For Essays Guru M7D2 Responses

Jay, 

In very basic terms, ethos is the audience’s perception of your character. Logos is creating a strong argument and pathos is appealing to the emotion of the audience. (O’Quinn 2009). Each of the speakers we viewed this week modeled these three elements in speaking to their respective audiences. 

President John F. Kennedy

I noticed how President Kennedy used the words “we” and “us” and “our” when addressing the nation. This draws the audience in and allows them to see him on their level and that he is going to be right alongside the people fighting for their rights. Many politicians today say things like “I will go to congress and fight for you”. This separates the speaker from the audience in many cases. 

General McArthur

Gen. McArthur was well respected and known as a man of great character for having served 52 years in the Army and rising to the rank of a 5 Star General.  However, at the time he was having problems with President Truman who has just relieved him of command in Korea (pbs.org). He started his speech with a history lesson and breakdown of the world’s problems that are and would affect America.  This set the stage for him to be able to state his part of the story and concerns for the future of not only Communism, but America.  His speech lasted 37 minutes and the last 3-5 minutes were dedicated to him stating his retirement and desire to just “fade away”. By setting the stage with recent problems he had incurred, he was appealing to their sense of sympathy so they would understand his decision to retire.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King was so influential in his speech for many reasons beyond ethos, pathos and logos. His message alone was powerful and came at a time when the nation was divided. He was able to appeal not only to the black population with talk of being free from discrimination, but was able to appeal to whites by bringing them back to what our nation was founded on... Freedom.  Also, he began his speech with a low, slow, and monotone talk and as he went on, he elevated his voice and sped up his speech to show his emotion and passion for his beliefs and in doing so controlled the audience’s emotions and responses.

Jeff, 

GEN MacArthur’s speech was influential on a few different points.  He was said to be a warmonger but he did not let that get to him.  He stayed calm and focused on his point, which was that swift victory is necessary during times of war.  His call was for reinforcements in order to win the war, and that it was prolonged indecision by the government that caused the war to continue.  My take on his speech was that he chose to step down and call an end to his military career for the betterment of his country, in an effort to restore confidence in the ability of the US Military to accomplish the mission.  

In Dr. King’s speech, he talked about how it has taken over one hundred years to get over discrimination against blacks in the US.  President Lincoln set out to do this in 1863 with a Presidential executive order to free the slaves but blacks are still being discriminated against, in this era.  Dr. King used the Lincoln memorial as his venue, to reinforce the fact that a US President passed a law that freed the slaves, and all men should be treated equally.  Dr. King’s words were spoken with true passion and belief that we would all be brought together to live in harmony as one.  He was such a powerful speaker because people could tell that he was speaking with the passion of true belief in his goal to bring us all together.  

President Kennedy was an inspirational change to our Nation, in that he was trying to bring the country together as one unified Nation.  He instilled that change was not immediate; it would take time, and that all citizens of the US must come together to keep our Nation great.  The government by itself cannot make successful change happen.  The people and government have to come together as one group in order to make that happen.  He was well received by multiple groups of people, which led people to believe in his word, and know that they needed to be unified to make this happen.  He did not make his speech about what he was going to do to make things great, but what we as a country was going to do to accomplish that goal.  

These speeches were so powerful because all of the speakers had three major things going for them; they were well respected, very educated, and extremely passionate about the message they were trying to get across and the topics on which they were speaking about.  These three things are important when you are trying to get buy-in from the people, especially when you are focusing on areas of this magnitude.  These individuals were trying to change nation.  Getting people to change their way of thinking is a daunting task that takes powerful speakers to create this influence.  These three things alone will not always get people to follow you and your message.  You must have credibility and legitimacy, as a baseline.  Being able to motivate and lead these folks to the objective is crucial in maintaining that good reputation, also to get the same people to join in to follow you in future endeavors.