Pathos:
"To persuade an audience by appeals to their emotions."
Parts of Pathos:
-Emotional appeals -Concrete examples of data (putting a face on the data) -Appropriate language for a given audience -Recognition of audience’s values and beliefs -Direct appeals to the audience |
Importance of Pathos:
Pathos is used to help the audience feel more connected to what the speaker is saying, which helps the speaker to persuade the audience. |
In "Tear Down This Wall":
Throughout his speech, Reagan makes several appeals to pathos. Although not as prominent of an appeal as others, Reagan’s emotional appeals do complement his rhetoric. Reagan beings by contextualizing his surrounding and establishing a connection with his audience: “We’re drawn here by … the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years older than our own nation”. Not only does he praise Berlin’s rich history, but also relates to his audience through a personal contrast. Reagan’s contextualization continues through imagery: “those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers … there remain armed guards and checkpoints.” The imagery vividly illustrates the exigency of the speech. As Reagan speaks, Berlin finds itself at a civil conflict which has molded the facet of the city; a facet that Reagan utilizes in order to make his speech both relevant and persuasive.
Throughout his speech, Reagan makes several appeals to pathos. Although not as prominent of an appeal as others, Reagan’s emotional appeals do complement his rhetoric. Reagan beings by contextualizing his surrounding and establishing a connection with his audience: “We’re drawn here by … the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years older than our own nation”. Not only does he praise Berlin’s rich history, but also relates to his audience through a personal contrast. Reagan’s contextualization continues through imagery: “those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers … there remain armed guards and checkpoints.” The imagery vividly illustrates the exigency of the speech. As Reagan speaks, Berlin finds itself at a civil conflict which has molded the facet of the city; a facet that Reagan utilizes in order to make his speech both relevant and persuasive.
But I must confess, we're drawn here by other things as well: by the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years older than our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and determination.
From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same--still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.
Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar.
For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.
Speaking precisely 40 years ago this month, he said: "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos."
Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and museums. Where there was want, today there's abundance--food, clothing, automobiles-the wonderful goods of the Ku'damm. From devastation, from utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on Earth.
In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind-too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself.
General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Let us use this occasion, the 750th anniversary of this city, to usher in a new era, to seek a still fuller, richer life for the Berlin of the future. Together, let us maintain and develop the ties between the Federal Republic and the Western sectors of Berlin, which is permitted by the 1971 agreement.
No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused of illusions. Something instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence that refuses to release human energies or aspirations. Something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says yes to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin is love--love both profound and abiding.
There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.