In Toni Morrison’s essay titled “Strangers”
and Yann Dall’Aglio Ted Talk titled “Love—You’re Doing it Wrong”, they
both use ethos and pathos. In “Strangers” by Toni Morrison, she uses ethos to
make us believe that we are all “longing for and missing some aspects of [ourselves],
and that there are no strangers” (138). Morrison wants her audience to believe
that no one is a stranger and that there are bits of ourselves in each person
we meet. Morrison uses pathos when she talks about how she felt when the
fisherwoman never came back and Morrison asked around about her, she says she
felt “cheated, puzzled, but also amused” (Morrison 136). Which brings wonder to
her readers about whether the fisherwoman existed at all or not. In “Love—You’re
Doing it Wrong” by Yann Dall’Aglio, he uses ethos because he wants us to
believe that love is only when you value something or someone and it or they value
you back. “I know this, that’s why love can be defined in a more accurate way
as the desire of being desired” (Dall’Aglio). Dall’Aglio uses
pathos when he says “Indeed, for the pick-up artists, falling in love with
someone is a waste of time, it’s squandering your seduction capital, so it must
be eliminated be eliminated like a disease, like an infection.” This is pathos
because Dall’Aglio makes people feel like if they ever meet a pick-up artist
that they will be cheated out of love because pick-up artists don’t like love.
I agree with your suggestion on the use of ethos in pathos in both essays. I would like to talk about the rhetoric used in "Strangers" by Toni Morrison. You suggested that "...she uses ethos to make us believe that we are all longing for and miss some aspects of [ourselves]..." I agree with this but I would like to add to it. In saying that it was ethos that Morrison used you are saying that she is trying to persuade what she is saying is right. Morrison writes, "...Language (saying, listening, reading) can encourage, even mandate, surrender, the breach of distances among us..." In this Morrison is using ethos to appeal to the idea that language brings all of us closer, surrendering us as strangers and connecting us.
ReplyDeleteI agree that pathos is used many times in both the essay and the video. In the video “Love—You're Doing It Wrong” by Yann Dall’Aglio, he uses an appeal to anger when he talks about a show on MTV with teachers that call themselves pick-up artists. Dall’Aglio states that “It's a bit disgusting. Indeed, for the pick-up artists, falling in love with someone is a waste of time, it's squandering your seduction capital, so it must be eliminated like a disease, like an infection.” He is sharing something that the audience probably wasn't aware of before in order to get an irritated response from them. He does this to get the audience to really think about the right way of going about this kind of subject. Toni Morrison’s essay “Strangers” goes about the use of pathos in a different way. She uses a more sympathetic approach in her writing. Morrison does this when she says “when we part, it is with an understanding that she will be there the next day or very soon after and we will visit again,” then later states “and I look for her every morning. The summer passes, and I have not seen her at all.” She was hopeful to have made a new friend, but her hopes were shattered when the woman never came back. This causes the reader to feel sympathy towards her.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the use of pathos is demonstrated through connecting with the readers feelings in these two articles. In the video, he explains how love can be expressed in so many ways. We can relate to that because we can love food in a different way than we love our family. In the essay “Strangers” the man wonders if he will ever see the woman again. Even though he had just met her, it’s so easy to get an emotional relationship with someone and really connect. The readers can relate to this because some people have actually met people for just a few minutes and really clicked with them. Yet, they never saw or talked to them again. This is how the video and the essay relate with pathos. They both relate to a person’s emotions when it comes to this particular subject.
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