Politicians, Teens and Birth Control
Whose fault is it when a teen gets pregnant? Obviously the teen's right? Well in Nicholas Kristof's article, he claims that teens aren't the only one who are to blame. Kristof explains how politicians' lack of involvement in teen sexual education is one of the factors that can lead to unsafe sex habits. His informative yet indignant tone gives readers an idea of how Kristof feels about teen pregnancy and how politicians should involve themselves in the issue. From the first sentence- "Here's a story of utter irresponsibility" - Kristof let's readers know how he feels negatively about teen pregnancy. The indignant tone appears first when he claims that "[he] is just bewildered that American politicians, stuffed with sanctimony and enveloped in self-righteousness" don't work on the issue of teen pregnancy with more determination. The tone used in that phrase makes it clear he is annoyed with how the politicians are working. He creates a more informative tone by listing facts and statistics about teen pregnancy. For example, "Medicaid spends an average of $12,770 for a birth. ...We only spend $8...to avoid pregnancy". He follows that informative tone by switching back to a more indignant tone, stating that "In financial terms, that's nuts. In human terms, it's a tragedy". The whole article goes back and forth between an informative and indignant tone. However, these tones help greatly with his overall argument that politicians are not properly involved. By giving facts and statistics, he achieves more credibility with the readers. His indignant tone establishes pathos with the readers because they begin to see things from Kristof's perspective more strongly and take on some of his same feelings. Overall, the article molds the tone into the argument in a way that effectively strengthened the argument.