A Little Bit On Rhetoric

Personally when considering this image, there is so much there. As I consider the rhetorical situation, this image is used in the context of shocking while bringing awareness to its audience of verbal abuse. The audience can be considered school age children as well as parents- the hand around the boy’s neck could either be seen as a bully or his own parent. The phrase “Your words have power use them wisely,” explains the purpose of why this image was created, to make people aware that words can be made into a weapon, and the pain can be much like that of physical abuse. This image works effectively at projecting a message because no human with a heart would like to see a little boy, tears in his eyes, being tortured by someone he fears or even possibly loves.

            Of the three: ethos, pathos, and logos, I find that there is significant use of pathos. This image captures fear and sadness thus causing the audience to have sympathy towards the boy or even anger towards his attacker. His expression and the simple tear coming out of his eye shows the pure innocence that he still possesses and the fact that he in no way has provoked the treatment that he is receiving. If one were to look even closer, words such as worthless, punk, and fool can be seen on the transparent hand whose grip is on the boy.  These words are harsh, and in my opinion, if they were uttered to me I would be upset as well. There is not much use of ethos, unless you were to consider how there is an appeal or connection made to the audience by the use of childhood innocence, considering they have all been children in their past. I do not see any use of logos, because there is no cited research or specific organization.

Found using Google: http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=620&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=nzJJaGbKX7TuJM:&imgrefurl=http://shentherapy.webs.com/traumaandrecovery.htm&docid=mCtHNcSOjrGUIM&imgurl=http://shentherapy.webs.com/Words%252520have%252520Power.jpg&w=480&h=348&ei=fZwYT7-FJ8a70AG41sGbCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=530&vpy=259&dur=84&hovh=191&hovw=264&tx=198&ty=137&sig=108757906225687038255&page=7&tbnh=126&tbnw=167&start=158&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:23,s:158