Reflection Essay The story, “Carry Your Own Skis”, by Lian Dolan uses rhetoric in many different ways to persuade her audience that if you learn responsibility early in life, it will help you in the future. She accomplishes this by using the rhetorical appeals ethos pathos and logos. Not only did these help to make an appealing claim, but also to connect with the audience. Mostly, the audience is pointed toward older generations who, like her, had responsibilities and no choices about what to do. Let's first start off with how Dolan uses ethos to express her purpose. Throughout the story, Dolan, uses ethos, otherwise known as expertise, to support her claim. An example of ethos In this passage is as follows, “ I began to notice the people who hadn't learned to carry their own skis when I was as young as 11. I don't have a name for this concept yet, but I had the notion that maybe other kids operated by a different set of rules. They thought that somewhere, someone was going to take care of things for them.” The show's ethos because she knows the mindset of people didn't take any responsibility when they were younger. This not only expresses that Lian is observant, but also that she knows what she's talking about when it comes to responsibility. Overall, Lian expertise/ethos to convince us that if you take …show more content…
An example of when she uses pathos is as follows, “A cold, wet day on the ice blue slopes of New England, freezing in leather boots and the generation of ski clothes before microfibers was far preferable to being left out of all the fun. Miss the lunches of soggy tuna fish sandwiches and Hershey Minis? No way!” This expresses pathos/emotions because, clearly stated, it was funny. If you went skiing in the sixties you would be able to relate and reflect back on those moments and laugh. Although this is only one of many examples of pathos, it is perhaps the most obvious