Week 4: Photo of the Week

This was a picture taken on February 2nd, 2020 (groundhog day) of the ground hog in Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil. I think that the pictures central argument is to inform the country of the decision so many find important, whether spring will come early or winter will stay longer. The photo uses ethos in order to convey its argument. It utilizes the credibility that this groundhog has in order to tell the world when spring will come. Also, I think that his name is very interesting, and I’m surprised that I didn’t already know it, and that actually many people don’t know it. Upon further research, I found that he predicted early spring this year because he couldn’t find his shadow. In fact, this year was the 20th year in 124 years of recorded history that he predicted an early spring, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he is right. Meteorologists actually doubt his prediction since he is usually wrong. There are also other groundhogs that participate in this tradition, but according to many, Punxsutawney Phil is the only one whose prediction truly counts. Although this is obviously a fun tradition America has each year, it is definitely a little bit ridiculous, but I’m still glad we do it each year. Lastly, this year I did find it a bit ironic that in Chicago, just a few days after he predicted an early spring, it snowed a couple inches.