

30 January 2017

Analysis of Eggers Rhetorical Strategies

In Robert Eggers Article Five Myths About Hunger in America he talks about 5

myths about hunger in America including: No one goes hungry in America, Ending

malnourishment is merely a humanitarian concern, Children are not the only ones who go

hungry, The food that America wastes could feed everybody, and Hunger is about food.

He uses logic and facts to disprove each of these myths and even provide a solution for

some of them. Although he does use logos in a lot of his article, he also uses ethos and

pathos to convey his message and prove his ideas.

According to a biography of Egger, named Robert Egger, he wrote this article

in 2010 after the market crash of 2008 when the prices of food and groceries were

inflated and the prices just started to reduce. Egger is the founder and president of L.A.

Kitchen, which takes cosmetically imperfect fruit from local farmers and trains culinary

arts students. He also uses this food to feed families that would not be able to provide for

themselves otherwise. Eggers intended audience is the average citizen of America. He is

trying to give people an understanding of the problem and clear up any false information

they may have heard so that they can deal with the problem. It was written in Los

Angeles where 16%, approximately 1.4 million people, of the population does not know

when their next meal is going to be, or where it will come from. The larger conversation

that Egger is a part of is the fact that America has too little jobs and too small of wages.
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Egger does a very good job using logos to prove his point and to show how his

ideas will help the starving community of America. Egger uses many statistics throughout

his essay to prove his points. For example, he states, 17.4 million American families -

almost 15 percent of U.S. households - are now food insecure. This first statistic helps

him establish his main argument that there is in fact hunger in America, and that it is not

some crazy idea that people only think exists in other countries.

He states in a second statistic that Military officers recently warned that more

than 9 million young adults - 27 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 - weigh too much to

enlist, This statistic about the military helps him use pathos by putting a little bit of fear

in the American people's hearts. When the amount of people that can enroll in the military

is dropping, then it might affect American citizens safety, and that is the number one

concern for most families in America. Not only does his second statistic use pathos, it

uses ethos by stating that the Military officers warned. He is using a trusted source by

many Americans to give the facts rather than giving them himself, which helps validate

his facts.

His third statistic explains that 9 percent of medical spending... is devoted to

treating obesity. His third statistic is using logos to lead to pathos. He does this by

stating facts that hurt the average Americans wallet. Egger knows that Americans love

money, and when they hear a statistic that says they are losing money, then they instantly

become afraid of losing money. He explains that a lot of obese people are using

government funding because they are legally handicapped. People who are on disability

are taking other peoples tax money, and nobody hates taxes more than US citizens. He

uses these statistics to back up his ideas and often times lead into other rhetorical texts
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like ethos and pathos. Eggers use of logos not only convinces the reader that these myths

are just that, myths, it also transitions the reader into trusting Egger and even feeling

some of the emotions that he wishes the reader to feel while reading this essay.

Egger uses ethos a lot in his article in addition to logos. He uses ethos by citing all

of his information sources. Whenever he gives a fact, he first starts by giving the survey

or study where he got this fact. For example, when he states his first fact mentioned

above, he starts off by saying according to a new report by the U.S. Department of

Agriculture. Although a lot of people dont know what the U.S. Department of

Agriculture is, they know that it is a U.S. Department, which allows them to trust the

information that they are being given. He does this with all of his statistics and is

consistent throughout the entirety of his article which gives the reader confidence that his

logic and ideas are all backed up by real facts and statistics. He also has a way of

connecting personally with each reader. He does this by finding common fears and

emotions. For example, he realizes that everybody, including him, hates taxes. He uses

this idea to help connect with the reader by sharing the same ideas. He also uses logos

that is simple and easy to understand so anybody reading can understand no matter what

kind of education they have. This is very beneficial because people do not want to read

articles that they dont understand or articles that arent straightforward because they do

not want to feel like they are being manipulated.

Although it may seem that Eggers piece is sort of a logical and statistical article,

he also sneaks in a few sentences that suggest pathos. Like mentioned above, Americans

have a rational fear of losing money, and Egger knows this, so he likes to exploit it. A lot

of his facts include Americans and how they end up losing money in the end. He uses
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these facts to pull on the emotions of the reader, whether it be fear, pity, or anger. An

example of a place that he uses these kind of statistics is when he is talking about how

malnutrition can lead a child into crime, and eventually into jail. He specifically talks

about the taxes that are included in housing prisoners as to get people to become angry

and afraid of malnutrition/hunger and how much money it will actually end up costing

them. He is very smart when he mentions taxes. He knows that everybody has to have a

basic knowledge of taxes if you are an American citizen. He uses this not only when he

talks about prisoners, but when he talks about obese people as well like mentioned above.

Also, when he talks about starving mothers, he knows that a lot of mothers can relate to

this situation and he likes to have some sort of relatability for his readers so they will feel

pity for the people who are currently going through this problem. He knows that people

have a conscious and they hate it when people arent being taken care of or treated fairly.

He talks about single mothers because he knows that this is a very controversial topic in

todays world and almost everybody supports single mothers.

Egger uses rhetorical text all throughout his essay, and it is very effective in

persuading the audience to act and participate in helping out people in need. The way that

he uses his rhetorical strategies are so effective, yet they do not make you feel like you

are being lied to. This takes a certain amount of mastery and is extremely difficult to do

well. You come away from this article with new knowledge about how you can help

people in need. You also come away from this article with the want to help those who are

suffering from malnutrition. He does do a very good job at making people feel like the

government is treating them unfairly.

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Works Cited

"Robert Egger." Robert Egger. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.