South L. A School Ethos

Throughout the description and analysis of the horrific reality of violence in a Southern L.A. School, the author effectively used ethos and pathos to stress the importance of the story to readers. Beatty’s combined experience and closeness to the situation makes her testimonial trustworthy and authoritative. In addition to having a firm understanding of the shootings in South L.A., the Author utilizes pathos through her emotion to guide readers to arrive at a deeper level of understanding about the situation. In doing this she effectively introduces the truth of the lives of many kids that attend her school. Beatty’s effective use of ethos and pathos illustrates a clear and authoritative image of the South L.A. school shootings and their
Beatty began teaching at the school as a person unaware of the frequency or dullness of the news of shootings. She highlights this in her article by drawing the readers’ attention to how routinely the students processed the news. There was no emotion for the students because it was a reality of life, however, for the author and the majority of the reading audience it is not a common occurrence. Beatty uses the mundane reaction of the students to strengthen her pathos by highlighting how desensitized the students are to violence. This point is further proven by the author’s shock to how unemotional Angelica is that her brother had been shot. In doing this she utilizes pathos by introducing readers to the horrible idea of the emotion of a loved one being shot being negligible. In addition to this, Beatty calls to the attention of the readers the lives of slain students. She shows readers how innocent they were and after citing their innocence the author bluntly relays the cause of their horrific death. This writing by the author introduces a character only to rip the image of innocence out of the readers head and replace it with the horrifying reality of murder and death. This use of imagery effectively triggers emotion in readers and is a use of pathos by the author. However, perhaps the most effective use of pathos by Beatty was bringing to the attention of readers that the lives of these kids are not only afflicted by violence, but are hopeless. Beatty features this sentiment saying: “They know how the world sees them, these teenagers with no cars, and no prospects for college.” By bringing the hopelessness of the kids to the attention of the reader Beatty is able to make readers think about their own lives and goals and understand that if they swapped lives with