Shortly after the final decisions of the Trayvon Martin case
were released this summer, writer Susan Abulhawa wrote this article in response
to the verdict that allowed George Zimmerman to be free man. While beginning
the article with the basic information regarding the Trayvon murder case,
Abulhawa uses pathos to appeal emotionally to her audience and stress the fact
that a teenager who had yet to experience life’s beauty was murdered in cold
blood, and his murderer was never punished. After explaining the details of the
murder and her opinion on why Zimmerman should have been convicted of murder,
Abulhawa then expresses her belief that this case was fueled by racism towards
African Americans.
The audience of the text is particularly any citizen,
however based off Abulhawa’s purpose, it is obvious that it is directed towards
ethnicities (predominantly Caucasians) who are the ones fueling the racism and
prejudice towards innocent citizens. The purpose of Abulhawa’s article is to
use the Trayvon trial to showcase her belief that “African American men are
targeted from the time they are born”.
In addition to using the Trayvon Martin murder trial as
support to express her idea, Abulhawa also used other examples of racism
towards African Americans. These include crimes such as rape and murder,
however the individuals targeted for committing the crimes were never actually
involved, but were only suspected because of the color of their skin.
Abulhawa successfully reaches her purpose with the use of
pathos to connect to her audience. Since she wrote the essay to convince the
majority who are indifferent to the cause, the use of pathos was strategically
used in order to connect to the emotions of the audience. By using phrases such
as, “Black bodies are worthless and expendable” the audience will now hopefully
realize how cruel and indifferent they are to the racism present in the Trayvon
Trial, and ultimately will feel embarrassed to create the scenario where a boy
was murdered, yet the murderer will never be punished for the crime solely based
off the fact that the boy was an African American.
Link to Susan Abulhawa's Article
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/08/201384102857620336.html
No comments:
Post a Comment