Children of Men

The movie Children Of Men definately was an eye-opener for me. When I think of human society, I think of an organized system of people who work for the mutual benefit of all people. Generally, people are well behaved, and when the system (society) runs smoothly, people tend to live a peaceful and prosperous life. This movie shows us how much organization affects the way humans act. In the movie, the world is in panic since no one can reproduce, and slowly society begins to deteriorate. As the military begins to oppress the civillians, a rebellion occurs, and the two sides become locked in a murderous conflict that is the deterioration of society. The argument of the movie comes from the theme of the movie rather than the main characters.
The conflict of the background is more focused on by the camera rather than the protagonists. This helps show people where they should be focused to understand where the theme is. This film uses pathos heavily to affect the viewer emotionally. The crying baby and the distraught, homeless people are examples of the symbols used to appeal to emotions. This movie had an interesting argument that caught my attention.

visual argument

As I was looking through some funny billboards online, I saw a particular one that caught my attention. I really liked this picture and decided to choose it as a rhetorical analysis subject for the english paper. The thing that really initially caught my attention was the size of the billboard. Usually when you think of billboards, you think of the really wide signs on the side of the road, but this one was a really small, square shaped one. The most part of the billboard is just the bare frame, and the actual sign only took a small portion of the right side. It says "USE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED," and it has the logo for the Denver water company below. Obviously the appearance represents the message because the billboard is not fully used, but it sends a deeper message, one that rather tells you that you know that you yourself waste many resourses and that if you cooperate with others you can really make a difference. It also shows that there really are people out there who are willing to make a difference. The billboard uses the pathos method of argument very strongly (remember my 1st blog about my belief that pathos is, in my opinion the strongest form of argument). It grabs the emotions of the passerby to think of the reasons why we need to conserve our resources, to keep the world more beautiful for our posterity. I do beleive the sign is an effective one in catching one's attention and delivering the message.

tools of persuasion

As I read The Glass Castle over the summer, I felt the radiant emotion and passion from the little, innocent girl who had so many life changing ups and downs from a very poor background. Jeannette presents her story with lots of pathos; she probably intended of making the reader become more aware of the hardships that some people face and what it is like to try to fit in a world which can be so cruel. I felt the message she was trying to send. Innocent and poor children are powerful tools for making an argument. They touch the hearts of people (the ones who have hearts). What I'm saying is that I beleive that pathos is the more effictive type of persuasion compared to the others. It has lead to the many types of charities that exist today, such as invisible children to help those in need in the corrupt regions of Africa, and it has even lead us into war after the tragic day of September 11. It lead many Americans to vote for Obama in the election of 2008, on the grounds that he would focus on the middle and lower class to survive and revive from an economic crisis that pushed so many families into a paycheck-by-paycheck lifestyle. I'm not saying that I've started a charity or anything, but I definitely have a new view and respect for those who are less fortunate than the middle class. So am I right to think that pathos is the most powerful persuasion tool?