Logos, Pathos and Ethos
Public speaking through speeches has three general purposes, including informing, persuading, and entertaining (O'Hair, Stewart, & Rubenstein, 2015). When speaking to persuade, the speaker can leverage a variety of methods, including the three artistic proofs represented by Greek words (PathosEthosLogos.com, n.d.). The three modes of persuasion include logos, pathos, and ethos, each of which can be used to convince audiences of the speech and speaker’s credibility (PathosEthosLogos.com, n.d.). This paper will analyze the sample special occasion speech by President Barack Obama at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela for logos, pathos, and ethos.
Logos
Logos is the first of the three modes of persuasion. Logos focuses on the appeal to logic and reason and considers the
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Pathos focuses on the emotional appeal of the speech to persuade the audience (European Rhetoric, n.d.c). Pathos has two main parts, one focusing on social psychology and the other is the rhetorical aspects (European Rhetoric, n.d.c). In the Mandela eulogy, Obama uses a great deal of emotionally charged language and imagery to convey the greatness of Mandela. First, Obama recognizes the family, distinguished leaders, and South African people early in his speech (O’Hair et al., 2015). Doing so, Obama pays respect to the people who supported Mandela’s movement and creates unity in the audience by using words such as “we” (O’Hair et al., 2015). Another area where pathos was used is when Obama humanizes Mandala through stories of mischief; Mandala was with his own flaws just like the audience (O’Hair et al., 2015). Finally, Obama offers a question for each of the audience members to consider for themselves, just as Obama personally considers it, “How well have I applied his lessons in my own life?” (O’Hair et al., 2015, p. 478). This aspect provides emotional appeal to the audience and helps internalize Obama’s