Gabriela Cowperthwaite Blackfish Essay

Film Director and Producer, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, in her film, Blackfish, exploits SeaWorld and the many incidents involving the killer whales and trainers. Cowperthwaite’s purpose is to inform the audience how the whales are treated horribly and persuade the audience to boycott SeaWorld. She adopts a dramatic, gloomy tone in order to convey her audience the idea that SeaWorld is an inhumane place to keep killer whales. Cowperthwaite begins her film by incorporating real life tragedies that occurred at SeaWorld and interviewing experts on whales and former trainers employed by SeaWorld. The author appeals to the rhetorical device pathos with the 911 call made about Dawn. Cowperthwaite uses pathos in order to signify that Dawn died horribly doing what she was passionate about and her former co-workers get emotional when they talk about her. The effect pathos had on the audience is when listening to the personal, heartbreaking stories of former SeaWorld employees it pulls at the heartstrings of the audience and allows viewers to connect emotionally with what the whales and their trainers have endured. Cowperthwaite shifts to SeaWorld and the horrible conditions that the whales are subjected to and the illegal whale catching.
Ethos is used by Cowperthwaite because she goes back in time and shows real video footage, news reports, interviews whale experts, OSHA representatives and former trainers employed by SeaWorld. Cowperthwaite uses ethos in order to construct her credibility about the whales by incorporating real whale experts and even former SeaWorld employees to appeal to the audience’s trust. The effect on the audience, is that these experts and former trainers are trustworthy in the eyes of the audience and the footage demonstrate that after many incidents in the past, SeaWorld is still putting its employees in