How Does Ascher Use Ethos In On Compassion

His face is also “stamped with…the reek of screams” showing how painful his memories are and how they are embedded in him. Furthermore, the reader is told that “none of [it] grows stale” meaning that the memories are too excruciating for the baker to forget. Above all, Cadsby, with the use of a metaphor, compares the baker’s friends that were killed in Auschwitz to “barely brown loaves”. The baker can be seen “remember[ing]/ other barely brown loaves” (10-11) as he bakes the bread. The brown loaves that the baker recalls are actually his friends. Based on the year that the poem was written, the baker and his friends were in Auschwitz about 50 years prior to the persona encountering the baker. When ready and cooked, the bread becomes brown. If compared to a human’s life, the metaphor demonstrates that a person is at the prime of life when they are “browned”. The baker remembers his friends that were “barely brown” when they were killed in the furnaces of Auschwitz and had not yet experienced the joys that life brings. In “The Baker”, Heather Cadsby compares ovens in a bakery to the furnaces in Auschwitz, the tattoos on the baker’s arm to veins and the unbaked loaves in the baker’s oven to his dead friends in order to give a much deeper understanding of just how much the baker suffered.

Barbara Lazear Ascher writes a well formed essay on the concept of compassion. Compassion is something that we do for others out of the kindness of our hearts. She focuses more on the poor, just how we show them sympathy, why do we do such things. Is showing empathy from our hearts or just for them to go away. I enjoyed this essay due to the fact, that she gives humanistic reasons on why people are compassionate, she doesn’t sugar coat anything, and lastly she breaks down the compassion that she sees everyday.

They feel obligated to aid him in some way, but it makes the other people feel awkward. The reader is able to understand the prejudice that these men and women clearly felt towards this homeless man. This is one of the first places that Ascher raises that question as to which other peoples actions are merely out of compassion or if they are acting out of pity.

People tend to brush off something or ignore something that we do not understand or like. Many Americans do this. So if most of America does this, then what gets done with that problem? Nothing! Barbara Lazear Ascher’s ‘On Compassion’ shows this to a new level. She shows us how the homeless is struggling and everyone turns their heads about it even though it is a big problem in New York City. Ascher’s use of good logos, pathos, and ethos comes together to show people what we are all guilty of at some point in our life. She shows us how the person 's reaction of a homeless person is to how the homeless person reacts to them.

Are people born with a complete quandary when it comes to compassion or is it something that has always been there? Barbara Lazear Ascher, born in 1946, writes, “On Compassion.” Having lived in New York City, Ascher is able to take first hand examples from the city to show the affection people have towards each other. Ascher is able to illustrate that compassion is something that has to be taught because of the adversity at people’s heels by including tone, persuasive appeals, and the mode of comparing and contrast in her essay, “On Compassion.”

The purpose of this essay is to question the readers. Ascher wants the audience to analyze themselves to determine the reason behind why people show kindness, whether it is out of fear, pity, or compassion.

The fact that the narrator could not fix the torn part of the jacket can indicate that his family is struggling to afford money for themselves. These certain examples help portray the issues of poverty that the narrator's family struggles.

The Box Man is an essay written by Barbara Ascher that addresses and criticizes how American society does not give homeless people the respect they deserve. In the essay, Ascher describes a night of the life of an average homeless man. Ascher accomplishes this by using her character the Box Man to represent the homeless people of America and to display how society sees the homeless. Barbara Ascher’s The Box Man utilizes thoughtfully chosen diction, precise negative and positive imagery, and effectively placed tone shifts to argue that the homeless, represented by the Box Man, are worthy of respect.

Compassion, by definition, is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. In our modern society, compassion plays a major role in the act of kindness. Many people believe that doing a good deed is a selfless act since they do not get nothing in return. Others believe that doing a good deed to make you feel good about yourself is selfish. It is a theory that causes you to ponder on the purpose of compassion. In Barbara Lazear Ascher’s essay, On Compassion, she contemplates this theory. By using a variety of writing techniques, Ascher is able to share her views on compassion in way that speaks to the audience.

The author uses pathos very frequently throughout the text to get her point across to the audience. In the text, Helen Keller mentions that, “For New York is great because of the open hand with which it responds to the needs of the weak and poor.” This quote demonstrates Keller's point that people in New York are a champion in helping so people of New York should want to give and help the needy, which carries an emotional appeal. In addition, Helen Keller says that, “The men and women for whom I speak are poor and weak in that they lack one of the chief weapons with which the human being fights his battle. But they must not on that account be sent to the rear. Much less must they be pensioned like disabled soldiers.” This also carries a very emotional point because she uses a metaphor

Ascher believes observing the adversity of homelessness is a necessity in learning compassion because “Compassion is not a character trait. . .It must be learned, and it is learned by having adversity at our windows” (Cohen 42). Ascher believes we can learn and grow from others' adverse experiences without being a part of it. Although Ascher would have us believe we can learn compassion simply through observing adversity at our windows (homelessness), Eighner would likely disagree because he has struggled in adversity and learned the importance of true sentiment first hand, not through observation. Eighner writes of the importance of having an intimate connection with adversity in his own homelessness, “Once I was the sort of person who invests material objects with sentimental value. Now I no longer have those things, but I have the sentiments yet. . . .The things I find in dumpsters, the love letters and ragdolls of so many lives, remind me of this lesson” (Cohen 157, 158). Eighner has grown and holds sentiment in those lessons because he had those experiences, not because he has simply observed others. Ascher gives us a lesson in learning from adversity but does so from an outsiders' point of view while Eighner's personal experience contrasts to shows us that much can be learn from experiencing adversity more intimately.

Parker also explains her purpose through the use of stylistic devices like imagery. She uses concrete images to portray the idea of poverty. She explains that “Poverty is staying up all night on cold nights to watch the fire knowing one spark on the newspapers covering the walls means your sleeping child dies in flames.” What adds to the readers idea of poverty is the horrendous image of a child burning to death, also the newspaper-covered wall of a make-shift house. There are plenty other nouns like grits with no oleo, runny noses, and diapers that paint an image of poverty in the reader ́s head. You also have the sense of ́smell ́ through this essay by phrases that describe the “sour milk”, “urine”, and “stench of rotting teeth”. You can also ́feel ́ poverty through hands that are “so cracked and red”, since the author cannot afford vaseline. The use of imagery makes the a!udience more conscious of the effects of poverty. !

The circumstance surrounding her addresses concerning poverty is where the author makes an appeal to pathos. She states,“the poor

This picture was taken from an online website that was trying to focus on homelessness but have a view point as if it was the known fairy-tales’ characters that were experiencing homelessness. In this image, it represents the three little pigs, who don’t have shoes on, a huddling around a garbage can that has a flame to keep them warm. Also in the back of the picture you can see the wolf who looks like he is in a fetal position holding his legs up to keep himself warm. The clothes that they are all wearing has rips, holes, their clothes are way too small for them and they are not wearing any shoes on their feet.

The lack of dignity that these individuals feel is a direct effect of society’s disrespect for the lower class. The stereotypes of the homeless conceived by upper social classes, cause the lower class to lose any respectable role they may have in society. A homeless man in Oberlin, Ohio says, “Many of us historically invisible people, in our quest for visibility, have chosen to take the routes of organization and alliance building. Often we tend to find that our muted voices have more resonance, bass, and credibility within these snugly, institutionally sanctioned cubby holes” (Laymon). After failing to get sufficient help through