Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. In order to effectively prompt a specified audience to action, the one doing the persuading must understand, and use to his or her advantage, these three things:
1.) the audience's background
2.) the current setting/situation the audience is in
3.) the timing of the attempt
We see a great example of this in lines 166-183 in Book 2 of the Iliad of Homer. Minerva was given the assignment to convince the army to stay. She sought out Ulysses. Why? Because she understood these three things:
1.) Ulysses was one of the most trusted counselors in the Greek army, and was in favor of the Achaen cause.
2.) The army had been stationed in the area for nine years and had yet to sack the city. They had just been ordered to get on their ships and return home.
3.) Ulysses was "standing alone", and he "had not as yet laid a hand upon his ship, for he was grieved and sorry". I think from this we can infer that the decision to return home instead of completing the initial goal of conquering left Ulysses feeling dissatisfied.
Because Minerva knew the kairos and understood her audience, she was able to capitalize by using a rhetoric still common today. In essence she said if you leave now, those who fought this ward will have died in vain. We see this rhetoric "if you make this particular choice, people will have died in vain" being used today in movies and books.
In this article published not too long ago, a student used a similar "power phrase" to try to win over her intended audience. Will it work? I guess it depends on the three points I presented. Know your audience.
Another interesting post about the exchange between Minerva and Ulysses is "Are YOU talking to me?" where the author also learned about the importance of audience.
I am sensing something similar to what you posted. I feel like there is a lot of appeal to ethos in this story. In the slides by Debbie Alcorn, she mentioned some of the key themes and they seem to contrast each other and ask the audience, "where do you stand on this and can you see the problem?"
ReplyDeleteMinerva really knew what she was doing, and using her rhetoric was able to keep the ball in her court, so to say, and persuade/manipulate Ulysses to do exactly what she wanted.
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting point about knowing your audience. I am in a business communications class right now and the main focus has been talking about who the audience is. Great point.
ReplyDeleteI am a writer myself, and also think that the audience is a crucial part of any writing because that is where it all starts. The author/writer needs to recognize the audience first before writing so that they know how to appeal to them.
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