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Blog Post – Week 10 ( 2/3rds of the term )

Ray is a young man growing up in a poor part of Washington D.C. known as “Dodge City.” Ray’s not a bad guy; he spends time encouraging the young children in his area, and even going as far as to buy them all ice cream. He also has an amazing knack for poetry, which seems to come extremely naturally to Ray. But despite Ray’s talents and aspirations for the music industry, Ray is also a victim of the culture of his society and sells drugs to make a living.

Later, in a drug deal gone all wrong, Ray is arrested and found guilty of possession and sent to County Jail. The Inside is hard for Ray, he is pushed, intimidated and pressured since the moment he enters.

Ray soon finds himself trapped into a fight or die situation. Like two armies before a battle, Ray finds himself in the center of the two. Ray then pulls out his own arsenal though. A weapon of great impact, and hidden inside of him like the soldiers of the horse of Troy. Ray begins spewing out his poetry and without violence Ray brings the war to an end without the start of a single physical battle. Ray brought himself safety and victory through rhetoric.

Aristotle brings this point up within his context on rhetoric. Listing the useful purposes of rhetoric, Aristotle states:

“..it is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs, but not of being able to defend himself with speech and reason, when the use of rational speech is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.” (Reading the World 553)

Here Aristotle brings support to Ray’s methods, and even holds them in higher esteem than the method of violence.

By appealing to a path of pathos rhetoric, Ray manages to use his emotion and silver tongue to breach through the hard prison faceted minds, and touch them emotionally. Saving his life, and setting him on a reformed path.

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