| October 11, 1999 I am probably most persuaded by ethos. Not very logically inclined, logos tends to confuse me more than persuade me; it might even dissuade me. Pathos, on the other hand, often seems too fake. I hate being buttered up or flattered, especially when I know this person has no intentions in following through with what they say. Appealing to my moral sense of responsibility and duty, my sense of right and wrong, gets through to me the most. With ethos, I feel like it is something I have to do. It becomes my job to make things fair. Life may not be fair, but I can do my best to make my actions right. Justice plays a part here, too. Everyone knows that feeling, when they watch a movie and the good guy is put in jail, or loses the girl, or something, to the bad guy. It is just wrong. We feel angry, incensed, and want to fix it. Actually, most effective are pathos and ethos mixed together. It is the stirring speech given by the President in “Independence Day” that makes the movie what it is. Responsibility for our loved ones, duty for our country, honor for future generations; these all use both ethos and pathos. Perhaps this is why they are often confused; the two of them are very similar. When I was in elementary school, I read Roll of Thunder, Hear my cry. Though it was so long ago I can’t remember the specific details, I remember how the book touched me. There were nights when I lay awake, thinking of the injustice of it all. I prayed that in my dreams I would be in the book, that in my mind, at least, I could make it right for the little black girl. This book appealed not only to my sense of morals, but also my emotions. I felt angry for her; I cried w/ her. Combining ethos and pathos proved to be the most memorable; no other book that I can recall has stayed w/ me and made me long to help and know and love the characters as that book did. At times logos can be very persuading too, if it has clear evidence behind it, and there is no refuting it. But it has to be in layman terms for me. If someone tells me a scientific experiment is true, and then proceeds to tell me in another (scientific) language how it is true, he or she has proved nothing. Not to me. Just doesn’t make any sense. Of course, on their own, ethos and pathos can’t prove very much at all. They are relevant to every person and every situation. In that way, I suppose, only logos is reliable. |