In, Fannie Lou Hamer’s speech, she presents a lot of ethos and pathos. Her ethos combines the way she presents herself right at the beginning of the speech, stating her address and exactly why she is there. And also the fact that all of her speech is a first person eye-witness account. Which definitely contributes to her ethos. Her speech also contains quite a bit of pathos when she vividly describes when she was beaten. It causes the reader or the listener to picture the action, and to feel sympathy for Fannie. Stokely Carmichael’s speech is almost the complete opposite. His speech is more hostile and determined. His ethos is almost more negative because of the way he presents it, almost shouting. But then his pathos is better because he cracks a lot of jokes so it appeals to people’s humor and makes them listen to the speech more. His speech was almost a form of entertainment. The most dominant form of the three appeals, I would have to say would be pathos. Pathos has more of a broad definition than the other two. It can be anything that appeals to emotions, which really can be anything: a picture, text, videos, just about anything.
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6 comments:
Hamer and Carmichael do use radically different approaches when addressing their audiences. But I think both people are effective at getting the message across. Carmichael's speech is long, so the jokes provide much needed comic relief to encourage the student audience to stick around.
I agree with Alex, Carmicheal's jokes don't actually strengthen his argument but they do provide some entertainment. There help keep the mood a little less heavy, because the speech itself is rather harsh in tone. I think without the comedy the audience might feel guilty and begin to get defensive and not be as receptive to the message. Carmicheal knows what he is doing here.
I find it interesting that you thought Carmichael's speech was more hostile and determined. While i'm sure there was tension between him and the audience, i felt that he was received quite warmly throughout. I do agree with alex and christa that the jokes do help. For example, in the first line he opens up with a joke that is received well. But this could also support my belief that he wasn't hostile.
It is definitely true that her introduction of the speech set the tone. By addressing who she was and what she stood for, she really did use "ethos" because the audience found truth in her words.
Very nice. I agree about pathos being the most dominant, but I did not look at it that way because of its broad definition. That is an interesting perspective.
I would add that Hamer did not use humor in part because of her rhetorical situation and who her audience was. On the other hand, Carmichael's situation was a perfect opportunity for the humor that many of you have pointed out.
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