How Does Stevenson Use Ethos In Just Mercy

Just Mercy A Book That Appeals to the Emotions Bryan Stevenson wrote a book called Just Mercy, which is about the failures in the criminal justice system. He tells the stories of victims of horrible injustices. He uses pathos as a narrative technique in order to persuade readers to feel empathetic towards the people about whom he wrote in his book. Stevenson uses pathos to have the reader feel a variety of emotions, specifically sympathy, anger, and hope because he knows that those emotions have more influence on the readers. One of the emotions Stevenson wants the reader to feel is sympathy towards the people about whom he wrote. Stevenson goes about doing this by telling stories of people who are like his readers but who have bad luck or fewer opportunities and more disadvantages. Stevenson writes about women who have been in jail for long prison terms. These women committed small crimes like using drugs and stealing, rather than major crimes like rape and murder.
The government’s neglect leads to the women turning in the wrong direction. As Stevenson writes, “we ban poor women and, inevitably, their children from receiving

Stevenson wants the reader to feel enraged on behalf of the people about whom he wrote. Using that anger, he wants the readers to be motivated to change the outcome so similar bad situations are less likely to happen again. For example, Stevenson writes about Charlie, a 14-year-old boy who was sentenced as an adult and taken to the adult county jail (120). There, Charlie was sexually abused and raped by multiple people in three days (123, 124). Stevenson tells this story knowing that people will get angry on behalf of Charlie. Since Charlie was a child people become more upset because in society children are precious and should not have their innocence taken from them. Stevenson wants the anger to motivate people to make changes to the system so there will be no more