Nonfiction Critical Analysis - "THE IVORY WAR"

Nonfiction Critical Analysis - "THE IVORY WAR"

by Patricia Smith

          The overall main idea of the text is that elephants should be treated better and should not be killed for the ivory  in their tusks. The entire text is mostly about the decrease in elephants over the years and how the Chinese culture on ivory affects it greatly. There were several details that contributed to my comprehension of this nonfiction article. First of all, the sub-heading stated that “Soaring Chinese demand for ivory is fueling an illegal trade that threatens to wipe out Africa’s elephants.” This one sentence is a very important detail because it revealed that Smith is against the elephant killings for ivory. Moreover, one of her headings further into the article, are “Death by Cyanide,” which is followed by several paragraphs breaking down the toxic slaughtering of Africa’s elephants for their ivory. Also, when Smith describes how foreigners think of elephant tusks as white “gold” helped me understand people become very ravenous for ivory and are willing to do anything for it. These details support and connect to the main idea because they clearly prove Smith is against elephant deaths.

            Furthermore, Smith hopes for me to think that elephants are perishing pointlessly. She intends to make me feel empowered by these Chinese individuals, as well as groups, that desire ivory. There are several types of pictures that Smith uses to fulfill her intentions. For instance, she makes elephant deaths seem pointless by including a photo with the caption “Ivory disguised as chocolate bars by smugglers: an ivory shop in Hong Kong.” In other words, Smith is basically saying that many elephants died so their husks can be carved, painted brown, put into chocolate bar wrappers, and concealed within a store in China. Another photograph shows dozens of husks being burned in Kenya. The husks were being blackened and turned to dust even though many, many elephants passed away. Also, Smith described the rapid decline of elephants with a “before/after” image of Africa. As it appeared geographically, about a third of the country was full of elephants in 1979, but in 2007, they reduced to about a tenth of a country. Lastly, Smith included a pie chart to portray the amount of elephant seizures from 2009 to 2011 which let the reader know which countries are terrorizing them the most. This is how Patricia Smith achieves her goal.

            In conclusion, I learned a great deal of information about elephant/ivory poachers and how endangered they are.  Patricia Smith and her skills in persuading really made me think and feel that killing elephants is dreadful. She changed my way from thinking from before I even read the article. As soon as I started to analyze her thoughts and ideas, I grew an opinion on the issue: If China got rid of ivory products and such, the elephant world would be a much better place. All I want to know now is why is elephant poaching still legal?