Ibarra, Daniel

Ms. Foster
H American Literature (11) P. 3
17 January, 2013
Justification to Poem: Grandmother Earth
Grandmother Earth speaks through the voice of an old aged man who compares his
experience on Earth from his early years to his later ones. The man remarks that in the past,
Earth looked much healthier than it does today. He adds that as result of our careless disposal of
hazardous material, we have all been directed to a disastrous end. To persuade society into taking
action, the old activist uses an extended metaphor of a family, where Earth is our mother, and we
are her children. Every time we contribute to an environmental crisis, we our killing our mother,
making her no longer young and healthy but old and weary. As a result, Mother Earth becomes
Grandmother Earth, coming that much closer to death. When displaying the ways we our hurting
her, the man uses imagery and symbolism to evoke human-like characteristics of Earth. For
example, whenever we add smog to our air we add grey hairs to Mother Earths head. Also,
whenever we cut down forests, we cut down Earths arms. The narrators use of symbolism
provides logos to his warning since it exemplifies the causes leading up to our devastating
consequence. To further convince society what he is saying is not just some random conspiracy,
the narrator increases his ethos by restating how he has lived through a period long enough to
notice how drastic an effect our actions have on our future and home. When speaking of Earths
end, the narrator uses pathos to create fear and regret in the minds of society. He wants to assure
that they at least take what he is saying under consideration. When declaring Unacknowledged
greed is the factor to blame (line 8), the narrator attacks his audience for their selfish actions

only benefiting them and burdening the future generations, which also establishes his first
implicit argument. His second occurs when advising Every day we dont act, we come closer to
our mothers and therefore own termination (lines 18-19), meaning if our actions do result in
the end of humanity, it will be only out of our own ignorance.