One time that I was influenced by someone’s use of pathos rather than his or her logos or ethos was in fifth grade. It was a long time ago, but I clearly remember the day that the yo-yo man came to visit our school. The whole school got to attend a special assembly where this full-grown man did yo-yo tricks for about 30 minutes, and then tried to get all of the students to buy his yo-yos. Looking back now it seems weird that our school even allowed this man to come, and even weirder that this was what this guy actually did for a living. Regardless, ten year old me was captivated, and all of the elementary school kids were tripping over themselves to try to convince their parents to buy them a custom yo-yo.
The yo-yo man didn’t employ any logos in his sales methods; because in reality there was actually no practical sense in buying a $30 trick yo-yo. I mean I couldn’t even manage to get the old wooden yo-yo at my Grandpa’s house to come back to my hand at the time. The only ethos this man employed was that he could actually do some yo-yo tricks, but other than that he had no credibility whatsoever. What he did use was some very convincing persuasion.
Before this random man stepped up onto the gymnasium stage yo-yos were not cool, but the minute the show was over the only thing anyone in my classes wanted to talk about was yo-yo tricks. He was enchanting in his passionate speech about yo-yos. As you can easily imagine he was eccentric and loud in his delivery. We never stopped watching and listening to him, simply because he didn’t even give us that option. He wasn’t successful because of what he was selling (duh. he was selling f’ing yo-yos), but because of his infectious passion for his product that he was able to share with the audience. I believe that the key to pathos in persuasion is passion. Nobody who is passionate about something ever talks in a boring, monotone voice. If I could employ half of the yo-yo man’s enthusiasm in my persuasive arguments then I’m sure that I could sway more people into believing my side.
In reference to our upcoming podcast recording, I do believe that pitch is important. The This I Believe podcast isn’t necessarily a persuasive essay, but it is a concrete stand on individual beliefs, and it will be much more powerful if it is recorded with a voice of confidence. If the narrator is confident when they state their belief, it will be much easier for the audience to buy into that belief. For whatever reason the mysterious yo-yo man chose to believe in yo-yos, and his passion for them managed to get my parents to buy me a yo-yo that I never learned how to use and is probably still sitting in my desk drawer at home.
