Evangelista 1

Gustavo Evangelista
Professor Berns
English 114B
19 May 2016

Rhetorical Analysis
Many authors use rhetorical strategies like ethos and logos, but for authors like Pollan
from Omnivores Dilemma, Brooke Rollins and Lee Bauknight from Food they like to take a
different approach. The other rhetoric strategy that they used the most in their books is pathos.
Ethos focuses on credibility and logos is a way of persuading audience by reason. Pathos is the
quality thats shows emotion or a feeling to appeal to the audience. Both books have many
examples that demonstrate pathos and in by doing so made an effective text. Even though pathos
is the most used rhetoric strategy, it does not mean that any of these authors shy away from using
ethos or logos. In fact, it will be a difficult job writing a book/story without using all three.
However, I believe that these authors use pathos more to relate to the audience more by using
their own experience. From these texts, the rhetoric strategy that is most used is pathos so that
the readers can have a deep understanding of the stories by relating to them.
An example of pathos used from Brooke Rollins and Lee Bauknight from Food is the
story named Tasteless by David Sedaris. Using sarcasm, he shows readers a personal journey
telling readers how we should eat and what not too. In his story he shares that even though he
quit smoking, he has a hard time regaining his taste. For example, while he was eating dinner
with his mother he mistook a barbeque rib for a chicken leg. Using humor to appeal to the
audience he shares how he would rather call food by color: Golden Brown. Red. Beige with
some pink in it. This demonstrates that by using humor and sarcasm he is able to appeal to
readers by setting a genre (narrative). In an article called Easy to digest by Beth Kephart

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shows a series by humor can relate to the audience and make them love these stories. By
sharing her personal experience, she was able to get the message right away. Using a narrative
genre lets him openly share his experience so that anybody who reads this story is going through
the same experience. Stories like Tasteless prove that there are many techniques under pathos
that authors can use.
Another story from the book Tasteless named FOOD IS GOOD by Anthony
Bourdain is another example of pathos being an effective strategy. The story is about his
childhood and how Bourdains awakening to a life of food culminates in his epiphany that food
has power. Growing up in France, the food was different from what he was used to but after a
while he began to enjoy the food. As time went by, he talks about how he tasted many different
types of food and how by doing so found his profession, a chef. His story of food is a metaphor
of him growing up to be the person he is today. This demonstrates that by the power of food, it
can enlighten you. Its not about whether you think the food is spectacular or atrocious, its more
about the journey of how you get there. Bourdain used pathos from his personal story from his
childhood to have a more meaningful experience in hopes that readers can have the same
awakening. According to the website Your Dictionary pathos means a sympathy of sorrow
that affects to feelings or emotions. It also says that it makes an audience feel a connection with
the reader. The stories from Food help back up saying that this is the most effective tool.
Although these stories from Food are heavily used with pathos and are easily found by the
reader, Michael Pollans Omnivores Dilemma has a more complex twist.
Unlike Food, Omnivores Dilemma has a more complex way of expressing rhetoric
strategies. All chapters from the book can easily be pathos, ethos, or logos. However, there is
section in the book that caught my attention. In chapter 17, section 6 (A CLEAN KILL) has

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the most noticeable narrative using pathos that I could find. Other chapters in the book have
many examples of ethos and logos. This section had the most personal input out of the whole
book because it gives a solid opinion of where he stands. This section talks about finding a way
to kill animals without them suffering or feeling any side affects of guilt while doing so. Pollen
prefers to kill the animal himself knowing that it wont be going through the horrible
slaughterhouse. He look in the eye of them so that they wont suffers. By using pathos, he was
able to be effective by showing how animal suffer. He shows a variety of way such as how been
domesticated or in a slaughterhouse. What do all these stories have in common? Well Food and
Omnivores Dilemma both use emotion and feeling to connect to the audience. According to
the article European Rhetoric says that pathos do have an advantage of being more effective
than ethos or logos. For example, pathos has a more conceiving and easy to read style, it allows
personal touch, curiosity to the audience. Sure they can use credibility or logic but at the end
of the day, people are more connected by personal stories.
Pathos is the most effective technique to get a message across. Something about being in
someones shoes helps them visualize from their perspective. This helps especially when there
are not exactly page-to-page. The reason why Pollen was so effective with pathos was because
he shared his personal experience allowing the readers to relate to the genre (narrative). When I
started reading it I wanted something that can relate to an everyday life me and thats just what
he did. Food is so effective with pathos because the stories dont provide credibility or details.
Both Food and Omnivores Dilemma are effective with pathos more than any other rhetoric
technique because of their own personal experiences and opinion in the story.

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Works Cited
Kephart, Beth. Easy to digest. Elizabeth Berg mixed humor and pathos in her compassionate
new story collection. May 24, 2008. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-0524/entertainment/0805210311_1_watchers-elizabeth-berg-story

"Examples of Pathos." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 18 April 2016.

<http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-pathos.html>.
Read more at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-ofpathos.html#g0XIpD3qKv60DW6u.99

European Rhetoric. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos-Modes of persuasion (Aristotle). 2007.

http://www.european-rhetoric.com/ethos-pathos-logos-modes-persuasion-aristotle/pathos/