Carr uses Robert Frost as a primary example in this section of his novel for a specific reason. The rhetorical idea behind Carr’s choice is to expand his voice of pathos with the readers. The audience makes a connection through the vast description of Frosts work and life as describe by Carr. The sympathy felt for a man who has a life in shambles and is content with working his meager labor intensive job as a farmer allows Carr to capitalize on pathos as a rhetorical strategy. “He had little money and few prospects. He had dropped out of two colleges, Dartmouth and Harvard, without earning a degree. He had been unsuccessful in a succession of petty jobs.” As Carr states. These bold statements about Frost’s situation allow the reader to feel a bit of pity for him. Carr is achieving his goal exatly as he intended by bying into the emotions of readers through Frost’s struggle. He also is a strong voice against technology and the separation of hard work it creates due to laziness. He speaks of Robert Frost scythe as a technology that is keeping the user engaged in labor which allows him to validate his argument.
In Carr’s novel he claims “There is a callousness to grandiose futurism.” (227). Carr has produced many pieces of literature that speak to the effects of the reliance on technology and how it takes away from our ability to work without it. The explanation of Frost with his scythe and working the field as he cuts hay in the poem “Mowing” shows his reliance on technology for labor. Frost isn’t reliant on technology because of laziness. This is one of the major ideas behind Carr’s message; technology makes and allows us to be lazy. With too much advancement in technology the ability to learn on our own or teach will be diminished. The ability to work without the support of technology will also become the reality of our world.
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