Ethos And Logos In Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead

Rhetoric by definition is the art of persuasion by speaking and writing; being able to sway someone else’s opinion to match or appear similar to your own. Aristotle has given further definition to rhetoric. He created the rhetoric triangle. The rhetorical triangle uses the three basic credentials that people use to make decisions. They are ethos, or credibility of the author or speaker; pathos, or ability to draw emotion out of your audience; and finally the logos, or the logic of the message being sent out and determined valid by the audience. I feel that one of the best example that I could find of the rhetoric triangle is the character Ellsworth Toohey, in the novel The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. This character uses every part of the rhetoric

Whether it was intended by the author or not, Ellsworth Toohey uses it to perfection. The rhetoric triangle as a whole is one of the most basic things we do as people but it is one of the hardest things to master on this planet. But once mastered, it can be a great instrument that can be played in various ways to get things done. The first part of the rhetoric triangle is the ethos. Ethos, in a nutshell, is the author of what is being presented and if he or she can be trusted. In the Fountainhead, Ellsworth Toohey uses ethos by graduating from Harvard, becoming a humanitarian and then becomes a highly decorated writer for a prestigious newspaper. So in return, people are more open to what he says and recommends. Ethos is used by everyone, every day. When you are interviewing for a job, ethos plays a huge part in whether you’ll get it or not. In this world, people care about credentials and what you have done in the past. In the art of persuasion what you have done matters and can take you along way. Ethos can also apply to how you present yourself, how you look and act. Let’s say that two people were speaking at a convention; one was well dressed, articulate and well-mannered but spoke only gibberish and made a lot of information up, but the other was dressed badly, used very lowbrow terms and metaphors but he spoke a clear message

Pathos is about the audience and the emotion that can be drawn upon from it. By being able to make the audience feel, you can get a call to action to be performed. Feelings are a strong motivator and an easy way to get a message across. Ellsworth Toohey uses pathos by employing guilt and the idea of happiness. He suggests that in order to be happy one must give up on all his desires and play to the desires of mankind. To paraphrase a quote he says “Ask not what society can do for you, but what can you do for society.” So when the people of the book hear this, they actually hear, that to be happy, we must get rid of all personal desires. Now to guilt. He portrays it as anything you want and wanting those things are bad. Which makes people feel like they’re bad for wanting anything. Pathos is strong part of the triangle. Emotion is and always will be a very powerful thing. By adding a call to emotion, people will more likely remember what you are saying, or writing. When drawing up on an emotion you have to be subtle about it. You can’t just drop bombs all the way through. Enthymeme or the hidden purpose should be used and conveyed but not in a straight forward manner. An example would be instead of saying “be excited about working out” during a presentation, list the benefits and show results of what working out can do. People will hear the benefits and see the results and feel excited about working out without being told