Identifying Ethos, Pathos and Logos in “This is Water” Look back over the speech in order to complete the following. How does David Foster Wallace build his ETHOS in the speech? Give 5 SPECIFIC examples. After each example, explain how it builds his ethos. “I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in the universe.” Page 3 This example builds his ethos because he is trying to be relatable to others when they forget that they are not the only ones in the universe. David Wallace creates a sense of honesty when he is explaining how he feels in the grocery store. He describes how long the line …show more content…
“Please don’t worry that I’m getting ready to lecture you about compassion or other-directedness or all the so called virtues.” This quote assures the readers that he will not bore them. Wallace shows that he has studied the genre which makes him seem more experienced and genuine. How does Wallace use LOGOS in the speech? Provide 8 SPECIFIC examples. After each example, explain how it is an example of logos. Wallace begins his speech by talking about how education can determine what you do the rest of your life. This is an example of logos because he is talking about education and logic. On page three Wallace begins to say choosing to get upset and annoyed with the person is not the right way to think. He begins to use logic and says that you never know what people are going through so do not be too quick to respond. “Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded.” This quote is an example of logos because it uses statistics, bias, and reasoning. From both of Wallace’s stories readers can logically infer that the characters suffer from …show more content…
How does Wallace use PATHOS in the speech? Provide 8 SPECIFIC examples. After each example, explain how it is an example of pathos. “The point of the fish sort is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning.” Page 1 This is an example of pathos because David Wallace is explaining the story he just told in a more logic and formal way to the audience. Wallace talks about religious beliefs, evil, sin, and worshiping material goods. Then he begins to talk about how adults shoot themselves in the head which makes the readers have a sad, pity, or sympathetic, emotional response. “Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer.” This quote creates sympathetic, sorrow, and a wave of sadness of emotion for the
For example, Wallace says, “But then you remember there's no food at home — you haven't had time to shop this week, because of your challenging job — and so now after work you have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket.” (Wallace). The purpose of using this storyline is because it allows the audience to be able to relate to what the author talks about. This imaginary scenario is one that not only the graduates can relate to, it’s also something that the parents and/or other older attenders can speak from. Using examples such as these is significant to the authors use of pathos also because it can help the author to develop an emotional connection with their audience. Another example would be when he touches on the subject of suicide. “And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger” (Wallace). Suicide is clearly an emotional and depressing subject and having this in his speech helps readers to understand the unhappiness that people go through before actually committing it. The example of suicide is noteworthy because even if people in that audience may have not had to experience it or dealt with it, it’s still an important matter and to the American society, it continues to be something that more than a majority take to
Logos is a literary device that can be defined as a statement, argument, or sentence. Kennedy uses logos as he brings in many statistics and facts into the speech. For example “employment costs per unit steel output in 1961 were essentially the same as they were in 1958.”
“When you use logos, you are persuading with logic based on evidence and your skills of reason”(study.com). In Donald Trump’s inaugural speech, logic is rarely present.
This rhetorical device helps the reader understand what the author is feeling by conveying certain emotions. In Sullivan’s essay, the emotion that she was trying to convey was of how she wanted to be indolent and not go to a funeral because she did not see the importance of it. “I was 16 and trying to get out of going to calling hours for Miss Emerson, my old fifth grade math teacher” (Sullivan). Even though she did not want to go to the funeral, she ended up going. Twenty years later, the teacher’s mother still remembers the author’s name. This anecdote brings the emotion of homesickness and melancholy. Pathos can help the author connect with the reader by displaying the emotions they felt at that time of the
Pathos is to get peoples attention and draw them into to what they are reading to keep
In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch includes many examples of ethos, pathos, and logos in his closing argument. It is most likely that the best device that would be used to sway the jury would be logos. Because the facts in the Ewell’s testimony do not add up in accordance to the testimony of Tom Robinson, using more reasonable evidence would be more persuading to the jury. Although logos is a very crucial part of this trial, the devices ethos and pathos are also important.
In David Foster Wallace’s graduation speech, This Is Water, he uses logical and emotional appeals to discuss the importance of critical thinking. Wallace uses the term “conscious” to signal critical thinkers, while those who do not think critically are referred to as “unconscious.” Wallace’s main argument is that a person has the choice to think critically and should do so every day. Wallace’s analysis of consciousness and unconsciousness focusses too heavily on the logical and emotional appeals and ignores the possible ethical arguments that support the development of conscious societies, such as activism. In doing so, Wallace favours the self-interested members of the audience and alienates those who favour altruism, limiting the
There are stories he incorporates to illustrate the point. In the middle we move to a more self-centered narrative. He tells of his story in New Jersey where he realized he could kill someone. He shares some of his thoughts of why people acted as they did towards him and others. This is an effective way he uses narrating and analyzing to work for the reader’s understanding.
Most don’t look inside to plan their life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling. (9th paragraph) 6. In what way(s) does the argument use ethos appeals? David Brooks is a professor at Yale University, he has an insight on what student go through in the education system.
1. David Foster Wallace opens his speech with an anecdote about fish and water. Metaphorically, what does this anecdote represent? What impact does it have when Wallace returns to the line “This is water”again at the end of the speech?
In paragraph 4 Douglass comes to understand injustice after the murder of his wife’s cousin, and we come to know that with "Mr. Gore's defense was satisfactory... His horrid crime was not even submitted to judicial investigation.''. This quote is Logos because of the logistics of the situation, and that's that even though this person killed a human being, he will still not be tried for his actions while had I committed that crime I would have been tried. This quote even speaks towards american values and that value is family as a family member of Douglass has been striped away from his life. Logos can also be found in metaphors or in analogies, like in this quote “We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and swine. There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being”. What this quote is speaking about is how low these humans are value in their society, so low that their value is comparable with pigs and sheep. This quote shows how men aren't really equal to other men but instead are equal to other
A short parable comprises the opening paragraph of Wallace’s speech. In this, there are two fish swimming along when they pass an older fish, headed in the opposite direction, that asks them how the water is. The two fish continue along for a bit before one asks the other “what the hell is water?” This serves as an extended metaphor used by Wallace to demonstrate his main argument for awareness in life. Just as the fish do not consider their surroundings, people more often than not fail to consider
This essay really does appeal to all three of the ethos, logos, and pathos. He talks about so many different things that appeal to people in different ways. He uses ethos when he talks about his position in the United States. He talks about logos when he talks about why we need peace and all of the points also appeal to logos. Finally it appeals to pathos by talking about why we entered the war and the point of all of this.
Carmichael provides a perfect example of logos in his speech, “For example, I am black. I know that. I also know that while I am black I am a human being, and therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people didn't know that. Every time I tried to go into a place they stopped me. So
Wallace uses a series of anecdotes to express in funny or serious ways his principle purpose of the speech.