Arguments Based on Emotion: Pathos (Ch. 2)
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| The Sculpture of Love and Anguis |
Emotional appeals to any audience are powerful methods for influencing what people think and believe. It is one of the most popular forms visual arguments use. We all make decisions that are based on our feelings.Writers, speakers, and artists find images to evoke certain emotions in
people, so that their audience can connect to those feelings and even
act on them. Take for example the sculpture pictured to the right. It is of a hand reaching up to the sky in a desperate attempt to grasp for help. The hand is tattooed with a number from Aushwitz and is the figure of a dying persons last attempt at
help. The figure might leave the onlooker with despair, hope, or even a
feeling of emptiness. The creator of this sculpture wanted to create
these feeling so that the people who gaze upon this large piece remember
the Holocaust and the immense grief and hardship human beings faced
during this terrible period of time.
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| A Series of Vignettes |
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| Sensing Both Love and Fear |
The photographs to the left are of the figures that cover the hand pictured above. A Series of Vignettes shows a truly emotional image of an elderly man pleading for the young child's life, and the one to the right of it is a mother who is trying to comfort her child before their unavoidably death to come. These visual arguments do not need words to convey intended argument to its audience. It is the emotion one feels when they look upon these figures that stirs the wanted action. This is the purpose of pathos
in visual arguments.
Upon my first glance at the picture, I mistook the hand as a fist because it was a bit cut-off on the top. From there, I had the image of millions of people pulling themselves together like a colony of ants. The fist made me realize that the image must be conveying a message of absolute power and persistence. Then when I read the descriptions, I noticed that the hand seemed more towards reaching out for something rather than Rosie the Riveter’s “We Can Do It”. That artwork is a splendid exemplary of pathos. I can see that these feelings from this sculpture make up a hand, to me is a symbol of strength. I agree with you that decisions we make are based off of our feelings, that we make these points through what we think and feel are right for us or others. Through the sculpture, we can see that this hand reaching out for help represents at least six million innocent civilians trying desperately to escape the wrath of what they did not deserve. I suppose that through pathos, people gaze at this work of art in despair and think to themselves “why wasn’t I there to help them?” This form of pathos immediately tells people that all these people within this hand form a union-like structure of helping one another survive. Once that viewers and observers are told that this is a sculpture based off the Holocaust, they see a heavier impact laid upon them and even a clearer reason to revere these people who gave their life up to help others. That artwork is the perfect example of a pathos argument.
ReplyDeleteWhen I see this image I think of the horrible things that happened during the Holocaust. In High School me and my media class made a documentary about a holocaust survivor. It really got me interested in to the holocaust and all the events that happened. Hearing the stories of what happened I understand where this picture is coming from. The stories are very moving and brings emotions every time I hear them. One story I can think of is how the man we made the documentary about watched his mom and brother wait to die in line for the gas chambers. While they were waiting his mom wrote him and his dad a letter about life. During our documentary he reads it allowed and it is one of the most moving things I have ever heard. This image strikes my interest because I see what I've heard about in this picture.
ReplyDeleteI think it was great for you to have the background of where the image came from but it would help even more if you told the reader about the holocaust for people who may not know too much. You could have said of a certain story or where the creator got inspiration from a certain situation. It also would have been good to understand how you felt when you saw this image. I know theres a wide variety of emotions people may feel but knowing how you felt we get a better understanding of where you are coming from.
Having the emotional aspect of a certain image or idea is good but you also need credibility. This picture definitely has the credibility because we all know generally what happened during the holocaust. If this picture was used as an advertisement for the holocaust museum in Washington DC or another holocaust organization then it would be helpful and necessary for them to put their information such as a website on the image.