pathos

Evoke emotions in readers to feel a certain way about a topic
Build bridges between writer and reader
Sustain or intensify an argument
Humor can distract, disarm, or sweeten an argument

Emotional Fallacies

Scare tactics
Either or
Slippery slope
Sentimental appeals
Bandwagon appeals

The entire concept of pathos and how it affects me is really interesting. Before discussing pathos in class I had never really thought about how it affected my reading and how I percieved what I was reading. For instance when going back and looking at one of my old favorite books called In the Time of the Butterflies, I now see how she used things like imagery and humor to make me or any reader more able to relate to her story.
Also, now that we have discussed what pathos is and how it can affect the reader and their reaction to the writing, I find that everything that I read now I begin to analyze how it is affecting me. I think about whether it brings out positive emotions or negative emotions, and how they were brought out. Usually, I find that if I am having a positive reaction to a certain piece, that it is usualy because I have found some relation to it. It is either a relation of experiences, views, or emotions, but it always brings out some positive emotion because in my mind, I am able to find one more connection between me and someone else. On the other hand, if I find myself put off it is usually because the author/writer has burned some bridge that I thought was there. This usually happens when there is a statement made that I disagree with. I think that pathos is one of the things that I look at when determining whether or not someone is a good reader.

Thoughts on Allison and her style

Allison tells her story in a very unique way to me. The way she tells her story is all through what seems to be memories of her past and the life that she has lived. This book, in many ways, is similar to an autobiography. She is talking about her life and how her family has struggled. However, this book is much more story like. For one, she states out right that she is a story teller and that she sometimes fabricates her stories for the purpose of making it more interesting for her audience. I feel as this make the book much more interesting because of the fact that it keeps the reader thinking all the way through the book. This is because she states at one point in the book that she can tell you anything. “All you have to believe is the truth. I think this was a good tactic in writing the book because I am always questioning her accounts of things that have happened and whether or not they are completely true.
She also uses pictures to tell her story which I also think is a good tactic. I think this because it makes the entire story more real, because it now not only uses her descriptive writing for your imagination, but it now adds pictures to make the story more real.I guess the most striking moments in her book are when she is describing her family members. For instance when she is talking about the men in her family and how they all have this sort of stoic look. While she is talking about this, she strategically places two pictures in these pages. These pictures directly relate to what she is describing and play a huge part in getting her point across to the reader. This also happens when she is describing the women in her family. She adds in a picture of the women in her family and it shows their hard, worn down, not-so-beautiful faces. It is very helpful to me when she does this and it seems to make the words that she writes much more meaningful.