Week 4 Hart

One of the words that really stood out to me as I read through chaper three was "downer." This word isn't particularly poetic or beautiful but the way he described it made it very powerful and served an important purpose in the chapter. He approached this section tactfully and executed his description very well. He starts by describing to us what exactly a downer is and how they are treated and what their fate usually is. Now, he only used logical arguments at this time, but he knew, full well, that he was tugging at the heart strings of many readers. Nobody wants to believe that any living being is so sick that it just collapses on top of itself. And to make this section more powerful, still using a logical approach, he explains how many of the animals lives could easily be saved. Now that we know about downers and how they are treated, we have an automatic emotional attachment to them. We don't want to know about how these animals are treated. We want to believe they all live happy lives. Now, through an appeal, composed of a fully logos argument, we feel a deep emotional connection to these animals. Pathos through logos is an impressive trick and Foer makes use of it wonderfully in this section.