- Ethos- “While attending his synagogue on holidays, I have to dress ultra-modestly, as “the cantor’s granddaughter.” In my pre-teen years, this was very hard for me as I wanted to dress how I wanted, but I’ve learned to respect it, and actually don’t mind it at all anymore.” This provides credibility and honesty to my readers about my experience of a transition to a less passive observant environment. I explained how my dress code changed, and I didn’t like it at one point, but grew to respect it. This may influence my reader to begin feeling more comfortable within something they might dislike or disrespect.
Pathos- “War had begun and my American self was beyond lost in the chaos. I didn’t really know what was going on until I saw a group of my friends in the shelter hysterically sobbing and saying, ‘war has just broken out.”’ I think I portrayed my emotions of the war outbreak I experienced in Israel by illustrating to my readers how chaotic and nerve wracking it was. I included the scene where my friends were sobbing in the shelter which was very emotional and scary, and I think my readers can feel that as well.
Logos- “But as I matured, antisemitism started to increase, as did the dangers of being a Jew. In the last year alone, antisemitism has gone up over 85%.” In this line from my essay, I used a statistical fact about the rise of antisemitism and dangers of being outwardly Jewish globally
2. Shrek and Donkey are walking through a field of sunflowers at the beginning of their journey to save the princess from the top of a tower. They accepted the task of fighting a dragon and bringing the princess to the king, Lord Farquad, so that Shrek can get his swamp back from the fairy tale creatures who overtook his land, which was ordered by the king. Donkey tells Shrek he should’ve done stereotypical “oger stuff” to get the creatures off his land instead of having to fight the dragon and save the princess. Shrek responds by explaining how there is more to ogres than people think. He says that ogres are like onions because ogres have layers, just like onions have layers. Donkey then says that not everybody likes onions.
3. I noticed how well I remembered this scene when I was writing it down. Shrek is one of the movies that I can repeat verbatim when watching. I didn’t realize I would be able to vividly write down the scene when it popped into my head. I definitely connected with my childhood memories when I wrote out this scene.
Aria, this is a very thoughtful close reading of your own work; many students have said that they were surprised to see examples of logos, pathos, and ethos in their writing without having known the terms. I hope looking for them in your earlier work gives you more confidence about deploying them in the future!