Flatland Poem

“Flatland” is a spoken word poem and video by Sam Cook. It was published on June 29, 2014 with the purpose of conveying a strong message of action to all audiences to always act and stand up for what they believe when someone is doing wrong. This is a timeless lesson that is commonly spoken but rarely ever truly taken to heart. In an attempt to make it stick Cook must effectively use ethos pathos and logos. After analyzing this it is clear he has strengths in each but particularly pathos. Ethos is the way the writer creates a persona that allows the audience to see them as trustworthy, relatable, knowledgeable, and as someone with authority and uses these to convince the audience of their point. In this particular case Cook reinforces each

Pathos a clear strength in Cook’s work as he appeals to a wide variety of emotions so he is likely to be able to connect with most people as they all have different values. The first emotion he appeals to is toward his story of his service in the military. Some people likely have close family or friends or even themselves have served in the military and value this. They may then be able to connect to the mental struggle that is caused in the minds of a solider or even in an average person and feel sympathy toward the character, this connects their emotions. Next he appeals to empathy with the image of the mother and child. The way he vividly describes the sadness and uncomfort of the child as sick and crying pulls at the audience into feeling empathy and sadness for this poor child. Soon after the empathy for the child comes the empathy for the mom. Audience members imagining being in her situation knowing there is nothing you can do to calm the child but people are still being hostile or some audience members may even remember a similar time in their own lives. This empathy play connects the audience’s emotions with the mother and child as well now. Next he targets all the emotions raging in society over racism. Racism has always been a battle ever since the begging of America, but more and more so now in the 21st

Cook does not use logos as much as ethos or pathos but it is still a key part of his work. After showing that he is trustworthy with ethos and that his story is true, he shows his cowardice with pathos. As mentioned earlier this may have created a feeling or loathing or hatred toward the main character by the audience, but now this is used at the end when he speaks of self-loathing and the tides are turned. Because he has already created an emotional connection with the audience he can now use their feelings of hatred toward him against themselves. They now are putting themselves in the shoes of a bystander. This creates a logic of, if I hate him for not standing up in that situation, and I am him in another situation, then I would hate myself. Therefore, there is a new self-motivation created from the audience for the audience to stand up. Now in an effort not to fall into his very same position they will be more likely to stand up which means he did effectively use logos to achieve his goal. Over all, Sam Cook’s spoken word poem “Flat Land” effectively used ethos pathos and logos to achieve its purpose. By using ethos and pathos as stepping stones to pull it all together and make a final point with logos he was able to make the audience feel compelled toward avoiding his circumstance. In this way Sam cook effectively achieved his purpose of conveying a strong