. To go through a Life Painlessly is to have not lived
In Jonathan Franzen’s article, “Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts” the author uses different appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos to differentiate loving and liking something. He successfully uses his style to convince the audiences that even though loving something might lead to anger, pain, and despair, going through a life painlessly is to have not lived. This encourages the audiences that even though liking an object might not come with the aforementioned consequences, life is full of risks and every person should always try to take these risks. Franzen uses his position when he used to stay in his room and rage or sneer his shoulders for many years the problems of the world are impossibly daunting. He encourages that, going out puts an individual in real relation to real people and real animals.
The appeal to pathos is the predominant appeal in this speech. Franzen accurately uses his experience with the environment to explain to the audiences that loving is all inclusive and is worth trying. In the narration of his experience with the environment, Franzen begins with his lamentations about the devastating environmental conditions and the social problems such as the exploding world population, exploding levels of resource consumption, and rising global temperatures among others. However, he continues to talk about his love for birds, he developed love for the environment and cared about the forests, which are the homes to the birds. He also uses the introduction of speech and infuses the issue about replacing his Blackberry with a new one. This contrast is aimed at explaining the aspects about loving in return for love and liking objects.
Franzen also appeals to logos and ethos. In the appeals to logos, Franzen uses the issue of Facebook and the perception of the different age groups. While youths love Facebook, 51-year-olds disrespect social media. He also appeals to ethos when he says that, as I began to get involved in bird conservation and learned more about the many threats that birds face, it became easier, not harder, to live with my anger and despair and pain. Generally, the speech successfully explains the intentions of the author with great power.
Work Cited:
Franzen, Jonathan. “Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts.” The New York Times. Web May 28, 2011
