Thursday, October 3, 2013

Pathos of RFK Train Picture

The picture depicts a scene a few days after Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.  It is a picture of people at the train station as they await the passing of Kennedy's funeral train going from New York to Washington D.C.  Pathos is prevalent all throughout the picture due to the fact that it takes place during a time of mourning.  Pathos is the rhetorical appeal to one's emotions.  In the front of the picture there are women with their hands over their mouth, on their face, and on their heads invoking a tone of grief.  You can tell they are upset and even still shocked about the assassination.  The photographer captured a scene of majority African Americans, but also some White people.  This appeals to the emotions because during the 1960s racial tension between Blacks and Whites was very high.  It emphasizes that tensions can be slightly overlooked during a sad time.  It also emphasizes just how sad these people are because they aren't even worried about racism.  The largeness of the group shows how the assassination affected many people and it alerts the audience to take the climate seriously.  These emotional appeals are used to force the audience to believe the assassination was unjustified.

-Ebonie Massey

3 comments:

  1. I would also comment about how a large portion of the audience are children and how the horror on the children's faces contributes to the authors appeal to the emotions.

    -Shawn Rosofsky

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  2. Just wondering, why do you think there were more Blacks than Whites in this picture? I like your point that all races were coming together during this emotional time. Where was this picture taken exactly?

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  3. I definitely like the connection you made to racism of the time, you can also comment on the race of the police officers. I believe you can expand on the the reason why there is so many whites and blacks together.

    -Mariah

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