Sojourner Truth: Logos, Ethos, Pathos

In the beginning of her speech, Truth uses ethos to establish common ground with the white women in her audience because she needed credibility because she wa a black woman. For example, she says, “That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best places everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?” This quote also is an example of pathos because it appeals to the emotions of the white women in the audience. In addition, Truth’s speech is filled with logos to give her speech a logical and reasonable flow. For example, she says, “ Then they talk about this thing in the head; [Intellect] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or Negro’s rights?” This is a clear example of logos because she gives a clear logical statement of how intellect has nothing to do with descrimination. Overall, Truth’s speech uses logos, ethos, and pathos in order to get her message of equality across.

Questions from 222-225

1. In the first excerpt, Juan f. Perea uses historical facts in order to convey to the public that Spanish-speaking people have been made invisible by the public, but have nonetheless been present. He argues that as Americans, we should accept the presence of multiple languages. However, Richard Rodriguez argues that it is necessary to remain invisible until you have learned the publicly spoken language of English.
2. Juan F. Perea blames the founders of our country for the Latinos’ invisibility and argues with historical facts and references. Richard Rodriguez uses personal experiences to support his claim that he should remain invisible until he learns English.
3. Juan F. Perea somewhat resists assimilating into public culture by adopting another language, while Rodriguez embraces the fact that he must learn another language to succeed. Rodriguez supports the claim of a public language and a private language, while Perea believes that there should more than one publc language.
4. The audience of Perea is the dominant American culture, while Rodriguez’s audience is to fellow latinos. Perea’s reason for writing is that he believes it is unfair to remain invisible in society just because you speak another language. Rodriguez’s purpose for writing is that he belives that it is okay for both languages to exist, but he does not enforce the idea like Perea.

Response to Coyne

Of all the profiles we have read so far, Amanda Coyne’s, “The Long Goodbye,” has been my favorite one. Her writing is packed full of emotion, and really makes the reader think about what he/she is reading. I like her narrative style of writing better than the typical topic style of a profile. Also, she brings a new perspective into the world of a federal prison by describing the way all of the moms get ready for their long awaited meetings with their family. This makes the reader view them as a person rather than a convict or someone who is no good. The main emotion she evokes is sadness, and this is due to the reality of the situation. For example, the saddest part in the story for me is when she describes the little child punching her mother in the face and the expression on the mother’s face when he walks out the door. In addition, this is a good profile because she also voices her opinion in a very subtle way. She presents enough information, but doesn’t ramble, and allows you to draw your own conclusions about why it’s not fair that a drug dealer gets only three years while the person who was sitting in the car at the time, the “conspirator,” gets ten. Overall this is a great piece of writing and I enjoyed reading it.

Response to Edge and McPhee

I really enjoyed John T. Edge’s, “I’m Not Leaving until I Eat This Thing” because it was about pig lips and I didn’t even know people would eat pig lips as food. In addition, I like his style of writing and his need to experience the pig lips first hand. He starts off his essay in a narrative style then describes the process of making pig lips and other foods produced by Farm Fresh Foods in a topic style by explaining the different steps in the process. Also at the end of his story he goes back to the narrative style and how he ate a pickled pig lip. He’s really descriptive on the pig lips that you can imagine what it exactly looks like, so his imagery really helps the story. In my opinion, his profile is better than “The New York Pickpocket Academy,” by John McPhee. McPhee’s story was slightly interesting because it dealt with pick pocketing in a crowded farmers market and the different types of petty crimes that go on there. To me, this story was not interesting because you couldn’t relate to it at all unless you have experienced a pickpocket. It’s well written for a profile, but isn’t very exciting to read.

Response to Brian Cable

Brian Cable’s “The Last Stop” was not very interesting to me, but it was very well written and I was able to get a very good picture of the Funeral Home he was describing. Throughout the profile he was very descriptive and clear on what he was talking about whether it be the outside of the building or the mortician that was in charge of all of the dead bodies. There was only one entertaining part in the story to me, and that was when he touched the dead body. I would never do something like that, but he describes it well and you can imagine what it would be like to do it as well. Also, his topic for the profile was good because not very many people know what exactly goes on inside a funeral home, so that was the other part that was interesting to me. Overall, Cable’s profile is a good example of what a profile should be written like and I hope I can come up with a topic better than a funeral home but still have written as well as his.

Response to Wolff

I was immediately drawn into Tobias Wolff’s On Being A Real Westerner because it starts off by mentioning a gun which is a real attention grabber because when there is a gun in a story or movie etc, it is most likely going to be used. Also this was a real interesting story because he progresses from getting the gun out when his parents aren’t home and taking it apart and cleaning it to aiming it while it’s loaded at innocent people walking down the street and even to shooting a squirrel in the middle of the street. However, what was most interesting was that he described that, “Power can be enjoyed only when it recognized and feared. Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it.” This quote was the most interesting part of the story for me because he becomes irritated at the unaware people walking down the street because even those he has power over them, they believe they are safe simply because they are unaware. At the end he gives a reflection about how he knows that he can’t avoid getting the gun out again even though he knows how insane and grotesque it is. This was also very interesting to me.

Response to Dillard and Brandt

I really enjoyed Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood because it was a story that I could relate to, because I think we all have had that feeling that she describes when she is running from the older man, the excitement and joy of trying to get away from being “caught,” and getting into trouble. Also, she moves the story along at a fast pace, but she uses little if not any dialogue throughout the story which I though was impressive. In addition, her imagery is very vivid when she is describing everything she passes while trying to escape. This was my favorite of the two stories. Calling Home, by Jean Brandt was also something that was very intriguing because she describes being searched by the police as embarrassing but also exciting. She views this event as if it were a movie and questions why were the criminals in movies portrayed as frightened and regretful because to her it was fun, and at the same time fears confronting her parents more than anything else, even jail. This story also moves at a fast pace but does with dialogue as contrasted by Dillard’s An American Childhood. Overall both of there stories well written and are enjoyable due to the ability to relate to the subject.

Resonse to "Herb's Chicken"

In Anna Seitz’s essay on her experience with processing chicken, what impressed me the most about her essay was her use of descriptive language that appeals to multiple senses. For instance, when she is witnessing bleeding a chicken for the first time she says, “Herb pulled the knife down, and in one quick motion, cut the chicken’s throat from the inside. Blood spilled from it’s open beak into the bucket” (Seitz 3). Also I thought she made the story more interesting with her constant use of dialogue between the characters. Overall, her topic was not that interesting, but I think she made it work by using those tools. Hopefully I can use those tools in my memoir as well as she does.

Response to Memoir by Pooja Makhijani

After reading this memoir began to think about the main reason she wrote this article. In my opinion, she wrote this article in order to show the contrast between the beliefs of her mother, who believes that she should attempt to lead a more traditional Indian lifestyle, and herself, who is eager to assimilate into the more modern, American culture. Although I agree with her about fitting in, f I were her I would embrace her culture, simply because it’s different than normal, much like the girl in her class that she meets from Pakistan. This story reminds me of when I was in fifth grade and a student who had moved from Thailand was placed in our class. However, he was somewhat anxious about trying American style food because he had never heard of mac and cheese or hot dogs etc., but eventually he grew accustomed to the American culture in defiance to his parent’s beliefs. Sadly he moved back to Thailand the next year. For me, this experience was very similar to the one portrayed in the book and that’s what I found interesting about this memoir.

Response to Martin Luther King Jr.

In Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “ King talks about his reasons for nonviolent direct action and how that method best suited his purpose of acting against racism. I found it interesting because, to me at least, his rhetorical audience seemed to be not only his followers and his opposing white supremacist groups, but further directed to the “white moderate.” I found this so intriguing because he wanted to spread his message to the average white person, of whom somewhat agree with his beliefs, who have sat around and let this treatment go on without opposition. When King says, “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will,” his tone towards his audience is anger. This quote sums up what I find interesting about this particular work. In addition, I admire his ability to write and be able to speak to so many different types of people and have them all understand what he is trying to say. This ability is what makes him so intelligent, in my own opinion at least. Of all the examples that we have read in class, this one provides the best example of how to acknowledge a rhetorical audience.