The Use Of Pathos In 'The Children's Story'

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People use rhetorical devices to convince others or persuade people to agree with them or to exert their power over others. Pathos, on rhetorical device, is used to mess with people’s emotions. It can lead to people being afraid to be hurt so they’ll do whatever is asked. Pathos is the most effective when trying to exert power over people.

People use different rhetorical devices in different ways. The best way to exert power over others is by using pathos. Pathos is when someone uses emotions to convince someone of something. It’s useful when trying to exert power over others because you can drive fear into them and they’ll do it. You can also make them feel nervous or uncomfortable. Pathos is used many times in “The Children's Story” by James Clavell. The New Teacher, when talking to the children, uses pathos in a matter of different ways, very subtly. She tells the children, “children, children, there’s no need to cry! … I know, I’ll sing you a song! Listen!” (Clavell). She is trying to make the children cheer up and not be sad anymore. She is trying to make them trust her and forget about the loss of their old teacher. Once they trust her, they will do anything she asks. The New Teacher uses Pathos when talking to the children. It’s also used in experiments.
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In the notes of The Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo, Craig Haney, W. Curtis Banks, and David Jaffe, there’s a lot of examples of pathos. “The guards were very much upset because the prisoners also began to taunt them to their faces” (Zimbardo). It makes them feel like they have no control of even themselves. It makes them feel like they can’t do anything. A lot of social experiments use Pathos but it was also used in the