Nelson Mandela Ethos

In the 1930’s it was rare for a black South African to attend college. But Mandela not only attended, he graduated, got a degree from law school, and set up a practice in Johannesburg which he hoped could support his small family. Yet apartheid was always a humiliation to him. When the Afrikaner, or Dutch South African, Nationalists came to power in the 1948 election, the segregation habits of the past three hundred years became law. Hoping for a brighter future, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became its first Youth Leader.

The use of rhetoric is important, especially depending on your audience. Rhetorical devices are known for being used by Aristotle in 384 BC and even in today’s era where it is used by political leaders, spokesmen, etc. In a document written by Benjamin Franklin “Benjamin Franklin: Remarks concerning the Savages of North America” and in Red Jacket’s speech “Red Jacket Defends Native American Religion, 1805.” Ethos, logos, and pathos, along with other rhetorical devices are used by both Red Jacket and Benjamin Franklin, which is very important and can help with informing people, and even persuading them into side with a person during their speech.

Many authors use rhetorical devices and strategies to get their point across and try to convince the reader to believe in their perspective. It can also be used to get emotions from its readers, but that isn’t really the whole point of persuading someone. For instance, Martin Luther King Jr. uses an abundance of pathos in order to make the reader or clergymen feel sympathy towards the black people. Along with pathos, he uses logos and a bundle of hypophora. In order to obtain the goal of persuasion, Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter contains rhetorical devices.

“To deny people their right to human rights is to challenge their very humanity. To impose on them a wretched life of hunger and deprivation is to dehumanize them. But such has been the terrible fate of all black persons in our country under the system of apartheid (“In Nelson Mandela’s own words”). Nelson Mandela was a moral compass symbolizing the struggle against racial oppression. Nelson Mandela emerged from prison after twenty-seven years to lead his country to justice. For twenty-seven years he sat in a cell because he believed in a country without apartheid, a country with freedom and human rights. He fought for a country where all people were equal, treated with respect and given equal opportunity. Nelson Mandela looms large in the

Ethos means credibility. In this speech there are a lot of things Martin Luther King Jr. used to make it credible and trustworthy. He uses the Bible, the Gettysburg Address, and

speaking as a means of communication or persuasion”. In other words, rhetoric is the way a speaker convinces an audience to approach a given issue from a preferred perspective. Speakers may utilize the following appeals to win an audience’s favor: ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos refers to the speakers incorporation of the audience’s ethical responsibilities. A speaker also uses ethos to establish credibility. Logos is the speaker's use of logic and reasoning by way of factual evidence. Lastly, a speaker may use pathos to engage the audience’s emotions. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Atticus Finch are outstanding examples of speakers who effectively utilize

In forming his argument, Dr. Martin Luther King not only appeals to ethos, but also to pathos simultaneously. Again, Alfano and O’Brien offer a definition of pathos, to help in analyzing rhetoric: “Pathos…refers to an appeal to the emotions…so that the audience will be more receptive to the speaker’s message.” (51)

This speech makes evident that Pathos is the most important of the three rhetorical appeals, to the point where nearly every example of Pathos and Logos are to some extent, also examples of Pathos. The pulling on emotional chords inspiring individuals to act immediately supports the purpose of rallying a nation together in support of change. Pathos takes precedence in this speech, with Logos and Ethos following.

In the speech “Development of the Civil Rights Movement in the US”, by Senior student, Mike JEnsen, Mike uses different rhetorical tools in order to impact his audience. The First rhetorical tool he uses to support and elucidate the expression of his most important opinions is Pathos. “Fellow citizens have moved mountains for basic equal human rights, and in spite of everything people are still shattered as never before.” In this example he appels to his fellow citizens, to the history that he share and to some of the most ongoing things in the news, that everybody somehow can relate to – racial discrimination. In the next two sentences, he is trying appel, with the help from Logos, the audiences common sense. “I am here to support a message

The two speeches I will be comparing in this essay are Michelle Obama’s Speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention and Shirley Chisholm’s “Equal Rights For Women” Speech because in my opinion they’re great speeches and they both used the appeals in the rhetorical triangle in order to prove their point and convince the audience. They both reach out to the audience by the choice of words they use and the way they word their sentences. Michelle Obama’s speech she mainly uses all three rhetorical appeals - logos, pathos, and ethos. Shirley Chisholm’s speech uses two of the three rhetorical triangle appeals - pathos, and ethos.

Ethos is defined in our textbook as, “showing that you know what you are talking about exerts an ethical appeal, as does emphasizing that you share values with and respect your audience” (Lunsford and Ruskiewic, Page 26). Martin Luther King, Jr., is a man that can be described as an typical American, we know this due to his “I Have A Dream” speech centered around equality. “My Dear Fellow Clergymen” ("Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]").

During the reign of the Apartheid regime Nelson Mandela was born and raised. Nelson Mandela was a South African lawyer and prominent activist. He was also the leader of the African National Congress party and the first black President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He is known for his devotion and struggle against the Apartheid regime.

Nelson Mandela was the man who abolished Apartheid, freeing South Africa from the binds of racial segregation forever. However, it was not an easy road and Mandela needed patience, strength of character, focus, passion, understanding, perseverance, and most importantly, forgiveness, to achieve this. For more than forty years, black South Africans were subject to the harsh racial segregation of the Apartheid system; despite making up over 70% of South Africa’s population, they had little to no rights.

Imagine being systematically oppressed from the moment you exited the womb. All your civil rights, based on the amount of melanin in your skin. Drinking from the wrong water fountain, could even get you thrown into jail. Coincidently; this was the life, of black South Africans from the moment of Dutch colonization in 1652, to the first true democratic election in 1994. Apartheid, meaning “separateness” in Afrikaans; was legal segregation enforced by The National Party (NP) from 1948 to 1994. It legally imposed preexisting policies of racial discrimination on the Majority of the South African population. The entire basis of the racist policies, was the darker your complexion the less legal rights you had. Presumably this injustice, could have continued much longer if it weren’t for all involved in the fight against the NP, however the man who arguably contributed the most, was Nelson Mandela. He ended an apartheid, with both his philanthropy and political prowess. He united a nation that used to be segregated; which seemed a daunting task at the time, but through the sweat and bloodshed he achieved the impossible. This alone exhibited his heroic characteristics, but to be more precise: both his actions and inactions lead to his success. Furthermore, Mandela was both a strong leader and forgiving at the same-time. Being in the forefront of the abolishment movement, was an extremely risky move during the apartheid. He risked his life for what he believed in, and this personal

I have always thought that Nelson Mandela has been one of the most important people in history. I find it very fascinating that one man could end the Apartheid and that is why I want to find out more about this. South Africa is a country with a past of enforced racism and separation of its multi-racial community. The White Europeans invaded South Africa and started a political system known as 'Apartheid' (meaning 'apartness'). This system severely restricted the rights and lifestyle of the non-White inhabitants of the country forcing them to live separately from the White Europeans. I have chosen to investigate how the Apartheid affected people’s lives, and also how and why the Apartheid system rose and fell in South Africa.