Aristotle is credited with creating the defining foundations of all arguments even to this day, with his logos (logical appeal), pathos (emotional appeal), and ethos (ethical appeal), Aristotle created the most basic formula for every spoken and written argument after them, found in every successful argument. Maya Angelou is one of the most well-known and well regarded African-American writers in American history and played a role in the greatly important Civil Rights Movement and was very good at using her experience and these rhetoric ideas to her advantage to provoke people to see from her perspective and help understand easier than an average writer especially in the turbulent times this story was written in. In the memoir, Graduation,
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The basic outline of a story (Beginning middle and end) seems elementary but when used effectively can serve as a way to strengthen an author’s logical appeal. This is precisely the foundation of Angelou’s logical argument. She uses the happy and cheerful atmosphere at the beginning of the story along with a well-placed tone shift to make the subsequent parts to be even more effective. The peak of the story, and the minor breakdown in her emotions, are in stark contrast to the beginning and serve to pull humanity apart in order to reconstruct it, bringing together African-Americans, and by her own extension, everyone, as a cohesive and strong people. The logos appeal is formed in the logical nature of the events, helping to be the support for building the pathetic appeal on top of it. At this same time in the memoir Angelou utilizes the juxtaposition of hatred and compassion in order to illustrate to the reader that everyone, in her case the speaker and the audience, in this situation was negatively affected by this in some way, while the white people were obviously not as harshly effected, she still goes out of her way to depict them as human and somewhat uncomfortable. Angelou crafted took 20 years before writing this story and over that time …show more content…
The story is crafted through the use of strong and vivid describing words and imagry that can be easily understood by anyone, and even when she does delve into very ethnic ideas she is always quick to put them in terms that can be easily related to by anyone. For example, her use of the Negro national anthem will obviously bring out a very strong emotional response from that racial group but the descriptions she’s uses around the lyrics allows for everyone else to feel their significance. This compounds with her logical appeals to make her audience as inclusive as possible. The memoir was also presented in an overly chronological organization, going through each part and emotion she felt in detail, strengthening the authenticity of the of the piece and using her ethical appeal to allow the reader to connect with every part on a deep level. Angelou goes to great lengths to provide the reader with a description of each feeling and idea she felt that day leading up to her graduation and recalls the time inside the graduation in such a way that makes it feel larger than what came before it, this heightens the tension felt by the reader and ultimately created an emotional peak at the same time that
The basic outline of a story (Beginning middle and end) seems elementary but when used effectively can serve as a way to strengthen an author’s logical appeal. This is precisely the foundation of Angelou’s logical argument. She uses the happy and cheerful atmosphere at the beginning of the story along with a well-placed tone shift to make the subsequent parts to be even more effective. The peak of the story, and the minor breakdown in her emotions, are in stark contrast to the beginning and serve to pull humanity apart in order to reconstruct it, bringing together African-Americans, and by her own extension, everyone, as a cohesive and strong people. The logos appeal is formed in the logical nature of the events, helping to be the support for building the pathetic appeal on top of it. At this same time in the memoir Angelou utilizes the juxtaposition of hatred and compassion in order to illustrate to the reader that everyone, in her case the speaker and the audience, in this situation was negatively affected by this in some way, while the white people were obviously not as harshly effected, she still goes out of her way to depict them as human and somewhat uncomfortable. Angelou crafted took 20 years before writing this story and over that time …show more content…
The story is crafted through the use of strong and vivid describing words and imagry that can be easily understood by anyone, and even when she does delve into very ethnic ideas she is always quick to put them in terms that can be easily related to by anyone. For example, her use of the Negro national anthem will obviously bring out a very strong emotional response from that racial group but the descriptions she’s uses around the lyrics allows for everyone else to feel their significance. This compounds with her logical appeals to make her audience as inclusive as possible. The memoir was also presented in an overly chronological organization, going through each part and emotion she felt in detail, strengthening the authenticity of the of the piece and using her ethical appeal to allow the reader to connect with every part on a deep level. Angelou goes to great lengths to provide the reader with a description of each feeling and idea she felt that day leading up to her graduation and recalls the time inside the graduation in such a way that makes it feel larger than what came before it, this heightens the tension felt by the reader and ultimately created an emotional peak at the same time that