A speaker I admire is Tupak Shakur. He is known for being a rapper for changes to be made and he also wrote beautiful poetry. Because he was black, young, and powerful, he spoke in ways about the world that touched a lot of people of all different ages and races. He spoke the way he saw it from his point of view and that made him credible in his own community which Aristotle would refer to as having ethos. Tupak touched a lot of people with his lyrics in some of his songs and this gave him pathos. As for logos, he practiced it in the way he wrote in his poetry.
A personal quality that I have in regards to my speaking being persuasive is my ability to evoke emotion in people. I speak in a way that makes people connect with what I say. They tend to believe me because of how passionate I can get, because I am a passionate person. I also speak in a way that communicates trust because I look people in their eyes and I show no fear. This kind of covers Aristotle's view of having credibility because when you trust someone, you tend to believe what they say.
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Hi Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI am also a fan of Tupak Shakur, an amazing artist who was able to express himself utilizing Aristotle’s pathos scheme. To some people, of an older generation specifically, rap is considered unpleasant music with violent themes and degrading matter. As you said, Tupak did illustrate Aristotle’s ethos scheme within his social network, building his reputation as a talented artist and poet; however this scheme depends on the audience. Like you, I relate to the pathos type of speakers as well and think that passion can overrule or ‘persuade’ for that matter, more than the ethos or logos type of speakers. Also, because you are a more passionate person and would consider yourself a pathos speaker, Tupak and other emotional speakers are more significant to you. I am the same way. Go pathos!
Ray Ray,
ReplyDeleteThe dangers of mentioning Tupac (I am 99.9999% sure it is spelled with a C and not a K at the end) is you risk offending somebody. You might open up the whole West Coast - East Coast rivalry and then the next thing you know you have all these hate comments. The fact that he also disgusted the media when he was a rapper does not help either. His work was considered wrong and should be illegal and for years they tried to turn people against him.
Not to worry, I am not a Tupac hater and I totally agree with you when you say he wrote beautiful poetry. His ability to tap into the emotions of his listeners is like none other rapper that I have heard and that includes the rappers of today as well. I really love his song Dear Mama which is easily one of his best songs. He actually made grown men cry, even the hardcore thug or gangsters were touched by that song. Tupac's pathos over powers his logos and his ethos and that does not mean he has none of either because he has a lot of logos and ethos when he does his songs, it's just Tupac knows how to emotionally get to someone better than anything else.
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ReplyDeleteI often wonder, if Aristotle was alive today would he consider 'Tupak' to be a good speaker?... hmm. Well until Doc Brown and Marty McFly bring their Delorean flying 88 mph down San Fernando I guess we’ll just have to speculate. I’d have to agree with you though, in that Tupac was able to captivate a large audience through his lyrics. I thought you brought up a good point too. Not too many people think about it, but music is indeed an aspect of speech. In fact, in Aboriginal culture, communication as stories, (people who gave speeches), were done so through songs. It is not uncommon to see communication conducted through songs, just as Tupac and many other artists have done.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I think Tupac wrote poetry in raps and it really showed so many people what rap is really all about. People that never found interest in rap or hip hop became interested because of Tupac. He has a way with words that makes you listen and he is a great communicator. He really changed the life of rap for many people and really helped make rap as popular and mainstream as it is today. He showed people what life on the streets were like from his opinion and people were really interest. Whenever I listen to interviews with him he is so honest in everything he speaks about. He also comes off so intelligent and well spoken which really makes people take attention to what he is saying and what message he is sending out into the world.
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