Thursday, April 14, 2011
Appeal of Pity
One interesting concept I have not wrote about in my blogs is the Appeal of Pity in Chapter 10 of the Epstein's text. Not only do we come across Appeal of Fear, Appeal of Spite, etc, Appeal of Pity is generally one of the main ones. The Appeal of Pity is when someone tries to convince the audience to agree with something through sympathy. Some people will feel sad and guilty, which makes them feel the need to take action or say something. Some people show images of someone or something and tries to make a statement so that others will have sympathy and help out. An example of this would be a person showing a photo of a family who looks unhealthy, or who has a small amount of clothes on. The audience will probably feel horrible and eventually donate clothes, shoes, or other things to help out, and make them feel better.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I like how you explain what appeal to pity is. It is very easy to follow and understand. I used the same concept for my last post and mine is very similar to yours. In my opinion, people should not have to be feeling sorry for others before doing something like donating money or anything that could help them to help them. People should be willing to help others who are in need of help, any way they could not because they feel sorry for them but they like to help people, who are in need of help, to make their lives a little better. Anyway, good explanation and example.
ReplyDeleteIt is really sad to see pictures of sad things just to get a donation. Just to get the audiences attention, people will do anything for what they want. I really do not like seeing sad commercials or ads anywhere. It just makes me feel sad, seeing things that people want money for. I know it is for a good cause, but aren't there more ways to get money then trying to making people feel sad? I guess that is the easiest way to obtain money and people should have a genuine heart to want to help others, but I think there should be a different way to help the situation. anyways good examples and how you explained appeal to pity.
ReplyDeleteAppeal to pity is the emotion to appeal that gets me the most. When I see commercials of kids who don't have any clothes or the ability to receive basic human needs such as water it food it makes me feel bad, that I take advantage of my fortune in life. Seeing these type of charitable foundations I try to contribute as much as I can. Seeing lots of homeless people on the side of the streets I try giving them money or water or food. Anyways good job on how you broke down the definition of appeal to pity.
ReplyDeleteGood job explaining what pity is, it can be hard to understand. Appealing to pity is tough to discern. It is hard to explain the difference between appealing to pity or emotion. Emotion tends to be more about a generic word, while pity is a specific type of emotion. Pity is trying to be sympathetic with someone. I find this to be a kind of fake way to get things done. Yes, you may be able to sort of feel the way I do, but can you really understand and feel the way I do. This seems implausible to me.
ReplyDelete