Steve Jobs Ethos

On October 5, 2011, the world witnessed the passing away of Steve Jobs. He died at the relatively young age of fifty-six. As a technological icon, Jobs changed the way hundreds of millions of people today communicate, interact, and think. Through the founding of Apple, Next, and Pixar, Jobs showed the world that with passion and persistence visions can truly transform into reality. Although Steve Jobs has given many speeches in his life time, it could be said that arguably his most notable speech was presented to the 2005 graduating class of Stanford. The fifteen-minute speech currently has over twenty-nine million views on YouTube and is viewed as one of the most inspirational speeches of the 21st century. Jobs tells his audience of college

One example of how he uses pathos to appeal to his listeners is how he juxtaposes the first two sentences of his speech. Jobs announces, “I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college.” Jobs appeals to the pathos of the audience by putting them on a pedestal. He praises them for having achieved success at one of the “finest” universities around. Immediately after, he mentions the elephant in the room by stating that he has, “never graduated from college.” This juxtaposition of praising first then showing humility afterwards makes the audience feel a sense of accomplishment. Jobs appeals to the pathos of his audience and sets the stage by making them feel a sense of pride. The audience is now probably feeling comfortable and prepared for the messages that Jobs will relay to them. Although one can understand these first two sentences to mean that college is not needed to accomplish great things, I feel that Job’s voice inflection on “honored” and “finest” show his intentions of appeasing his audience. Jobs also uses the emotions of his audience through use of his relatable stories. He speaks about certain elements of the human condition that everyone in his audience can relate to. His second story is about “love and loss,” while his third story is about death; these three experiences of love, loss and, death are experiences that all people experience in a lifetime. His relatable stories allow his listeners to feel a connection to the orator on some level. Jobs then uses ethos and logos to establish his credibility throughout the essay. One example of this is when he says, “We worked hard, and in ten years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a