Tanner TrimbleEnglish 12 Period 61/14/10 What I learned last quarter? “Human being, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so” – Douglas Adams Within the last two months I have learned to use Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to understand the in class literature. I gained the ability to see the credibility with the author and people within that literature. I had to understand why the author said this, or why he made the main character do whatever it was he did. Then I had to feel the emotion the author gave in the book. When the character cried, I had to understand and feel that pain. When he was happy, I could feel a spark of joy within my own life. Finally, I had to see the logic behind every part of the story. Some of the literature was largely tipped towards one part. It was either ethos, pathos and logos, yet it needed each to make the story understandable to the reader. The literature of this quarter where highly centered around these three ideas, and kept us wanting to find more credibility, emotion and logic within what we read. Ethos was a very difficult ideal to understand. We where to understand not only the characters of the story but the author as well. In the speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln and Mark Anthony, we could easily see why what they said was important. They where all very high in society in some way, so the people where obliged to listen to them. Yet in novels such as the Night, we had to see the credibility through experience. When Ellie fought to survive the concentration camps, we understood that the author was credible through past experience. When we saw the movie “The Christmas Carol” we could only see the credibility of the ghosts through what they showed Scrooge. The ghosts were not high in society, and they didn’t experience anything that was noticeable. So the only way we wanted to listen to them was because they where an entity we could not comprehend, which makes us want to comprehend more. Ethos helped us see what the reasons where behind the ideals of the story, but they also helped us understand the actions of people within the real world. Pathos, to me, was extremely easy to comprehend. I am a poet and a writer so I use pathos all the time. Yet, when you can see pathos in every moment of the story, then you start to see the idea of the story itself. In the Christmas Carol, Scrooge’s dislike of everything led him to be greedy towards everything, and believe everyone is out to get him. Ghost one used pathos by building up sorrow in Scrooge and making him see his past mistakes or joy. Then the Ghost of Christmas Present used the sorrow that was built up and forced Scrooge to see how his past mistakes and who was today was affecting everyone around him. This led the last ghost being able to show that Scrooge’s past and present faults would lead him to the biggest pathos, death and fear of death. In the book, the Night, Ellie went through pathos after pathos. The fact he was torn away from his mother and sister is a large pathos right there. The emotion he must have felt was nothing compared to the sadness we felt as we read the book. But without pathos we would never be able to feel the pain of Ellie, or any other character in any book. Logos was yet another hard lesson to learn. When we think of logic we tend to think of math, or equations, or statistics. Never do we think of the base logic. In Hamlet, the base logic was that his father was murdered and it was his job to get revenge. There was no statistic in it so we had to see logic in a whole new light. In the book, The Night, we saw another base logic. The Jewish community was being torn from society and the people had to survive to continue the life of there people. It was hard to understand the base logic, but with pathos the logic was shown better. If the author can connect some way with the reader, then the reader can understand the ideals in an easier form. Even though we learned about Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, the biggest thing I learned was that you must have each one in order to have a well made story. Ethos allows us to understand why the logos and pathos is important. If it was just a hobo who was talking about a war he never went through, no one would want to read it. We would not have a connection with the story and so we would be less incline to care. Yet if the hobo talked to us about dumpster diving, as in the book Dumpster Diving, we understand that this is true, or that this person has a vast amount of credibility towards the subject. Once the Ethos is set up, pathos and logos must be used to keep the reader interested in the information. Through the last quarter we all struggled to grasp onto this information, and once we did we finally could see literature and the world in a whole new way. Ethos is the credibility of the author or characters, Pathos is the emotions behind the story and the ideas, and Logos is the base logic that the story contains. Using these three ideals, we can go on to the next educational experience ready to understand, learn, and finally become who we wish to become.
Period 6 1/14/10
What I learned last quarter?
“Human being, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so” – Douglas Adams
Within the last two months I have learned to use Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to understand the in class literature. I gained the ability to see the credibility with the author and people within that literature. I had to understand why the author said this, or why he made the main character do whatever it was he did. Then I had to feel the emotion the author gave in the book. When the character cried, I had to understand and feel that pain. When he was happy, I could feel a spark of joy within my own life. Finally, I had to see the logic behind every part of the story. Some of the literature was largely tipped towards one part. It was either ethos, pathos and logos, yet it needed each to make the story understandable to the reader. The literature of this quarter where highly centered around these three ideas, and kept us wanting to find more credibility, emotion and logic within what we read.
Ethos was a very difficult ideal to understand. We where to understand not only the characters of the story but the author as well. In the speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln and Mark Anthony, we could easily see why what they said was important. They where all very high in society in some way, so the people where obliged to listen to them. Yet in novels such as the Night, we had to see the credibility through experience. When Ellie fought to survive the concentration camps, we understood that the author was credible through past experience. When we saw the movie “The Christmas Carol” we could only see the credibility of the ghosts through what they showed Scrooge. The ghosts were not high in society, and they didn’t experience anything that was noticeable. So the only way we wanted to listen to them was because they where an entity we could not comprehend, which makes us want to comprehend more. Ethos helped us see what the reasons where behind the ideals of the story, but they also helped us understand the actions of people within the real world.
Pathos, to me, was extremely easy to comprehend. I am a poet and a writer so I use pathos all the time. Yet, when you can see pathos in every moment of the story, then you start to see the idea of the story itself. In the Christmas Carol, Scrooge’s dislike of everything led him to be greedy towards everything, and believe everyone is out to get him. Ghost one used pathos by building up sorrow in Scrooge and making him see his past mistakes or joy. Then the Ghost of Christmas Present used the sorrow that was built up and forced Scrooge to see how his past mistakes and who was today was affecting everyone around him. This led the last ghost being able to show that Scrooge’s past and present faults would lead him to the biggest pathos, death and fear of death. In the book, the Night, Ellie went through pathos after pathos. The fact he was torn away from his mother and sister is a large pathos right there. The emotion he must have felt was nothing compared to the sadness we felt as we read the book. But without pathos we would never be able to feel the pain of Ellie, or any other character in any book.
Logos was yet another hard lesson to learn. When we think of logic we tend to think of math, or equations, or statistics. Never do we think of the base logic. In Hamlet, the base logic was that his father was murdered and it was his job to get revenge. There was no statistic in it so we had to see logic in a whole new light. In the book, The Night, we saw another base logic. The Jewish community was being torn from society and the people had to survive to continue the life of there people. It was hard to understand the base logic, but with pathos the logic was shown better. If the author can connect some way with the reader, then the reader can understand the ideals in an easier form.
Even though we learned about Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, the biggest thing I learned was that you must have each one in order to have a well made story. Ethos allows us to understand why the logos and pathos is important. If it was just a hobo who was talking about a war he never went through, no one would want to read it. We would not have a connection with the story and so we would be less incline to care. Yet if the hobo talked to us about dumpster diving, as in the book Dumpster Diving, we understand that this is true, or that this person has a vast amount of credibility towards the subject. Once the Ethos is set up, pathos and logos must be used to keep the reader interested in the information. Through the last quarter we all struggled to grasp onto this information, and once we did we finally could see literature and the world in a whole new way. Ethos is the credibility of the author or characters, Pathos is the emotions behind the story and the ideas, and Logos is the base logic that the story contains. Using these three ideals, we can go on to the next educational experience ready to understand, learn, and finally become who we wish to become.