Ethos, Pathos, Logos- an American Slave Essay Example

Usage of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in An American Slave How can ethos, pathos, and logos change a human’s perspective on an important event? The right balance of ethos, pathos, and logos would lead to a heartwarming story of any kind; an example would be Fredrick Douglass’ An American Slave. Douglass’ autobiography has shown a certain amount of ethos, pathos, and logos in order to sustain a full autobiography that has changed the perspective of America. Fredrick Douglass, once a “chained” slave, has expressed his personal experiences about slavery through one of America’s most beloved autobiographies. In his work, he showed his beliefs appealing to logos, ethos, and importantly, pathos. Douglass had expressed logos through several personal accounts during his time as a slave. He would explain the logic meaning of how a master would treat his slave and the punishment of the master when he kills his own slave. For example, Mr. Gore, an overseer, killed a slave after the slave refused to get out of the creek. In response, Mr. Gore shot the slave right in the head, but was never punished for this terrible crime as he argued if one slave did wrong, the other slaves would copy. Fredrick Douglass would soon explain other masters who would kill their slaves in the most horrifying way, and never received punishment. Douglass would also use an example that had happened to him from his wife’s family, when his wife’s cousin was killed in the goriest way. The examples shown here proves “logic argument”, but also a sign of ethos and pathos. Ethically speaking, Douglass proved several points to include not only his ideals of the consequences of slavery, but the foreshadowing of abolitionism. Douglass would also frequently mentions religion and his beliefs on Christianity, and how it affected slavery. Ironically, the entire appendix is dedicated to persuade the context and how religion had an effect through slavery and himself. For example, Douglass retold a