In her short story, "Strangers", Toni Morrison makes use of both pathos and ethos. She introduces ethos by giving us an anecdote in which she was deceived by a stranger, later relating this to the natural distrust for people we do not know. This was a way for her to establish her credibility to us and the general public. Then, towards the end, I think that one of the instances of pathos is the idea that she was looking for something of herself that was lost in the old fisherwoman. I feel like most people would relate to this feeling and the idea of looking for the lost piece in someone else.
In Yann Dall'Aglio's speech "Love -- You're Doing it Wrong", he establishes his credibility (ethos) by both offering examples of things he loves and by giving the listeners a new definition of love. When he gives examples of things he loves, he uses generic things that most people relate to like jogging, books, or his wife, which gives people the sense that he knows what he's talking about because he loves the same things as everyone else. For pathos, he capitalizes on the human need to connect with others or feel like they belong to something. He uses examples of "seduction capital" that everyone has or thinks about having. He finishes his speech by talking about tenderness which also evokes an emotional response, again, because of our need to be needed.
I agree that ethos and pathos are both used in both Toni Morrison's Strangers and Yann Dall'Aglio's TED talk. The thing about both of them was that it was, in a way, heartbreaking. I think that what you said, where people try to find something, or better said their worth in other people is disappointing. I found that Dall'Aglio talked a lot about finding your worth in other people. He described love as the desire to be desired. Then, he goes on to talk about something called "Seduction Capital;" he says it's almost a currency to buy someone's love. You gain seduction capital by making yourself more appealing and therefore, more desirable. This appealed to my pathos, because it made me extremely emotional to think that human beings have to find their worth in each other.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of Yann Dall’Aglio’s speech: Love—you’re doing it wrong, it is very apparent that he uses ethos to establish a sense of credibility for himself. While using this, he was able to smoothly transition into an introduction of himself as an individual. In his speech, he says, “I can love jogging. I can love a book, a movie. I can love escalopes.” By saying that he can love these things, he is exhibiting the fact that just like every other human he has the capability of loving things—whether it is something that is simple, concrete, and found in one’s everyday life or something that holds a greater meaning to it.
ReplyDeleteIn Toni Morrison’s writing, Strangers, she talks about having a conversation with a random woman and never seeing her again afterwards. Morrison’s use of Ethos is very apparent throughout her writing. She talks about her experience and what was going on through her mind when she met the woman. Her situation that she presents to the audience is a relatable one in that it’s probably happened to us at some point in time—we meet a stranger, hold a conversation and connect with them in hopes that a friendship will come from the encounter, and then we never see them again or lose all contact with them.