Peter

Lone Survivor

            I read the book Lone Survivor, and it is hard to read, because you know what is going to happen by the title; yet, it is an easy read and a delight to read in most other respects. Marcus Luttrell, the author, had a mission, and I would deem it an unqualified success. This books goal was to bring the readers and Americans into the realization of how tough it is for Seal Team 10, and Luttrell uses effective rhetoric to do so. The tale he tells is a very human one, compelling in all the best ways of a man and a writer.

            First off, Luttrell uses logos because he was the lone survivor who he is now writing about. He was the Seal that made it when his team was being pinned down by Afghanistan terrorists. But, it is not just a tale of a mission gone bad, though that is a tame way of describing how horribly wrong things went and the losses suffered. It is not just a tale of how he came to be a part of that group and his part in the mission. Those are in some ways only a secondary part to the greater goal: bringing the people of Seal Team 10 to life for the reader, making them people with whom you can identify, empathize, and see as the individuals they were. This would explain why readers have an amazing realization when reading this book because Luttrell uses pathos in his story because he is able to succeed in humanizing them.. Luttrell also uses pathos when the leader of an Afghan town helped him survive and kept him safe from the Taliban. This is pathos because you can only think about the people who aren't part of the Taliban who can only dream of a different life. When even in the best of times must eke out their existence in the harshest of conditions. Who will never know the comfort and liberty we do. The people who think that Luttrell's main goal was to bring to life the the people of Seal Team 10 are wrong. His goal was not just to show the battles and the losses because he spent time making sure that you ”knew” the characters and he portrayed them as normal people because a lot of people get distracted by their uniform to remember that they are everyday citizens and they have a family of their own and they have lives.                                                                                                                                                                Marcus Luttrell strikes home this idea that the Seals are real people by publishing this book in 2007. This was very clever of Luttrell because in 2007 the state of the world was focused on the increase of the number of American troops that then President Bush sent into Iraq to to provide security to Baghdad. So, at this time I believe the audience he had intended were the families of the military and the people who were not certain about whether they agreed with Bush's tactical plan or not. This was why it was an ideal time to share his story with the world, because the state of the audience would be scared or nervous, so they would be more sympathetic for the military and the people of Afghanistan. I think he published this book during this time period because he wanted to persuade people and show them what can happen and how dangerous it is to have soldiers over in the Middle East. For the people who don't think that he tried to publish his book at the same time as the increase of soldiers, you are wrong because he knew that the readers and audience of his literature works would be more susceptible to what he was saying and they would read more intently. Not to mention, it would help him with the sales of his book.                                                                                                                                                It is indeed a hard book to read, for the reader knows up front why it was written and what happens. Yet, it is a book that all should read, for there is much more to the story than death. There is much more than suffering. People owe it to the participants to read and know them, to appreciate them for what they were. Most of all, you owe it to yourself to read that larger story, to understand as best you can the people within, how they came to be there, what they believed, and how they lived and died, and to empathize however you can with those they left behind. In the end, the book thrills, horrifies and also punches home the simple message that individual acts of conscience can save lives, and even change the world.