Classical Principles of Argumentation
In the essay “Reminders of Poverty, Soon Forgotten” the author Alexander Keyssar uses classical principles of argumentation. He uses ethos, which is the character of the speaker; he uses logos, which is an appeal based on logic or reason; and he uses pathos, which is an appeal based on emotions. His piece is over poverty and what came from Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath for the people. He also discusses what other events in history have contributed to poverty, and how nothing is being done about it by the government.
He begins in part 1 using pathos, “ There they were on our television screens, the storm’s most desperate victims- disproportionately poor and black, wading through muddy water, carrying children and plastic bags containing a few meager possessions.” This was his view of the people that were left in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In part 6 of his work, “But there is no crescendo of national public opinion about the presence of millions of poor people in our midst, and President Bush has not announced the creation of a national task force to combat poverty.” This part to me shows that he is not happy with what President Bush has not done for the people that are battling poverty. Part 9, “Poverty, however, is not a technical issue, but a deep, structural problem that implicates our values, our economic institutions, and our conception of the proper role of the state.” This shows his views on what poverty is.
This author uses logos starting in part 3 “While taxes were cut, public infrastructure-like the levees- was eroding, and an already frayed safety net was disintegrating.” The author is using the taxes being cut as his appeal to get his point across about the way things were being done, before Hurricane Katrina. These are things that could have been fixed and possibly prevented. In part 4,