Michael

Lone Survivor

The novel Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell took place in 2004 during operation Redwing, a Navy SEAL operation, which was located in the Afghanistan Pakistan border. Four very well-trained Navy SEALs were sent to that location to do some recon on locating Bin Laden’s right-hand man Shamrack. During their mission some Afghan goat herders discovered them lying in the bush, the four SEAL’s were then forced to make the decision of their life, either kill them or let them go. They made a difficult decision, and took the moral side by letting them leave with their lives. The moral action they took led to the fiercest unmatched firefight of their lives, leading to three American deaths and around 100 Taliban deaths. This fierce battle left the lone survivor Marcus Luttrell.  Within this novel there are many cases of rhetoric placed upon its pages. Overall the use of the rhetoric tactics were emotional and inspiring and was aimed more towards individuals of the ages 16 to 35. These individuals were chosen because they could help support war efforts against terrorist insurgents and Taliban in hopes to help ensure safety to the American homeland.

            Within this novel a main theme that popped significantly was inspiration.  There were numerous inspirational moments throughout this novel that seemed like rhetoric.  One of the moments was during Marcus’s intense BUD’s training to become a SEAL, he gave all of his energy, sleep, and put his physical well-being on the line to continue the training while almost 2/3’s of the applicants had dropped out.  He was trying to promote the honor, integrity, and perks that come along with becoming a Navy SEAL.  He was also very talkative about his political beliefs throughout the novel with him describing why the republicans were without a doubt were correct at defending America by invading Iraq and Afghanistan.  Another very inspirational moment that occurred in the novel was when they had first been noticed by Afghan goat herders on their top secret mission.  When they were noticed they strategized over the benefit for themselves by killing the Afghans, but they didn’t want to do it because they didn’t want to kill the innocent or end up on the liberal news back in America.  Their moral act seemed to have more justified by the chance of Aljazeera news reporting what they did back in America.  In the novel Marcus said multiple times that he regretted his decision of letting them live.  A third inspiring rhetorical moment occurred during their firefight when they were all shot up with broken bones and they did not stop apprehending the enemy because they were hard core American soldiers who would not give up to the enemies of America.  A fourth example is after the main battle is over and Marcus returns home and recovers from his injuries he then returns to two more tours in Iraq because he wanted revenge for the death of his fellow comrades and the 9/11 attack.  These examples give readers an Ethos, Pathos, and Logos message and an urgency to go to war for American and stand up for your fellow Americans and the security of the country itself.

            In this novel Pathos was a very prominent subject in many cases that causes a great amount of feeling for what they went through.  The use of Pathos was a good use of rhetoric to make the reader want to get involved.  The majority of the emotional parts of this novel took place during the epic firefight of a battle of four against around 200.  One very emotional part took place when Dietz was suppressing the enemy and he was shot multiple times including getting his thumb shot off, he still apprehended the enemy taking a blow to the knee were Marcus picked him up and put him on his back where he then died in Marcus’s hands.  This was a very bad moral buster that made the audience very sad of the SEAL’s situation.  Then Murphy sacrificed himself by climbing to the top of the cliff so he could radio in help to save the two remaining SEAL’s.  This courageous act was very emotional and very rhetorical in proving the bravery of the combatants who fight for America.  Then Axe took a bullet to the head which left Marcus all by himself to hide from the rest of the Taliban soldiers.  Marcus was then paralyzed from waist down for a few hours after taking shrapnel to the legs from a Rocket Propelled Grenade.  All of these incidents were great rhetorical strengths that are very motivating and help rely the message from this novel.

            Almost all the rhetorical examples from this novel covered all the necessary themes and exigence to be an effective rhetorical message.  The communicator is the US military relying the message to help support war efforts to people who may want to fight or to motivate people who are already fighting.  The state of the world was appropriate for this message to come out because of the hatred of terrorists because of the heinous acts they committed against the innocent.  The other side may argue that this book is not intended to get people to enlist but just to use this as a recollection to be put in the history books and to show the integrity and the toughness of the US military.  I feel this novel is rhetorical to get more people involved in the war because it explains all the steps it takes to become a solider and can make you feel invincible by being an American soldier.  Also this book is very politically bias by representing many religious and right or left winged beliefs.