Example Of Ethos Pathos Logos

Pathos being the Greek word for “experience” is often called the emotional appeal because it persuades a person through their emotions and feelings. In my opinion, Pathos is the most important appeal because it causes the audience to identify as well as respond emotionally to the writer’s point of view, i.e., to feel what the writer feels. Apart from the emotional side, pathos has an imaginative side to an article or text as well. For example, President Obama’s speech on the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, Pathos is seen when he describes that day by saying ”The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory- hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up

from the Pentagon……”. By giving this narrative description, there is an imaginative impact of the story on the audience’s minds as they picture the horrific scene as well as feel grief and sorrow at the same time. Very often a good orator or writer usually changes an audience’s perspective by “playing upon the listener’s or reader’s emotions” because we do things most of the time in our self-interest and therefore we tend to naturally side with people who satisfy our interests than those who don’t and this is how they connect these emotions with elements of their speech. From the article, for example, though pathos is not used to a great extent, it is still there. Schalet wants the audience to decide whether parents should or shouldn’t openly communicate with their children having sex under their roof or completely forbid it. By questioning them, she wants to make them understand that it is important to have an open conversation and talk to their children about sex and its “unintended consequences and urge them to use contraceptives and practice safe sex” otherwise the concern of American parents for their teenagers only grows and that is how conflicts arise.