Monday, January 30, 2012

Chapitre Deux.

All right. So this chapter is all about pathos, something that was drilled into my head all throughout high school. To my understanding, pathos is pretty much anything that evokes pity. Basically, that's it.
Anyways, chapter 2 of EA throws all sorts of examples of pathos out at its opening. Apparently, this is why we buy old cars or weird clothing. It says we do these things because we fall in love minute details in whatever object it is. In most cases, these arguments are only successful because people are acting on impulse, a sort of knee-jerk reaction-type thing. "OH! That shirt has a great color to it!" Once you have the shirt at home, yeah, the color's nice, but you start to realize other things about it. Eventually, you come to the conclusion that the shirt you picked out is horrendous.
It's pretty obvious as to how emotional arguments function: they appeal to our emotions. It works the same way with powerful people. If they want more people to be behind them, to like them, they're going to center their speeches around things that affect people emotionally, while still (hopefully) getting their message across. This is precisely how Obama gained so many followers (no, not on tumblr:( ). Right from the get-go, Obama based his whole self around HOPE. Hope was just what everyone needed after the last presidency, and Obama held to that.
Emotional arguments don't always need words to make them powerful. Moving pictures or videos can have extreme effects on people without using a single word. Sometimes, though, words are necessary for understanding the argument.
Okay, now humor, my favorite:) Humor can be added to an argument, when necessary, to "tenderize them meat." When utilizing humor, an argument can be much more easily accepted, or at least more easily heard. It's like breaking the ice when you meet new people. "New to this argument? Here's a joke! Now you can choke the rest down."
Finally, you don't want your audience to be reduced to tears from your argument. Yeah, you're supposed to toy with their emotions a little, but there's a fine line between appealing to certain emotions and manipulating them.
So, I don't think you need to watch this video to know what it's about. And how it destroys your heart. This stupid commercial has an astounding effect on people's emotions. I cried the first time I saw it. Between Sarah McLachlan's voice and the little clips of poor abused animals, I was hysterical. I'm sure plenty of you were to, so shut up.
Yeah, so if this isn't a good example of arguing using pathos, Lawd help me, I don't know what is.

4 comments:

  1. Your blog was funny and interesting and informative about pathos. The video is a great example on pathos. I probably would have cried too (since it was really depressing) but sometimes I laugh during really depressing things so I laughed instead. I don’t think I ever went in a store and just bought a shirt out of emotion and then went home and thought it was horrendous. I’m not that moved by arguments based on pathos so much probably because I am really lazy. An example of pathos that comes in mind is from the movie Finding Nemo where Dori states “Fish are friends not food.” Or one of the fishes or sharks states that. This was sort of like an argument in the movie that persuaded little children to not eat fish. This argument is probably most evident in the movie when the sharks are in the diner and the shrimp are on the table and they just eat one of them. That was probably really sad or humorous depending on how much you like shrimp or sharks. The emotion comes from how cute and friendly the sea creatures are and how evil the carnivorous sharks are. After the movie I’m sure a bunch of little children did not want to eat fish and probably kept repeating the phrase “fish are friends not food.” I also imagine their parents would cook fish for dinner and tell their child it wasn’t fish so that they would eat it. I’m sure if I were a child I probably wouldn’t eat fish after that movie.

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  2. Your blog is too funny, I love how you add so much of your character into it. The first sentences really hooked me because I too got drilled about pathos in high school, and learned that it was about evoking pity. I like your example about the shirt because I have been in that position many times. I will buy something on impulse because the color looks sooo cute in the store, then I take it home and realize that I just spent way too much money on a “cute color.” I think this relates to a lot of people and is a great way to show how pathos can be such an impulse in everyday life. Then relating it to the election was a good idea to appeal to the more logical people. I was thinking more cynical when I saw the word power, and Hitler came to my mind. He brought so much such terror to people so that the fear made followers. Then you discuss how words may not be necessary for the image to evoke feelings. I definitely agree as it is proven through many examples in the chapter. The funny side to pathos made me laugh. Your comment about tenderizing the meat was perfect. You can add humor because it is in fact an emotion. Closing on the video made me upset. It is a great example of how much you can feel by watching a simple video. Pathos is everywhere and you did an excellent job explaining that.

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  3. Aaron, I love your blog it's pretty funny. You always know how to put yourself into your writing. I like your example about the shirt; it really caught my attention and got me focused into the rest of your post. I like how you basically "dumb down" your examples so that anyone can know what you're talking about. The way that you talk about pathos is the perfect way of explaining it. The example you give of Obama is perfect, by him using HOPE as his whole campaign it creates pathos that helps him get many followers. "Tenderizing the meat" was a favorite part of mine, it is a perfect way to explains what is meant by putting humor into a speech. Also you picked the best visual example needed to show how pathos can be over manipulating. That video still makes me cry like crazy. Anytime it comes on I change the channel. Ha. Good job. :)

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