How Richard Louv Influences The Audience in The Last Child in The Woods

In Richard Louv’s novel, The Last Child in the Woods, Louv argues that our society’s advancement in technology is furthering the separation between today’s generation and nature itself. Louv’s use of indirectly implying his main idea, having a narrative that consists of countless thought provoking rhetorical questions, and his illustrations of hypothetical situations are key components that are seen throughout Louv’s work that helps develop his claim. His purpose is to open the eyes of today’s society and show them just how irrelevant “true” nature has become to us thanks to various “multimedia entertainment products” (Louv 1) in order to inspire multitudes of people to reevaluate their lifestyle choices and rediscover the wonders of nature. Through Louv’s demonstration of nostalgic imagery he is able to appeal to his intended audience of middle aged parents with kids of the next generation who had once been able seen nature for all that it had to offer when they were younger.

In many ways, by reading between the lines, especially when it comes to Louv’s work, can show the reader the actuality of what the point is the writer is trying to get across to their audience. This strategy allows Louv to fully state his ideas on a matter without actually verbally expressing it in his writing. By describing how, “The salesman’s jaw dropped when she said she didn’t want a backseat television for her daughter” (Louv 1), Louv is showing just how surprising it is to find someone in today’s society who doesn’t want the greatest and latest technology the market has to offer. This implies just how much our civilization depends on electronics even for some of the most elementary tasks such as entertainment. Being all absorbed into one’s mobile device is now what’s viewed as “normal” when ten or twenty years ago a “normal” form of entertainment for kids was to be running and playing outside. The attention span of today’s generation has greatly decreased, where now kids can barely go a fifteen

In Richard Louv’s novel, The Last Child in the Woods, Louv argues that our society’s advancement in technology is furthering the separation between today’s generation and nature itself. Louv’s use of indirectly implying his main idea, having a narrative that consists of countless thought provoking rhetorical questions, and his illustrations of hypothetical situations are key components that are seen throughout Louv’s work that helps develop his claim. His purpose is to open the eyes of today’s society and show them just how irrelevant “true” nature has become to us thanks to various “multimedia entertainment products” (Louv 1) in order to inspire multitudes of people to reevaluate their lifestyle choices and rediscover the wonders of nature. Through Louv’s demonstration of nostalgic imagery he is able to appeal to his intended audience of middle aged parents with kids of the next generation who had once been able seen nature for all that it had to offer when they were younger.

In many ways, by reading between the lines, especially when it comes to Louv’s work, can show the reader the actuality of what the point is the writer is trying to get across to their audience. This strategy allows Louv to fully state his ideas on a matter without actually verbally expressing it in his writing. By describing how, “The salesman’s jaw dropped when [she] said [she] didn’t want a backseat television for [her] daughter” (Louv 1), Louv is showing just how surprising it is to find someone in today’s society who doesn’t want the greatest and latest technology the market has to offer. This implies just how much our civilization depends on electronics even for some of the most elementary tasks such as entertainment. Being all absorbed into one’s mobile device is now what’s viewed as “normal” when ten or twenty years ago a “normal” form of entertainment for kids was to be running and playing outside. The attention span of today’s generation has greatly decreased, where now kids can barely go a fifteen minute car ride without some way to keep them occupied. Even though for many it may seem as if they have the world at their fingertips by being constantly attached to their phones, computers, etc.; In reality, they are actually missing out on what all the real world has to offer.

For the purpose of taking his narration to a more personal level, Louv’s usage of rhetorical questions is a way for him to persuade the reader to think about the actual situation at hand; instead of leaving it up to everyone else to solve. By using questions such as, “Why do some many Americans say they want their children to watch less TV, yet continue to expand the opportunities for them to watch it?” (Louv 1), is demonstrating Louv’s opinion that numerous parents these days are very hypocritical when it comes to looking for a little, “backseat peace” (Louv 1). This is key because it causes the audience to think that even though they, the parents, understand the effects of too much TV on a child, they still continue to provide it to their children in any way possible to ensure a peaceful experience whether that be out in public or in the confines of their own homes. By not encouraging kids to burn off some energy by playing outside and instead teaching their children that these electronic devices are the only way to satisfy them, parents are building up this barrier in their children’s still developing minds that these devices outweighs the enjoyment that nature could ever bring them. Louv asks that, “why do so many people no longer consider the physical world worth watching?” (Louv 1), to cause the audience to reconsider all the entertainment that the simpler things in life can provide, such as by holding, “little plastic cars against the glass and pretend that they, too, were racing towards some unknown destination.”

Furthermore, Louv depicts hypothetical situations for his audience to consider to help signify what our future as a society will look like if our minds continue to be tainted with these “multimedia entertainment products” (Louv 1). Just as how crimped hair and hammer pants seem so outrageous today, Louv creates the same effect in his hypothetical dialogue with the children of the future when saying that, “it’s true. We actually looked out the car window” (Louv 1). This shows that even daring to look out the window at the world around us for pure enjoyment would be seen as insane by the future generations if our society’s constant dependence of electronic devices doesn’t seek change. This is significant because these hypothetical situations are really not hypothetical at all, but instead, frightening and very much practical. These situations cause the audience to contemplate the reality of this separation between mankind and nature, and also seek a change, which is exactly Louv’s purpose that he wanted the audience to understand.

Overall, Louv’s purpose of inspiring society to change by influencing them to take time away from their virtual worlds and actually discover the physical world is very much effective with his use of causing the audience to have to read between the lines, and his use of not only rhetorical questioning, but also theoretical circumstances. By currently living in a generation where electronic devices are very prevalent in everyday life, it’s safe to say that Louv has the right ideas about man vs. nature and just how much these electronic products affect our generations capacity to not see nature as just a mundane natural landscape.