Question

Which sentence in this excerpt from eleanor Roosevelt's speech "what libraries mean to the nation" is an example of the rhetorical strategy of pathos

Answer 1

The children in the district are so poor and some of them so pathetic that I suppose the struggle to live has been so great you could not think much about what you fed the mind, but I came away feeling that right there, in one of the biggest and richest states in the country, we had a big area that needed books and needed libraries to help these schools in the education of the children, and, even more, to help the whole community to learn to live through their minds.

Answer 2

"The children in the district are so poor and some of them so pathetic that ...........the children, and, even more, to help the whole community to learn to live through their minds."

Step-by-step explanation:

Pathos(appeal to emotion) is characterized as one of the three persuasive or rhetorical devices(as stated by Aristotle) that aims to persuade the audience by appealing to their emotions.

In the given excerpt from Roosevelt's speech titled 'what libraries mean to the nation', the sentence 'the children...minds' exemplifies the use of pathos as it employs descriptive words and phrases to display the condition of poor children like 'so poor, so pathetic, struggle to live, feeling right there, etc.' that elicits the emotions of pity, grief, and sympathy in the audience. The audience is able to emotionally connect themselves to the condition of poor children and accept the speaker's claim that education is the only source to make their lives better.