Many other people have mentioned Barack Obama in their blogs and I would have to agree with them. Right now, he is probably one of the most famous and popular people in the world. All eyes are on him with how he deals with the current issues that face this country.
His power to persuade and empower people comes from his ability to touch people’s emotions with his words; thus his speaking ability would be pathos. With how he represents not only himself and how he presents his words, every American is looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, especially in this economic struggle that the country is in. This hope and desire for change by Americans is something that Barack Obama speaks to in every one of his speeches. You can tell he is compassionate and brings hope to the country. His ability to touch people’s emotions to believe that we all can work together to get through these tough times has people really believing that the end of this recession is coming closer.
For me, I feel like I am also a pathos persuasive speaker. The way in how I word things and even my tone of voice, I show compassion for other people’s situations and emotions to persuade people. I never have liked or felt comfortable with being a type of person who is pushy to make decisions, but I outline the choices and options someone has and show how I understand the ways of thinking of these choices. Yet, if there is a particular choice that I want someone to choose, I give deeper detail about the benefits of this and how it can, and will make them feel.
I think you are right on in saying that a lot of people wrote about Barack Obama. To be honest, that’s the first person that came into my mind too when I read the question. I ended up going with someone else, but I did want a chance to comment on the speaking style of Obama.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that his speaking ability relies heavily on the pathos method. According to Aristotle though, one must be careful when using the pathos appeal. Humans are emotional creatures and sometimes in arousing emotions things can get out of control. One example of this was the World Trade Organization riots in Seattle, where speakers arose the emotions and couldn’t control the situation so the city was really damaged. Aristotle advises that when arising passion in your audience, you must be able to control and direct said passion.