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Rhetoric In Drunk History

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Every writer has a goal in mind when writing. For some that goal is to entertain, for others, it’s to educate. When writing, authors have many tools or tricks they use. One of the more common tools is rhetoric. There are three main components of a good rhetoric argument, ethos, pathos, and logos. Today I will be looking at several short videos and analyzing how the use of rhetoric persuades the audience.

The first video, “Drunk History – Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks” is about a young black girl (Claudette Colvin) in the 1950s, who refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white woman. Because of this refusal, Claudette is forcibly removed from the bus and immediately arrested. Shortly after the release of Claudette, and fed up with …show more content…

Thomas Jefferson” does a better job showing the use of rhetoric. The video features two uses of rhetoric, ethos (credibility) and pathos (appealing to emotion). The story starts with Jefferson and Adams as best friends, that is until Adams gets elected president. Once elected Adams becomes somewhat of a tyrant, he begins bending and manipulating the constitution as he sees fit. Jefferson is unhappy with how Adams is running the country, so, he decides to run against him in the next election. This is the point where things begin to heat up and rhetoric comes into play. Angry that Jefferson has decided to run against him, Adams uses the newspaper to start a smear campaign against Jefferson. He does this with help from ethos, the "persuasion through the audience 's perception of the speaker", (Austin 664) and pathos, the “appeals to emotion.” (Austin 177) Because Adams is president people respect him and what he says, they take him on his word. Adams uses his credibility as president to manipulate the public into thinking terrible things about Jefferson. Adams does a great job using his position, and the trust that comes with it, to evoke an emotional response from the public. That emotional response, or fear, will hopefully then causes the public to vote for Adams. Jefferson realizes what Adams is doing and decides to use this tactic himself. The two end up going back and forth until the

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