Toni Morrison’s “Strangers”
narrates the author’s pleasant encounter with a stranger woman who claims to be
fishing with the neighbor’s permission. But the woman never returns, leaving
Morrison a sense of loss, the expectation she had, and the friendship she
imagined. In the very beginning, the author establishes her credibility by
telling her own experience with a stranger whose presence helps her sustain a
good opinion of herself. For this reason, Morrison is certainly qualified to
voice a thoughtful opinion in “Stranger.” Morrison is able to create a very
emotional rhetorical appeal through this personal experience. She describes her
feeling process with strong dictions: “cheated, puzzled, but amused,” “annoyance
then bitterness” (Morrison, 136). This process is appeal to the audience as a
reminder of the similar stages of grief: denial, anger, bewilder, depressed.
The essay starts with a narrative then progresses into an analysis and
explanation of strangers and their roles in our lives, and finally introduces
Robert Bergman’s portraits. The author skillfully sets up an emotional trigger
with her personal story to guide the readers to the photographs. The essay’s
structure prompts a better and more effective communication between her
audience and the portraits she introduces.
In “Love – You’re
Doing it Wrong”, Yann Dall’Aglio discusses on the topic of modern love and analyzes
the false view about love as a competition. He establishes his qualification
for discussing about the topic Love by introducing himself as a happily married
man. Automatically, the audience would think of him as experienced and
well-qualified for discussing the topic. Dall’Aglio utilized many examples that
are relevant to his audience including: MTV programs, free market, the
internet, and dating website. Throughout
the talk, he uses himself as a fair example. He appeals to the audience with witty
and modest commentaries on love in our contemporary society. He makes a solid
argument: “You had a specific part to play according to your sex, your age,
your social status, and you only had to play your part to be valued and loved
by the whole community. Think about the young woman who must remain chaste
before marriage. Think about the youngest son who must obey the eldest son, who
in turn must obey the patriarch.” He’s making an argument by appealing to his
audience, creating a sense of belonging through these values, thus, improving
corresponding between the talker and the listeners.
In Toni Morrison’s “Strangers” pathos is used to grab us emotionally our sense of belonging mostly in my opinion. It appealed to our sympathetic nature. We sometimes do not like to admit that we create stories of strangers in our head. But I guess in a way you can say Toni did not see this woman as a stranger. She considered her a friend and when friends just suddenly leave and do not tell you why and it can hurt.
ReplyDeleteHer words like you said before are meant to prompt better communication between her and the audience, the audience with the people from the photographs but also with those in the audience wih each other.
In the TED talk, “Love: You’re Doing It Wrong”, Yann Dall’Aglio starts off by putting himself first as an example in order to illustrate the different types of love. The love for objects, people, or the love in doing something. Personally, I believe he seems calm as he poses the question “What is love?”, for this reason his level of comfort in speaking appeals to his audience. Later in his talk he mentions that the problem of love is that we are constantly asking ourselves if we are truly loved. He relates this to his audience by creating some sort of fear. I believe he uses it by asking the question, “How many people are going to love me?”. He incites this reassurance if it is true that we are loved or by who. It is sometimes what can make us feel safe therefore Dall’Aglio uses pathos to get to his audience. At the very beginning of Norton Reader’s “Strangers”, by Toni Morrison, she shares with us a personal experience in which she finds herself feeling friendly towards some stranger. She establishes her credibility for talking about this topic over strangers and who they are to us by sharing that she is qualified for she herself has gone through some experience with a stranger. A few paragraphs after she describes the stranger as a lady who is wearing men’s shoes, a man’s hat, a well-worn colorless sweater, and a lady who is “full of wisdom that older women always seem to have a lock on”. Morrison states the lady’s amount of wisdom to make us understand how the lady portrays to be, but she also recalls older women to us in order to paint a better picture because we do seem to think older women are wise. Her level of comfort in speaking appeals to her audience as well.
ReplyDeleteIn the video “Love— You’re Doing It Wrong”, the speaker, Yann Dall'Aglio, presents himself as an established philosopher who has credible sources and has been face to face with the issue he is addressing which is finding “tenderness and connection in a world that’s ever more focused on the individual”, also known as modern love. He appealed to the audience through ethos because he persuaded them to acknowledge his idea by establishing that he has plenty of experience however pathos is what really persuades the crowd. When discussing love, it is always about a sense of belonging or as Dall’Aglio described it, “desire of being desired”, which is a category up under pathos. Toni Morrison’s “Strangers”, she discusses how she was mesmerized by this strange fisherwoman whom she saw in her neighbor’s backyard one day. She was overwhelmed by this woman’s presence that she fully embraced her and wanted to know her, she wanted to build a connection which many in an audience can relate to. Both Morrison and Dall’Aglio were convincing to their audience because they both focused on a human emotion, the sense of belonging and loving one another. They appealed to their audience by focusing on a human trait that no one can resist.
ReplyDeleteIn Toni Morrison’s, “Strangers” he uses all of the rhetorical strategies of Ethos, logos, and pathos. However I believe that the way he uses pathos has the bigger impact in his writing. The element of Pathos is what appeals to emotion and this is greatly used in his writing because it is a lot easier to make a connection with someone or something with emotions. He explains as he see the woman “ a feeling of welcome washes over me”. This is showing how he just feels a connection with the woman right away. This is relatable to others because that kind of feeling happens to everyone. There are times when you’ll meet someone and not feel like your wanted but there is also times when you meet someone and you have that feeling that they actually want to talk to you and get to know you. Morrison brings in the idea that we are fear strangers because they “Disturb. Betray. Prove they are not like us.” Morrison using the rhetorical strategy of Pathos in his reading allows the readers to relate more because of that shared emotion and feeling we all sometimes have.
ReplyDeleteIn "Love You're Doing It Wrong" that is on the TED talkshow, with the speaker Yann Dall'Aglio, provides a sense of ethos when he establishes his credibility as a French philosopher, author and husband. He shows us this when he mentions "That is, if I value the escalope, the escalope, on the other hand, it doesn't value me back. Whereas my wife, she calls me the star of her life", he brings us into his personal life. By providing his personal experience with his marriage and his comparsion of his wife vs. escalope it makes the audience trust him. As a speaker and an author he establishes his credibility from the very beginning on his view of love. He also uses modern day examples like MTV, dating websites, the internet etc... This also him to connect to his readers on a personal level.
ReplyDeleteIn "Strangers" written by Toni Morrison, this essay is interesting because it's really up to you how you view the elder lady and her symbolism. Morrison establishes ethos by sharing this story through her personal narrative so as she tells the story the reader is able to follow it with her sense. She shows this in "I am in this River Place-newly mine-walking in the yard I see a woman...", by using "I" and "I am" she is inserting herself int the story. This stranger, a fisherwoman that nobody has ever seen but Morrison narrows it into the perspective of her. Both Morrison and Dall'Aglio use ethos to establish their credibility as an author through their personal experiences. By doing this it allows the reader to connect to them on a personal level of trust and wisdom that they understand love.
In Toni Morrison’s “Strangers” she frequently uses pathos in an essence to pull the reader in with emotion and imagery. Some of her statements are directed to the audience in means of connecting with us. She explains how she felt hurt, because she considered the individual as a friend and she felt like she was abandoned. In reality the person was just a stranger, but in Morrison’s opinion it’s much more than that. She uses words such as, “cheated, puzzled, but amused,” really to connect emotionally with the audience (Morrison 136). Descriptive words that show her anger and backwards feeling towards the individual. These factors are great examples of pathos and are very well placed in Morrison’s writing.
ReplyDeleteJensen your first paragraph was beautifully written and helped me understand the entire reading better. I do agree with you that she wastes no time in showing us her credibility, by telling us her hope for the friendship the first time she meets the woman. She says, "I imagine more conversations with her. I will invite her into my house for coffee" (Morrison 135). She does this to create a sense of familiarity in the audience, that warm feeling beget when we meet someone new that we know we will get along with. This alone makes us as readers trust her and want to listen to the rest of her story. I think that without this connection and rhetoric this wouldn't have the same story line as she intended, because we wouldn't feel sympathy towards her "loss" of this imaginary woman.
ReplyDeleteIn “Love – You’re Doing It Wrong,” Yann Dall’Aglio starts off his speech introducing the themes of ethos and pathos both. In the first minutes of the video, he introduces the theme of pathos by telling the audience of all the ways he can love. “I can love jogging… I can love escalopes. I can love my wife.” Dall’Aglio is portraying the pathos element by describing how he can love; a personal example. He goes on to explain that yes, people can “love” multiple different things, but actual love needs a little more than just a word. Love needs interaction between two people, actual interaction and emotion, to be actual love. Dall’Aglio later introduces ethos by explaining to the audience his credibility as a lover, with his wife. Dall’Aglio loves his wife, the type of love that he expressed as real love; love with interaction. Dall’Aglio loves his wife and his wife loves him back, they both feel for each other, interact with each other, they both desire one another. The desire part of love is the most important in Dall’Aglio’s eyes, which is why he is creditable to speak on the issue of actual love.
ReplyDelete