The Routes of Man and Rhetorical Mode

     In the first two chapters of Ted Conover's The Routes of Man he presents the idea of roads and what they mean to each given land they encompass. He also argues and presents cases of what new roads or the improvement of present roads can and will uplift or cause destruction to these areas, specifically Peru and the South American rain forest and the Chaddar, where he had visited and traveled through.    
     Conover uses many different rhetorical modes to deliver his product and involve his readers. There are multiple cases where he takes either roads, people or even ideas and compares and contrasts them. One specific example is he compares the two different arguments of the author Norber-Hodge and Choetop. Norber-Hodge, who believes that building new roads in Ladakh will stifle and choke the culture's serenity and long-standing traditions, while Choetop sees the construction of new roads can help connect the people of Ladakh to outside commerce and enhance education through communication to other communities and their ideas. The use of exemplification is prevalent throughout these first chapters. He examples the way the young people of Zanskar traverse the frozen surface to reach boarding schools in Srinagar to further their education to explaining how a guinea pig is more likely found on a dinner plate in the Andes as apposed to in a cage and tells of a woman showing him just such an example. Another mode which is commonplace in Conover's writing is the narration of his story, from truck ride in Peru to his stay in the locals' homes of Ladakh. These are but a few uses of many rhetorical modes Conover makes use of in these first few chapters.