Pathos Persuasive Speech

There are numerous ways to promote another person, and a time when this is seen is on political campaigns. The spouses of presidential candidates hold an important role in persuading the public to vote for their spouse, and a common way for them to do this is to use pathos to appeal to the emotions of their audience. For most people, personal connections and decisions are made with a close link to emotions and the feelings that one associates with that person or decision. During the presidential campaigns and the voting process this emotional connection is especially important. Most of the candidates’ spouses focus on pathos in order to strengthen their audience’s connection with the candidate as well as to show their spouse’s credibility and
Her speech starts off with specifics about her background: she comes from a family whose father was a “blue-collar city worker and a mother who stayed at home,” and she gives her audience a specific and strong picture about her father’s disease and how he had to struggle at every moment, but continued to work and support the family. Michelle’s father, “Never stopped smiling and laughing-- even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give [her] mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier and worked a little harder.” In this anecdote Michelle plays to the audience’s emotions by emphasizing her dad’s struggle through the repetition of the word “even.” This word highlights her dad’s love of and loyalty to his family despite his circumstances, and makes it clear to the audience that Michelle Obama’s childhood was not painless, as well as providing an opportunity for the audience to connect with her on a personal level. An initial personal connection, such as the one Michelle has made in her speech, creates an emotional foundation on which she is able to introduce her husband, Barack. The first time Michelle brings up Barack she is able to directly relate his family to the anecdote she shared with the audience about her family. Michelle conveys that, “His family was so much like [hers]… grandparents, single mom, working-class folks just like [her] parents.” In this passage Michelle creates an image of Obama’s family that is very similar to her own, and by associating Barack’s family to her family, Michelle effectively uses pathos by utilizing an already established emotional connection to create an emotional relationship between the audience and her husband, Barack. Furthering the success of Michelle’s use of pathos is the positive connotation of words such as “folks.” “Folks” is a word that portrays Michelle