Analysis Of 'Terror's Purse Strings'

There are four rows of children, six children per row to be more precise. They are sitting quietly under a poor light that keeps flickering and makes it hard for them to see. The concentration reflected on their faces while putting parts together is impressive, and it sounds like a good time, but it’s not.The picture of children playing with Legos appears fastly. However, the real picture is children sewing and putting pieces of fake luxury goods together. Child labor is only one of the many faces that counterfeiting has. Even though, many people believe that buying a fake good is harmless, Thomas relates throughout “Terror’s Purse Strings” the great negative impact of counterfeiting. Also, the author mentions measures that could be taken
Thomas cites different people, whose job is closely related to counterfeiting of luxury goods, to support her arguments. For example, the mention of the testimony of the secretary general of Interpol is crucial to support her argument that relates the production of fake goods to well-known criminal organizations. The secretary general of Interpol, Ronald K. Noble, states that the profit made by the sell of counterfeiting good goes to groups associated with criminal organizations, such as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. (Thomas, par 5). Also, the author describes her first-hand experience to counterfeiting when visiting a clandestine factory in Guangzhou which grants her credibility on the topic. The author offers a detailed description of her visit to the factory which provides support to her argument that counterfeiting is negative, not only because it affects the legit companies profi/economy, but also innocent human lives. (Thomas par 7). It is also effective that the author connects her appealing to ethos through her personal experience to her appealing to
The author’s appeal to pathos evokes feelings such as guilt and compassion from the reader. The detailed description that the author offers leads the audience to create a picture of what is really happening behind counterfeiting. Thomas describes the clandestine factory in Guangzhou as a decrepit tenement in which children, ages 8 to 13 were sewing together fake luxury handbags (Thomas par 7). Also, the author mentions throughout the article how common is counterfeiting, even among police authorities, such as prosecutors and attorneys (Thomas par 4). Thomas’ appeal to pathos can also be seen in the last paragraphs, in which she evokes everyone’s moral obligation to contribute on improving society. She stimulates reflexion and encourages everyone to stop buying fake goods in order to reduce the profits of counterfeiting which finance many different illicit organizations that are also run by human trafficking, weapons, narcotraffic, terrorism and child prostitution (Thomas par 4 and par 5). The appealing of emotion and feeling from the readers in order for then to support the argument is quite convincing, after all, no person would refute that child labor in clandestines factories is acceptable. However, this argument could’ve been certainly more convincing if the evidence appealing to logos would’ve been more extensive and