Running head: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS FINAL 1
Rhetorical Analysis Final
Joshua A Zamora
University Of Texas At El Paso
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS FINAL 2
Introduction
People are being swayed all the time by things they see in their everyday lives and
essentially these images enlighten humans with moral ideas that they perceive to be righteous. In
many ways visualizing a key concept is a far more interesting and easier to the human brain than
any other genre. Therefore, I will analyze two visuals by identifying Ethos, Pathos, Logos and
other notions to see if they truly display a thoughtful image.
First Visual
To begin, this image depicts several aspects of rhetorical appeal. The first characteristic
well be analyzing is ethos. Ethos being an appeal to creditability, this image contains some level
of credibility. It quotes a line from the bible and has a name of the artist/maker of the cartoon
itself. Secondly, the image has Logos because it appeals to the intellectual side in several of
ways. It depicts a gorilla literally attempting to rip apart the bible because a line in the bible says
that the scripture cannot be broken. Of course, the biblical line is meant to not only be
understood literally but figuratively
because the ape has the words action
around the nation written along its chest
meaning how atheists are trying to disprove
gods truth by the saying Ill rip it
apart!. The reason its a gorilla instead of
a human being is because the gorilla is
depicting an atheist point of view of the
theory of evolution where humans
developed from apes; thus, pointing out
how untrue the origins and other truths are
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS FINAL 3
in the bible. The picture also appeals to Pathos or the emotional side because it gives a
generalization that all atheists are trying to rip apart Christians beliefs is a rather aggressive act.
Furthermore, the audience this visual was trying to reach out to is either believers or non-
believers in Christianity or religion itself. Its attempting to show the distaste atheists have for
religion and their urgent need to invalidate it. Some constraints may include not trying to offend
atheists by making them seem too aggressive and mean when not all atheists are. Also, to not
make it seem like religion has no creditability or that they are the definite wrong side of this
argument.
Second Visual
Next, this image also depicts several aspects of rhetorical appeal. The Ethos side of this
visual is shown in the words that are used. You can draw some credibility because the words are
somewhat of higher vocabulary. Next, Logos is depicted in several of ways like the last visual. It
shows three men walking down
a staircase and it goes from the
youngest man (top) to the oldest
man (bottom). This secludes that
the older you get the wiser you
get and therefore, the closer you
are and will be to atheism. Also,
the saying, the descent of the
modernists pointing out that
many modern people are
reaching that point of intellect
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS FINAL 4
where they question deities and are finally conclude that there are no gods. Next, this graphic is
appealing to emotion by showing how many people start off unwise or unknowing then
eventually after years of analyzing they finally realize the truth which can be disconcerting to
some younger audiences who believe in religion. As a result, the intended audience is mainly a
younger demographic who the artist is trying to persuade into not believing in religion now
rather than a lifetime later. Some constraints of this may include being only able to list a limited
number of words that describe the descent to atheism because of the genre used which has less
space than say an article on this topic.
Conclusion
To conclude, both images contain all three aspects of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Also they
have a certain audience and exigence behind each one. Although, both images dont have many
constraints as they are mainly opinionated. Overall, they both are thought provoking images and
are truly rhetorical situations.