“Consider the lobster” by David Foster Wallace and “Letters from Birmingham Jail” by MLK Jr. apply rhetoric such as pathos, logos, ethos, and diction in order to create a firm persuasive essay. In Wallace’s article the audience is questioned about the morality behind killing and cooking a lobster, while in MLK’s article we are persuaded to take action about social injustice and inequality. Both authors try to prompt their readers with different types of rhetoric, but together they apply pathos more than ethos and logos.
Through use of pathos, both authors are able to make deep connections with their readers. David Foster Wallace is able to amplify his ability to persuade by making lobsters appear pitiful. He demonstrates this by saying, “If
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This may lead the reader to an unsteady conclusion, but it lets the reader decide for themselves if they want to be convinced or not. An example of this can be seen in the footnote, “It so happens that your assigned correspondent knew almost nothing about standard meat-industry operations before starting work on this article.” (60) He also adds, “These last couple queries, though, while sincere, obviously involve much larger and more abstract questions about the connections (if any) between aesthetics and morality, and these questions lead straightway into such deep and treacherous waters that it’s probably best to stop the public discussion right here. There are limits to what even interested persons can ask of each other.” (64) Ending in this position makes his article seem more casual and laid back compared to MLK’s. In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, the author seems like he is trying to convince you to believe him, instead of giving the reader facts and hoping they have a conclusion of their own. Some may believe Wallace’s rhetoric lets them build their own conclusions from a fact-based
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther Kind JR. uses ethos and antithesis to advocate his view on civil rights. Dr. King’s use of ethos is shown when he says, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed” (King, 7). Dr. King uses this quote to build his credibility through the use of the word “we”. With this, King tells the reader he is a credible source as he has experience fighting in the Civil Rights Movement in the past, and being a member of the oppressed minority. As a result, King is getting the reader to use this information to believe King’s points more. Along with ethos, Dr. King also uses antithesis to further elaborate on his message,
Because it is very credible, emotionally appealing, and slightly academically based, bell hooks's essay "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education" is an essay that I consider to be very touching. While arguing in her essay that the rich class and the working-class should come to respect and understand each other, bell hooks employs three elements of argument: ethos, pathos, and logos. With her usage of ethos, hooks relates her experience as an undergraduate at Stanford. Providing an experience from a time before she went to Stanford, hooks uses pathos to inspire the audience. However, hooks uses logos by appealing to the readers' logic. These readers are the working-class and the privileged, the audience of her book: "Ain't I a Woman: black women and feminism." Relying mostly on ethos, hooks uses the three elements of argument to express her belief that students should not feel the pressure to replace their values with others' values. Because hooks feels strongly about her belief, she argues that a university should help students maintain the connection with their values, so people of different communities will feel neither inferior nor superior to others but equal.
As a former slave, bereft of any free will, written words were all but unavailable to Frederick Douglass. Slaves were unable to tell their stories, to expose the dehumanization that their enslavement caused on both sides of the racial rift; so it was necessary for Douglass to fight tooth and nail to obtain the right to learn, and ultimately to narrate his own life story. Amongst the narration, multiple rhetorical strategies are integrated into the text in order to uncover the dehumanizing effect their mistreatment had on slaves during this time. His primary purpose is to educate those who are ignorant of the horrible conditions that slaves lived in and the cruelty that they suffer. He does this through the use of rhetorical devices such as anecdotes, irony and by further connecting to his audience with pathos and ethos. By using his own personal experiences as the subject of his argument, Douglass is able to make a strong and compelling case against slavery; at a time when it was socially unacceptable to do so.
Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2012. Print.
In “The Death Penalty” (1985), David Bruck argues that the death penalty is injustice and that it is fury rather than justice that compels others to “demand that murderers be punished” by death. Bruck relies on varies cases of death row inmates to persuade the readers against capital punishment. His purpose is to persuade readers against the death penalty in order for them to realize that it is inhuman, irrational, and that “neither justice nor self-preservation demands that we kill men whom we have already imprisoned.” Bruck does not employ an array of devices but he does employ some such as juxtaposition, rhetorical questions, and appeals to strengthen his argument. He establishes an informal relationship with his audience of supporters of capital punishment such as Mayor Koch.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the leader of a peaceful movement to end segregation in the United States this mission led him in 1963 to Birmingham, Alabama where officials and leaders in the community actively fought against desegregation. While performing sit-ins, marches and other nonviolent protests, King was imprisoned by authorities for violating the strict segregation laws. While imprisoned King wrote a letter entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, in which he expresses his disappointment in the clergy, officials, and people of Birmingham. This letter employed pathos to argue that the leaders and ‘heroes’ in Birmingham during the struggle were at fault or went against their beliefs.
Wallace uses Pathos as an persuasive device in his article as he describes the catching and cooking process of the lobster. Using his words, he gives the audience the idea that the lobster is not just an item for consumption, but also a live creature. “They come up alive in the traps, are placed in containers of seawater, and can, so long as the water’s aerated and the animals’ claws are pegged or banded to keep them from tearing one another up under the stresses of captivity, survive right up until they’re boiled (Wallace, 60). He mentions that the lobster is in fact boiled alive to maintain it’s freshness and describes the boiling process. “[The lobster] comes alarmingly to life when placed in boiling water. The lobster will sometimes try to cling to the container’s sides or even hook its claws over the kettle’s rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof” (Wallace 62). He compares the lobster during the cooking process to a human in terror of falling to their death. This gives the audience something to relate to on an emotional level based on the simile he presents to us. Based on this evidence and the words the author chooses to present to the reader, it is suggested that
David Foster Wallace, and award winning novelist, student of Harvard University, essayist, and professor, is the author of “Consider the Lobster,” which is an essay that was posted in Gourmet Magazine in 2004. This essay observes the yearly Maine Lobster Festival and explains how it can and possibly is a violation of animal rights, but more specifically , lobster rights. The article has a very broad audience, which can include animal right activists, gourmet food eaters, lobster hunters, chefs, scientists, tourists who want to know about the festival, magazine readers, and even people who eat food. This is because of the fact that all of these people tie in together with eating or cooking lobster, which is the main idea of the annual festival. The class can be lower or middle class, for the people who catch and cook lobster, as well as upper class for the scientists and gourmet eaters who may eat lobster daily without knowing how they are killed. As Wallace goes more in depth with his thoughts and findings, he grasps the readers attention by mostly using footnotes, pathos, and makes the readers think about the questions he asks order to keep them informed and thinking to help process his thoughts about the Maine Lobster festival, lobster killing, and animal rights as a whole.
This rhetorical device of ethos gives Wallace good credibility as a writer. He explains how his beliefs are not logically correct and this gives the reader a sense of credibility that Wallace is not biased. This type of rhetorical device was not used in Singer’s writing piece. I believe Singer couldn’t include this type of rhetorical device because it would have taken away the scholarly aspect of his writing. Next, Wallace asks the reader their point of view on the issue of killing lobsters. Wallace asks questions such as “Do you think much about the moral status and suffering of the animals involved?” (p.20 Wallace) and “Do you ever think idly, about the possible reasons for your reluctance to think about it?” (p.20 Wallace). These questions make the reader stop and think about their personal beliefs on the issue. Even I myself started coming up with questions whether it was morally right to kill lobsters. Furthermore, Wallace’s stylistic type of writing makes it easier for the reader to understand his point of view. I believe Wallace uses this writing style to give the reader a sense of personal connection with
After being jailed in the Birmingham city jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister who preached nonviolence, wrote this response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama. This letter was not only composed under somewhat constricting circumstances but was written in a way that can be analyzed to be considered as a classic argument. Not only does it contain the five elements needed in a rhetorical situation, but the letter includes the six parts of an argument, the five types of claims, and even the three types of proofs. Dr. King’s letter fully satisfies all requirements needed in order to be considered a classic argument.
The most recognizable characteristic that contributes to the effectiveness in Wallace 's speech is his style. The first component of his style begins right at the start of the speech when he tells the story of the fish. This is a parable and he uses these as a technique to engage the audience. Each of these parables have a different message behind them, but each meaning contributes to Wallace 's main purpose of this speech. For example, the story of the atheist and the religious man demonstrates blind-certainty and close-mindedness. Wallace tells this story to introduce the idea of thinking critically about others ' views, but more importantly to have the audience question their own beliefs. The use of these stories is a clever strategy because
In that light, it is interesting to analyse what it is that made these artistic words such a difference. A difference that persuaded people to change their behavior. Thankfully, human history has created a term to define these great speeches. It is called rhetoric. In this essay we will try to determine whether rhetoric is an art, or merely a
The use of ethos, pathos, and logos are illustrated in the newspaper letter “A Protest Against the Burning and Lynching of Negroes” by Booker T Washington to convince the reader to stop the injustices of African
In Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham Jail, pathos, ethos, and logos are vividly expressed throughout it. All three rhetorical devices are vital to the meaning of the letter; the most influential being pathos. MLK takes advantage of the human body’s strong response to emotion. It is illustrated in his appeal to empathy, exercised mainly through gruesome depictions; his call for action to his peers, as shown when he expresses his disappointment in them as they preserve order over justice; and his strategic use of pathos as a supporting effort for both ethos and logos arguments.
One of the most controversial writers of the last two decades is American author David Foster Wallace. Critically acclaimed, DFW is well received amongst critics, who commend his meticulous writing style, and his vast and usually alien vocabulary. One such books which received numerous critical plaudits was Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays, published in 2005. According to author David Lipsky: