Rosario 1

Karina Rosario

Rosario/Sterner

AP LANG 2 Comp

December 1, 2017

Imagine living in your dream world, then out of nowhere you’re abruptly woken up by

reality. This unfortunately is the case for many people, there is an abundance of the population

that are living lives behind a curtain of peace and need to be woken up. Ta-Nehisi Coates does

exactly that in his book Between The World and Me, he asserts the fact that despite America’s

promise of freedom for all, African Americans along with other races are not given this right.

The author writes a letter directed to his teenage son in a formal tone for the American public.

Coates supports his assertion by explaining real life experiences and events of bold

discrimination against African Americans through his use of rhetorical devices such as pathos

and logos.The author’s purpose is to enlighten and inform the world about the reality of America

so that they become aware of the issues of racism that is leading to the unfair and cruel treatment

of race.

First and foremost, Ta-nehisi Coates uses pathos to support his assertion on the unfair

treatment of races in America. Pathos is a rhetorical device that is used by many authors to

appeal to their audience’s emotions. In paragraph 10 of Between the World and Me, Coates says

things such as “I was sad for these people, much as I was sad for the host and sad for all the

people out there watching and reveling in a specious hope.” this makes the audience feel the way

he did at this point, sorrow for those joyfully living in a world of lies, and belief that these events

will not occur again. This helps support his claim because, the audience, most likely knowing
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about the situations agree with him that it is sad that there are people who selectively conceal

themselves from the negativity. Another example of pathos is in paragraph 6 when he says “The

process of washing the disparate tribes white..was not achieved through wine tastings and ice

cream socials...the destruction of families; the rape of mothers...to deny you and me the right to

secure and govern our own bodies.” This can make the audience feel a profusion of emotions,

anger, disgust, and sorrow. The idea of the way America was brought up to its current situation

through violent acts shows that it isn’t getting better since these things are still happening today.

It helps the audience agree with Coates because it further destroys the idea of “hope” that the

people who are living their dream rely on. One more example of pathos is in paragraph 8 “the

police departments of your country have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body”

Coates then continues on to list different situations where a body can be destroyed, even if the

situation was not drastic enough to lead to destruction. This makes the audience even more

angered because it shows the unfair treatment and punishment that African Americans are forced

to endure.Ta-nehisi Coates uses pathos throughout his entire book, it encourages the anger and

desire to fight against the idea of hope and contributes to waking up those in their luxurious

dream far from reality.

In addition to using pathos, Ta-nehisi Coates uses logos to support his assertion in his

book, Between the World and Me. Logos is a rhetorical device that authors use to persuade their

audience to be on their side because of reason and logic. In paragraph 3, Coates explains the idea

of rights and who America believes gets these rights “America’s problem is not its betrayal of

“government of the people” but the means by which “the people” acquired their names”Earlier in

the paragraph he also explains how America sees the idea of democracy as a God, and they

believe they never betrayed their God because the idea of democracy is government of the
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people but it isn’t specific as to which people are part of this idea. They decided who was to be

considered people. This persuades the audience to agree with Coates because it’s unfair, who

gave them the right to choose what groups are people. Another example of logos is in paragraph

4 when he explains the idea of racism being manmade. “Racism…innocent daughter of Mother

Nature….handiwork of men.” here he is defining the term racism and comparing it to natural

disasters, it doesn’t add up, natural disasters cannot be controlled, racism and prejudice can be

controlled because it’s a man made idea. This also persuades the audience into agreeing that

racism is manmade and further supports the unfairness of the selection of who is considered

people, it is unnatural. One more example of logos is in paragraph 8 when he is listing all the

innocent lives that were taken away as punishment for small crimes or just simply because of

racism. “John Crawford was shot down for browsing in a department store.” this helps the

audience agree with him because it correlates with the idea that African Americans get attacked

because of prejudice and it is unfair. Logos is another rhetorical device that Ta-nehisi Coates

used to persuade his audience to agree with his claims and help him deliver his message to wake

those living a dream.

In conclusion, Ta-nehisi Coates uses the rhetorical devices pathos and logos to aid his

assertion that despite America’s promise of freedom for all, African Americans along with other

races are not given this right. He uses pathos to create a sense of anger and sadness in his

audience that encourages them to fight against the idea of hope that things are going to change.

Coates also used logos to persuade his audience to be on his side using reason, this can be an

eyeopener for those who are being blinded by the idea of hope.
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