The most effective form of rhetoric in my opinion is ethos. Credibility is the reason I read any form of literature. It gives the reader something to hold on to, and the writer a lot more power in his voice that is shown through his writing. Personally, the more credible I am in my writing the better my paper turns out.
Pathos is definitely most evident in Into The Wild. Krakauer interviews so many people that were influenced by Chris and their emotions are revealed in his writing. They all share their experiences with McCandless and reflect on a certain time in Chris's life. Although I feel pathos is most obvious, logos and ethos are very comman as well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ok so same view as Kristen, good stuff. As I said on her blog, I agree with what you have to say. However, authors don't always need Ethos to make their essay a good one. Just look at the rape story we read in class. It was very effective without having known credibility. But credibility, as we saw in the op eds, does give a lot of support.
ReplyDeleteEmotion hits home in Krakauer's writing. So many people wanted to learn about Chris and his story as soon as reports started to come out. Pathos is the most relevant and obvious in Into the Wild.
When I read something I either find it boring because I think author is an idiot (lack of credibility) or because I just find it boring (lack of pathos.) But I think we can agree for sure that logos is the runt of the litter that no one really cares about becuase it is rather easy. Maybe?
ReplyDeleteKrakauer does use emotions to hit home. He interviews the people that will get you thinking "what would I do to my parents?" "wouldn't it be cool living without paying taxes?" His writing gets your emotions rolling.
I agree which is pretty obvious because it says so in my blog. I did really like how you said that ethos gives the reader something to hold onto. Thats a good way of putting having credibility because thats exactly what it does. But, Jon does make a good point when bringing up the fact that ethos doesn't need to be present in order to establish credibilty, as shown in the rape story. I never really thought of that.
ReplyDelete