The Superior Form of Rhetoric, Term Paper Example

A Note on the Factors that Affect Pathos

It may not be possible to declare a single exhaustive optimal form of rhetoric. Many variables influence the efficacy of rhetorical forms, including content, context, and rhetorician-audience relationship. Therefore, I limit the purview of this essay to the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies in Roxane Gay’s article, “The Bad Feminist Manifesto,” and Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story.” I attempt to demonstrate that Adichie’s and Gay’s rhetorical strategy entails a complementary factor that makes their works influential. I will show how appeals to emotions become more persuasive when used in conjunction with ethos in “The Danger of a Single Story” and “The Bad Feminist Manifesto.” Therefore, I argue that. Gay and Adichie have successfully integrating ethos (credibility) with pathos to make their argument more persuasive.

Rhetoric is customarily perceived as an ancient art that the Sophists and pre-Socratic philosophers developed for public persuasion and civic discourse (Kennedy 10). However, rhetoric predates its recognition and has existed in various forms for the entirety of human history—in verbal and nonverbal forms of expression. According to George A. Kennedy, a scholar of classical rhetoric, “Rhetoric, in the most general sense, can be regarded as a form of mental or emotional energy imparted to a communication to affect a situation in the interest of the speaker” (7). As the father of deductive reasoning, Aristotle presumed that logos is the most reliable mode of persuasion. He believed that ethos or image is the most crucial persuasion form (Oft-Rose 1). In analyzing presidential debates in the United States, Oft-Rose found that “if you sound like a winner and you look like a winner, you will probably be a winner” (2). After all, presidential speeches are among the most compelling examples of rhetoric. Leaders use pathos by inducing a shared sense of identity and evoking nationalistic emotions. However, they do not rely solely on pathos. In fact, their emotional appeals have roots embedded in their credibility and virtue because pathos becomes more effectual upon integration with ethos.

This effect can be observed in “The Danger of a Single Story.” In this TED Talk, Adichie explored the infamous impression regarding how the British stories influenced her perception as a young girl. She also decodes how African nations and their people are perceived in the Western nations and shares her experience at the university. According to Adichie, single stories have adverse impacts as they often come from human misunderstandings, inadequate knowledge, or malicious intentions from a particular group of people interested in spreading prejudice about a specific community. People are often vulnerable and impressionable during childhood when it comes to single stories (Adichie 01:43). According to Adichie, literature materials and media sources often offer single stories to the public, which leads them to make an assumption and generalize about a particular community.

Adichie validates her expertise at an initial stage to demonstrate her proficiency, honesty, and goodwill. She establishes her credibility as a storyteller by claiming that she grew up in an educated family and an academic environment. Meanwhile, by questioning her mother’s compliment, she asserts that she is unwilling to gain more credibility at the expense of sacrificing truth and honesty.

I’m a storyteller. …. I grew up on a university campus in eastern Nigeria. My mother says that I started reading at the age of two, although I think four is probably close to the truth. So, I was an early reader. And what I read were British and American children’s books. I was also an early writer. (Adichie, 00:00 – 01:00).

Besides, Adichie’s preeminence and authority are also conspicuous from her attitude, facial expressions, intonation, and body language. She begins with her hands on the table and a serious facial expression with eyes open wide, indicating an in-control attitude. She looks at the audience as if she is sincerely asking them to listen carefully because she has something important to say. Her posture coupled with a mild expression of contempt in her tone and head movements can make the audience take her words more earnestly and build a good first impression. Later, she becomes even more convincing by incorporating humorous elements, which makes the audience more comfortable.

In terms of intonation, Adichie’s tone was incredibly passionate, optimistic, and determined throughout the speech. Adichie uses a tone that warns people against falling prey to misconceptions about people or places as it often results in assumptions and misunderstandings. A person’s tone when talking about a specific topic expresses their values and line of thoughts because a person will tend to vary intonation and also emphasize specific ideas that that one is deeply convinced about. Through her tone, Adichie built authority of the information that she was conveying in a funny, lively, and memorable manner. Her tone conveyed confidence which added real value to her central message.

Many studies have shown that a massage paired with humor can elicit positive responses in the audience. Cline & Kellaris have suggested that humor can make an argument more persuasive if applied effectively (Cline & Kellaris, 1999). And the reason might be related to ethos or the character of the speaker/ author. A study found that speakers who use humor in informative discourse are more likely to be perceived by his/[her] audience as high in attributes of “character” than he would be if he/[she] does not” (Gruner, 1967). Adichie paired her main narrative with a humorous irony that condemns single-story thinking.

“I recently spoke at a university where a student told me that it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel. I told him that I had just read a novel called American Psycho and that it was such a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.” (Adichie 10:55 – 11:30)

This not only encapsulates her main massage but also by referring to a familiar novel and demonstrating how ridiculous it is to generalize a trait to a whole race based on a specific case in a satirical manner. She allows the audience to understand her perspective and immerse herself in her narrative. This way, it is easier for the audience to envisage a situation reminding them of a personal experience. Overall, Adichie seems to develop a believable character using ethos to obtain audiences’ trust by incorporating honesty and humor, which serves as a foundation for her central argument.

Similarly, Roxana Gay depicts truth and honesty in her article, establishing a solid ethos as well. Gay is well aware of the name-calling problem that women face when they identify themselves as feminists. For instance, they risk being referred to as man-haters, humorless prudes, or ball-breakers. In essence, name-calling has always been a dirty and quick way of enforcing the gender status quo. Terms such as slut, crone, fun-police, and hag have been used to stigmatizing the rotten feminists who the audacity to claim votes for equal pay, reproductive rights, safe streets, and being addressed with respect.

Early on, she demonstrates her honest and sincere frame of mind by criticizing herself as a feminist. “I am failing as a woman. I am failing as a feminist. To freely accept the feminist label would not be fair to good feminists.” However, her tone might be relatively less confident compare to Adichie. For instance, her negative feelings are apparent when she says: “I want to be in charge, respected, in control, but I want to surrender “(in The Guardian).  This might raise questions regarding her credibility about the matter. Questions that might cast doubt on whether she has the correct definition of feminism.

However, this might be an indication of a truthful reflection of her perception of the duality between some feminists’ ideologies and predefined social constructs. It is even worse when one identifies as feminists online because they are most likely to attract a more vicious epithet. After all, her article’s content revolves around uncertainty, illustrating the hardship that a feminist might experience confronting this duality. This confrontation between her beliefs and her cultural background is apparent when she says:

“When I drive to work, I listen to thuggish rap at a very loud volume, even though the lyrics are degrading to women and offend me to my core.”

Similar to Adichie, Roxana used humor to create an excellent character to convey her message later. In her Ted Talk “Confession of a bad feminist,” which is the video version of “the bad feminist manifesto,” Gay initiate her speech with  humorous elements that entails one of her main messages:

“I had strange ideas about feminists as hairy, angry, man-hating, sex-hating women — as if those are bad things. (Laughter)  (00:59)”

Gay uses a clever way of maneuvering through the topic of feminism. By referring to herself as a “bad feminist,” Gay can speak to both feminist critics and address the over-zealous policing behaviors evident in most feminists. Through the way Gay presents her ideas, she insinuates that women can be referred to as bad just because they are feminists. Women can also be pushed to a corner by other feminists who think they are more feminist than the others. Gay uses humor to discuss intense issues that are affecting the United States. She notes that feminist movements have been more focused on enhancing the lives of heterosexual white women at the expense of all other individuals who identify themselves as females throughout history. For instance, she acknowledges how she has often been referred to as queer because she forms a Haitian-American family. Yet, she seeks a much larger constituency for her feminism than only being a heterosexual woman.

Using this humorous Irony, she can form a bond with the audience and create a more acceptable character, which in turn helps her convey her emotional arguments. Personal arguments that might not have affected without developing a character. Gay discusses personal matters and contradictions that she has faced as a feminist. She talks about her feelings and how certain things make her feel specific ways.

Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink – all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I’m not doing it ironically. I once live-tweeted the September issue.

She further reinforces her credibility and confidence at the end, where she indicates that there might be some inherent misconceptions with specific views on feminism.” I bought into grossly inaccurate myths about who feminists are – militant, perfect in their politics and person, man-hating, humourless.” The term “bad feminist” seems to refer to the imperfections that a feminist might face just as any other individual with any other ideology in our society. Her willingness to fight for woman’s rights is the final element that helps her obtain a moral charter.

“Maybe I’m a bad feminist, but I am deeply committed to the issues important to the feminist movement. I have strong opinions about misogyny, institutional sexism … Bad feminism seems the only way I can both embrace myself as a feminist and be myself”.

Despite her contradiction and vulnerability, it is rare for an author to express her feelings so nakedly with such humor. Overall, like Adichie, Gay has effectively utilized ethos as a foundation to develop her emotional arguments.”

In summary, rhetorical appeals are the basis of almost all forms of public speaking. They can be used by interlacing various combinations of rhetorical forms with diversified strategies. However, emotional responses depend heavily on pathos to develop a shared sense of identity that can bond people fundamentally. Nevertheless, to persuade the audience, the author/speaker must be perceived as truthful and credible. In other words, credibility (ethos) establishes the foundation of a remarkably emotional speech. Besides, a sense of humor can enhance someone’s character and help establish an Audience/speaker relationship. A diversity of factors can enhance the speaker–audience relationship. Adichie and Gay used ethos to create an acceptable perception of herself, then used the same foundation to connect with and convey her emotional appeals to the audience. Adichie and Gay went one step further and tapped into the audience’s emotions by appropriately incorporating humor. In the way, the audience was unwilling to open up and envisage themselves in the subject position. Nevertheless, they have both created a remarkably influential argument.

Works Cited

Cline, T. W., & Kellaris, J. J. (1999). The joint impact of humor and argument strength in a print advertising context: A case for weaker arguments. Psychology and Marketing, 16(1), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6793(199901)16:1<69::AID-MAR5>3.0.CO;2-9

Gruner, R. (1967). Effect of Humor on Speaker Ethos and. Journal of Communication, 17(3), 228–233.

Markiewicz, D. (2017). Effects of Humor on Persuasion Author ( s ): Dorothy Markiewicz Published by?American Sociological Association Stable URL?: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2786391 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, 37(3), 407–422.

Oft-Rose, N. (1989). The Importance of Ethos. Argumentation and Advocacy, 25(4), 197–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/00028533.1989.11951396