I felt that this week’s readings and video clips portrayed the rhetoric concepts of ethos, pathos, and logos. Despite the clear presence of logos in both speeches, I felt that the success of the speeches relied more on ethos and pathos. For example, despite the fact that Fannie Lou Hamer’s speech was a testimony, which is categorized under logos, I felt that because of people put their trust in her, or in other words her ethos, she was able to win her second time around. In my opinion, the testimony helped more for her ethos than just as a clear cut piece of evidence. Furthermore, while she spoke quite plainly throughout her speech, her conclusion about living in fear in a land that is supposed to be understanding incites the kind of passion and emotion that should jumpstart the audience to taking action.
In the Stokely Carmichael speech, he did use logos such as mentioning Camus and Sartre to indicate that he is well educated. He also used logos successfully to derive his argument. An example of this in
The video on the other hand, seemed like it served more of an informative purpose. Therefore it only made sense that the fact that the events were filmed, had judge, lawyer, and participant testimonies makes the video chock full of logos. At the same time however, it still did incite passion, which can be seen in the footage of the students at the restaurant getting beat and the white student that participated in a demonstration getting punched from behind.
4 comments:
I believed logos was used more in the speeches, but I can see your point on how ethos and pathos were used more. When I look back at the speeches, the speakers did use emotions and their credibilities to persuade the audience. However, I still think logos also played a big part. I really don't think there is a dominant appeal. They're all interrelated somehow.
Well, I have to say that the videos seemed to me to be scripted. I mean, yes the images were genunine but the monologues seemed sort of perfect, too perfect. I think you are refering to the narrative parts of the videos as the logic. I agree, the narratives were very factual accounts of what was happening. I think that the images in the film were the strong appeal to pathos. I mean, just watching the white people become billigerent sure made me feel strong emotions, especially when I saw the faces of the non violent blacks. In other words, maybe the videos do appeal to pathos but just in a visual way not necessarily in clearly expressed words.
I agree with your statements claiming that pathos and ethos were the most frequently applied. I also mentioned the same in mine and noticed that you also agree in saying that the film clips "incite passion."
while most people talked about how Hamer's speech was mostly ethos and pathos, i like how you pointed out that it was a testimony which by definition puts it under logos. often times the speaker uses their ethos and pathos to get the attention needed for their logos
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