Jennifer Romero

Writing 2010

Professor Rogers

7 of February 2018

Rhetorical Devices in Blue Collar Brilliance

There are many different rules or guidelines we follow in writing. There are many to

follow, many steps that are needed to be taken in order to be able to achieve a great piece of

writing. One of the subjects we learn is rhetorical devices. Aristotle gave us three important ones

that are used quite often even though we might not notice them because we see them on a daily

basis. These three are logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos is the appeal to logic, pathos is the appeal

to emotion and ethos is the appeal to character. We can see these three devices in the article,

“Blue Collar Brilliance,” written by Mike Rose. Rose uses these three devices throughout his

article by describing his mom and uncle, depicting the different skills that are needed to complete

certain jobs, including a situation in which everyone can relate and understand what he is trying

to portray through his writing. Through his article, Rose is portraying that there are many

different situations people can go through, but even with going through a rough patch he is

attempting to convince us that there is a possibility of a good outcome even if it doesn’t seem so.

Logos is a rhetorical device that is used in literature. Logos is the appeal to reason, using

facts and logical reasoning to convince the reader that what is being said is factual. In the article,

Rose uses logos: “Most people seem to move comfortably… that work requiring less schooling

requires less intelligence. These assumptions run through our cultural history, from the post–

Revolutionary War period, when mechanics were characterized by political rivals as illiterate

and therefore incapable of participating in government, until today,” (Rose). Here, Rose is using
the appeal to reason by bringing in and mentioning a fact about the post-Revolutionary war. In

doing so, the author has brought in a fact that can be proven to help him prove his point. This

makes his argument that even before time, certain jobs were stereotyped in certain ways, and by

using facts that anyone can research, and his point becomes much stronger and believable to the

reader.

Pathos is a rhetorical device that means the author is appealing to their readers emotions.

In some way the author makes the reader identify and understand in a way that they can feel how

the author might feel through his writing. Rose uses pathos by mentioning real life examples in

his writing several times: “My mother quit school in the seventh grade to help raise her brothers

and sisters… My father finished a grade or two in primary school in Italy and never darkened the

schoolhouse door again.” In this part of the article Rose is giving a brief background of why his

mother is working as a waitress. He explains this after he has already described the type of

environment his mother works in and the tasks she must complete in a limited amount of time in

order to get a better outcome. This appeals to a readers emotion because it bring in the feeling of

empathy towards this kid who is watching his mom work to make a living and not be able to

have a better because she had to help in the house at a young age. Reading these kinds of stories

tends to make us as readers feel something. Another point when Rose uses is when he says “A

good hairstylist, for instance, has the ability to convert vague requests (I want something light

and summery) into an appropriate cut through questions, and hand gestures.” Rose uses pathos

by appealing to the emotion of anyone who has gone to a hair stylist and had them cut their hair

without really knowing what they wanted. By saying this, the reader is being persuaded into

really believing that even being a hair stylist, it requires a lot of skill too.
 The last rhetorical device named in literature by Aristotle is ethos. Ethos is the appeal to

character in which the author portrays some sense of authority or integrity. Rose includes this

rhetorical device couple of times in his writing: “My freshman year was academically bumpy,

but gradually I began to see formal education as a means of fulfillment and as a road toward

making a living. I studied the humanities and later the social and psychological sciences and

taught for 10 years in a range of situations.” By saying this Rose introduces a little part of him by

displaying a sense of character. He does this by first leaving the message that he was not very

good at school just like his dad and mom. Then he says that he went on from high school to

college at which point he began to view education in a different way. This gives the reader a

sense of Roses’ character because even though he was presented with obstacles like not being

good at school and having a bumpy track record, he still moved on and became successful. He

proves his success by then continuing his writing on his investigations about certain jobs, and

then gives many great explanations about the skills in these jobs. By doing so it gives the reader

a sense of commitment and responsibility by Roses’ part.

With there being many things to learn about literature, we may not realize that it is visible

in our everyday lives. Ethos, pathos, and logos are seen in ads, books, magazines, and other

forms of media. Ethos being the appeal to character, which can be seen, be brought forward in

the article by Rose giving us a sense of his own character. Also when he bring in the way his

mother is. Logos the appeal to reason can be seen when statistics and facts are brought forth to

the public to convince them of the statement being made. We saw this when Rose began to talk

about the Revolutionary war in order to help make the reader believe in what he is saying.

Pathos the appeal to emotion, in the article you can see this when Rose begins to talk about his

own family and why they were in the positions in life. These three forms of rhetorical devices are
ways to make a piece of writing more persuasive and help become a better writer throughout

literature education.