What is Rhetoric What is Rhetoric The art

What is Rhetoric?

What is Rhetoric? The art of persuasion

Three forms of Argument Pathos Emotion Ethos Character Logos Reason

Pathos: An appeal to the audience’s emotions

Pathos “My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant -- before I knew her as my mother. It was a common custom. . . to part children from their mothers at a very early age. ” p. 1 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Imagery as an emotional appeal “It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery through which I was about to pass. ” p. 4

Ethos: An appeal based on the character of the speaker.

Ethos “Mr. Douglas has very properly chosen to write his own Narrative, in his own style, and according to the best of his ability, rather than employ some one else. It is, therefore, entirely his own production; and, considering how long and dark was the career he had to run as a slave, -- how few have been his opportunties to improve his mind since he broke his iron fetters, -- it is, in my judgment, highly creditable to his head and heart. ” p. x William Lloyd Garrison in the Preface

Logos: An appeal based on reason.

Four types of Logical Appeals

‣Definition ‣Compare and Contrast ‣Cause and Effect ‣Evidence

Logos Two types of definition Denotation -- literal definition of terms Connotation -- implied meaning

“You have seen how a man Denotation “ You have seen how a man was made a slave; . . . ” made a slave; you shall see how a “. . slave. you shall see how a slave p. 39 was made a man. ” Connotation was made a man. ”

Compare and Contrast Devices used Analogy Metaphor

Analogy “The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons. ” p. 16

Metaphor “You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron!” p. 38

Cause and Effect “I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. ” p. 58

Cause and Effect “I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. ” p. 58

“Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. ” p. 22

“Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. ” p. 22

Testimony ‣Evidence ‣Witness ‣Reference to other authorities ‣Proverbs

Evidence When Master Hugh takes Douglass to a lawyer to protest his beating by the white apprentices, he learns that he has no recourse. He states regarding the unfairness of the Lynch law: “He could issue no warrant on my word. If I had been killed in the presence of a thousand colored people, their testimony combined would have been insufficient to have arrested one of the murderers. ” p. 58

Witness “Mr. Gore, then without consultation or deliberation with any one, not even giving Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more. . A thrill of horror flashed through every soul upon the plantation, excepting Mr. Gore. ” p. 14

Witness “Mr. Gore, then without consultation or deliberation with any one, not even giving Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more. . A thrill of horror flashed through every soul upon the plantation, excepting Mr. Gore. ” p. 14

Quoting other Authorities “In this same book [The Columbian Orator] I met with one of Sheridan’s mighty speeches on and in behalf of Catholic emancipation. ” p. 24

Proverbs “In justification of the bloody deed [whipping a slave], he would quote this passage of Scripture -- ‘He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. ’” p. 32

Combination of Appeals