Rhetorical Analysis of Alice Wong The Last Straw
Over the past few years, a conversation about environmental sustainability has gained momentum, resulting in movements that try to lower the use of single-use plastics. In the midst of these discussions, disabled people’s needs often go unnoticed, and among them, disabled people who need plastic straws daily for hydration and nutrition. In her essay “The Last Straw,” Alice Wong shows how well-meaning policies can continue a cycle of existing inequalities and the intersection of disability rights and environmental activism: Rhetorical Analysis of Alice Wong The Last Straw.
In terms of rhetorical elements, Wong’s piece consists of the rhetor, the audience, and the exigence. Considering these would show this essay is more than an advocacy for the disabled community; it is also a plea for more inclusion in the policymaking of environmental matters. Wong effectively uses her personal experiences to illustrate the necessity of plastic straws for individuals with disabilities, challenging readers to reconsider the implications of banning such items on marginalized communities.
Rhetorical Elements
Rhetor
Wong’s rhetor in the essay is herself, Alice Wong, a disability rights advocate and the founder of the Disability Visibility Project. For Wong, her identity as a disabled person shapes her writing and voice so that she speaks authentically about the problems people with disabilities face. She talks about her experiences trying to use public spaces, explaining how it is not as simple as just ordering a drink (Wong, 2018). To establish her credibility and authority on the subject, she’s using this first-hand account.
Using her own story as a disabled person, Wong demonstrates how plastic straws are necessary everyday tools for her well-being and highlights the need for accessibility. Wong can position herself as a victim of the disabled community and an advocator with a nuanced knowledge of the situation to get her audience to empathize with her, thereby increasing the persuasiveness of her argument (Manzoor et al., 2024).
Audience
This intended work’s audience comprises those interested in environmental sustainability generally and policymakers involved in addressing environmental sustainability. In doing so, Wong strives to include a large number of general audience members to explain to them that the ecological world needs to consider what disabled people need. Using emotional appeal, she wills herself to share the emotional voids of public spaces and her frustrations.
However, this strategy also humanizes her argument and invites readers to reflect on their biases and assumptions about disability. For example, Wong issues a call to action by compelling her audience to confront barriers to the life of the disabled society, which she is faced with by asking for help (Wong, 2018). Inviting her audience into her narrative helps Wong bind her audience into her argument and make it more convincing.
Exigence
The exigence is the growing number of bans on plastic straws enforced in various cities around the world due to environmental reasons. Many in the disabled community echo this frustration that their needs are ignored in the broader conversation about sustainability. Adding to that urgency is the reality that these bans, while ostensibly designed to reduce waste, are banning what amounts to essential functionality (Wong, 2018).
Wong states her call to action: environmental reform cannot be pushed by using marginalized communities as leverage (Wong, 2018). She points to this exigence and, by so doing, draws attention to the systematic barriers to the exercise of the rights of people with disabilities that exist and make these barriers visible, pointing to the straw ban as the symptom of a wider exclusionary and inaccessible regime.
Mini Reflection
Performing a rhetorical analysis of Wong’s essay has deepened my understanding of the complexities surrounding the intersection of disability rights and environmental activism. My experience with the article was in its ecological implications of plastic straws, not the broader social justice issues at work. Through Wong’s narrative, I understood there can be no sustained conversation about sustainability without accounting for the reality of marginalized communities.
What makes Wong challenging is that her rhetorical elements (rhetorical style, her identity as a disabled person, her emotional appeals to the audience, and the urgent context of the plastic straw ban) work in concert to defeat not only the reader’s perspective but also public policies which govern the communities.
After going through this experience of attending a talk in front of so many people regarding a social issue, I have realized the paramount significance of mulling over multiple views in a conversation concerning a social scenario. Wong’s essay reminds us that good advocacy requires inclusion, prioritizing the voices of those affected by policies. As it turns out, by analyzing Wong’s use of rhetoric, I have come to value the potency of the personal narrative to inform and shape policy and the public discourse.
In a world where the concern over the environment is getting a lot more pressing, we need to put forth that the right to be sustainable for the environment is also tied in with the individual persons with disability’s rights. Much of Wong’s work has inspired me to think more consciously about environmental policy’s ramifications and argue for something fair and just for all people in society.
References
Manzoor, E., Chen, G. H., Lee, D., & Smith, M. D. (2024). Influence via ethos: On the persuasive power of reputation in deliberation online. Management Science, 70(3), 1613-1634. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4762
Wong, A. (2018). The Last Straw: I need plastic straws. Banning them puts a serious burden on people with disabilities. Eater Voices. https://www.eater.com/2018/7/19/17586742/plastic-straw-ban-disabilities
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Question 
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In this module you are learning how to perform a rhetorical analysis, the concept that on some level you are already familiar with, perhaps without fully realizing it. You perform basic criticism and analysis of the communication surrounding you on daily basis; however, the missing link is learning the proper terminology of rhetoric and recognizing that the stronger you become in reading through rhetorical situations, the better you become in creating your own rhetoric and making your voices heard. This assignment accomplishes both.
Rhetorical Analysis of Alice Wong The Last Straw
In this assignment you are completing a rhetorical analysis of an assigned essay to demonstrate knowledge of rhetoric, and specifically, of rhetorical elements, including rhetorical appeals.
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