Example Of Pathos In Blackfish

The documentary, Blackfish (2013), directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite is about the negative outcomes that come out of maintaining orcas in captivity. This documentary utilizes numerous types of rhetorical strategies to persuade its audience to agree with the claims stated throughout the film. One of the main rhetorical strategies utilized by the filmmaker were ethos,pathos,and logos, also known Aristotelian appeals. The filmmaker demonstrates multiple examples of logos throughout the documentary. Logos is the appeal to someone's sense of facts or logic. The filmmaker implements facts throughout the film when speaking of real incidents that occurred. These incidents are facts and proven to have occurred because there is footage shown of the …show more content…
The filmmaker utilizes multiple examples of pathos throughout the documentary. Pathos is the appeal to someone's emotions. One way that the filmmaker appeals to the audience's emotions is when pictures of orcas’ damaged skin is showcased. Their skin is hurt by past trainers who would punish them for not performing something correctly or by attacks from other orcas. The gory images provoke the audience to feel sorry for the poor orcas.
The audience is also forced to feel sorry for the mother orcas when they are separated from their children. The documentary mentions an orca named Kasatka who was screaming and screeching for her daughter Takara after she was taken away from her to be moved to a different Seaworld location. Pathos is also utilized when witnesses spoke about the horrific incidents that occurred to trainers who were killed or attacked by an orca. When the witnesses spoke they used imagery which induced the audience to picture the horrendous attacks. Therefore, pathos was utilized by the filmmaker to provoke the audience to feel sorry for the orcas and victims of