The Act of Persuasion

To prove our point across others we find ways to persuade them into doing or/and believing what we want. But, we really never pay attention to the methods we use while arguing. Moreover, we do not think of using the three forms of arguing respectively ethos, logos and pathos. The thing is, we do use them, even if we do not notice it.

Frederick Douglass transmits his point on slavery through the use of ethos, logos and pathos. When describing Mr. Gore, Douglass uses ethos into convincing the reader of his severity and brute self. Describing him as someone "cruel enough to inflict the severest punishment, artful enough to descend to the lowest trickery, and obdurate enough to be insensible to the voice of a reproving conscience..of all the overseers, [he was] the most dreaded by the slaves. His presence was painful; his eye flashed confusion; and seldom was his sharp, shrill voice heard, without producing horror and trembling in their ranks." (Pg. 19) Through his strong and cruel personality, Mr. Gore transmits to the slaves fear and terror, therefore persuading them into behaving.

Logos might be the hardest of the three to notice. Because it is the most obvious and commonly used it passes unperceived through our minds. During that time a stupid slave didn't last alive very long. One had to be clever and ingenious to survive. Douglass for instance was no dumb slave at all, and to survive he had to be a suck up. Douglass ponders that "when a slave, if I had a kind master, and do not remember ever to have given a negative answer, nor did I, in pursuing this course, consider myself as uttering what was absolutely false." (Pg. 33) Logically, when asked about his master by an unknown untrustworthy white stranger he wouldn't answer negatively. Who knew that white man could be a spy sent by his master. It was better to a be a suck up than dead.

These two examples show ways in which Douglass made his readers understand what was going on during the time. He persuades them into believing that slavery was incorrect and an inhumane act. It is not necessary for him to use pathos, or for me to show it as the simple story of his childhood is enough to make someone feel bad enough of him. Having to read whatever cruelty and unfairness he and his fellow companions went through is enough.