Michael Finkle Essay

Michael Finkle, the author of The Strange & Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit from GQ magazine, has a certain fondness of Christopher Knight, the North Pond Hermit. He shows this in his article by using language that never condemns Mr. Knight for stealing or making Mr. Knight seem like a filthy thief living in the middle of the woods terrorizing the locals. Mr. Finkle instead paints him more as a gentle soul by using softer language. Finkle uses emotion and logic to persuade the reader that Knight is a kind and gentle soul that means no harm.
Mr. Finkle strays away from using language that could condemn or paint a bad picture of of Mr. Knight. An example of this would be that Mr Finkle refers to Mr. Knight as “The Hermit”(Finkle 2) and not the burglar or the thief when he talks about setting off to steal from the local houses. Mr. Finkle also emphasizes the things he steals because they make him look innocent. For example stealing “Candy! [is] always good”(Finkle 2) and Humpty Dumpty potato chips doesn't sound like a mischievous thief it sounds like a child is taking from the cookie jar. This makes Mr. Knight look more like a

Finkle shows the reader two stances on the issue of Mr. Knight's arrest. The first is the people who want to let Mr. Knight go because they say stealing bacon and candy is no major crime and that Mr. Knight “was never apparently violent”(Finkle 124) because he never broke in when people were home. The opposing argument is that it wasn't the physical harm that Mr. Knight caused it was the mental. Their argument was that the break-ins stole “Their sense of security”(Finkle 125) but by using logic that sense of security should be back because he has been caught. Mr Finkle adds in the same paragraph that these people thought Mr. Knight was “a lazy man and a thief”(Finkle 125). By saying this it makes the accusers look like rude people which could help persuade the reader to agree with the first statement made that Mr. Finkle men no