Rhetorical Analysis Of Goodbye, Columbus: Ohio's War On The Middle Class

Pathos is described as emotional appeals that “are powerful tools for influencing what people think and believe” (p. 30). “Goodbye, Columbus: Ohio’s War on the Middle Class” is an article written by Mac McClelland telling a story about the downfall of the middle class in Ohio around 2011. The story immediately starts off describing the house and the guest room that the writer will be staying in while visiting his friends and developing this story. The description of the room indicates, by the décor of the guest room, that the couple that owns the house has not had the money to paint and update the pink walls and previous owner’s name “Katie” which is marked all over the walls. Starting off with this description lays the groundwork of the pathos throughout the story. Using pathos to build an emotional story about budget cuts, job loss and the fear of the unknown is all over the story. McClelland builds the empathy by detailing the low salary that Erin makes as a teacher and her love for the job. Not only is Erin concerned about losing her job, her husband Anthony …show more content…
By incorporating emotion into the situation is really the best way to get a feeling of what the couples and individuals are going through. The ups and downs that Anthony was going through emotionally, did he or did he not have a job, only in the end to find out he was one of the lucky ones to have get his job back was an important pathos description. What is not written but implied is what Anthony must have been feeling to be the lucky one. Maybe Anthony had a little survivor guilt for those of his co-workers that did not make the cut. Pathos is clearly visible in the unwritten assumptions in the article as well. If this story was presented as just facts I think that it would have really missed the emotional connection McClelland was going for and not have reached the audience in a passionate way that McClelland was hoping