Mills Ethos

Macaul Mellor

Many women decided to work in Mills in the 1900’s in order to gain wealth and give to their family. The ideas of the Mills gave a reassuring balance of work, opportunity, and pay to all the women, yet, these ideas were not always fulfilled. Many workers were unhappy with their working condition and the money they were granted. Each different statement reflects a different emotional voice: “Orestes Brownson Questions the Lowell System portrays pathos, “A Lowell Worker Defends the System portrays logos, and “A Worker’s Memories of the Mills” portrays ethos. Ethos gives the strongest voice because it gives the reader liability and experience in the Mills that is needed to truly understand the argument in which, “A worker’s Memories

She uses Ethos and her explanation of her own story to pull the reader in so they are able to understand what she had to go through. She explains that when she if offered an opportunity to go to highschool, “ I could not go. The little money I could earn- one dollar a week, besides the price of my bread- was needed in the family, and I must return to the mill. . . .”. Although the Mills promised education and a better life, when placed into the Mill, even with an education, there was no escape as shown in the worker 's life. She uses her own real life example to show the never ending pain she had to face because of her work in the Mills. No matter how hard she worked to be capable of attending school and earning a higher education, the Mill and the lack of payment kept her from achieving her goals. Her own experience in the Mills gives the reader both the logic behind the Mills and her emotional standpoint of sadness that persuaded the reader, which the other two articles lacked. “A Worker’s Memories of the Mill’s” is the most credible statement because of their usage of pathos to explain their claim. They have the experience that the other articles do not have which gives them a better argument and liability. Since the worker herself went through the program her argument is more believable than the other two making her claim the better and more credible