Father and Son 
Lamzabi Abdenbi
Professor Lynette Leidner
ENGL 1213
12 Dec 14
Essay #4
Father and Son In the short story “My Son the Marine” by Frank Schaeffer, There are many points that the author is trying to display through the rhetorical device pathos and ethos. He uses pathos to put a human face on the subject of loved ones going off to the military, and the hardships the family goes through due to this decision. He uses ethos to display his attitude from beginning to end. He starts at the beginning when the marines talk to his son and he ends with his son telling him he loves him and that he has a job to do. During his account of the events he feels disapproval in the beginning, despair, worry and helplessness because he cannot help his son. This is where he uses pathos to appeal to the emotional part of the audience’s human nature. The author is ultimately trying to display the hardships of having a loved one in the military and to make the audience understand what it’s like even if they don’t have someone in the military. Using pathos is not only using the reader’s emotions to compliment the effect of this argument, but it is a very complex and dangerous form of rhetorical devices because of word choice, audience or situation, manipulative abilities, and the use of other rhetorical devices.
The word choice in this story has been though through very carefully because he does not want to seem callused. He wants to remain open and understanding so he avoids any negative diction and only uses uplifting words and phrases. This makes it seem as if he is proud of his son in the end and does not seem like he condemns him, but in the beginning he is somewhat disapproving because of his lack of knowledge and fear of what might happen in the military. In the beginning of the story Schaeffer is not all that supportive of his son because he doesn’t want to send him off, and because of his lack of knowledge of
Professor Lynette Leidner
ENGL 1213
12 Dec 14
Essay #4
Father and Son In the short story “My Son the Marine” by Frank Schaeffer, There are many points that the author is trying to display through the rhetorical device pathos and ethos. He uses pathos to put a human face on the subject of loved ones going off to the military, and the hardships the family goes through due to this decision. He uses ethos to display his attitude from beginning to end. He starts at the beginning when the marines talk to his son and he ends with his son telling him he loves him and that he has a job to do. During his account of the events he feels disapproval in the beginning, despair, worry and helplessness because he cannot help his son. This is where he uses pathos to appeal to the emotional part of the audience’s human nature. The author is ultimately trying to display the hardships of having a loved one in the military and to make the audience understand what it’s like even if they don’t have someone in the military. Using pathos is not only using the reader’s emotions to compliment the effect of this argument, but it is a very complex and dangerous form of rhetorical devices because of word choice, audience or situation, manipulative abilities, and the use of other rhetorical devices.
The word choice in this story has been though through very carefully because he does not want to seem callused. He wants to remain open and understanding so he avoids any negative diction and only uses uplifting words and phrases. This makes it seem as if he is proud of his son in the end and does not seem like he condemns him, but in the beginning he is somewhat disapproving because of his lack of knowledge and fear of what might happen in the military. In the beginning of the story Schaeffer is not all that supportive of his son because he doesn’t want to send him off, and because of his lack of knowledge of