The article, “The Inhumanity of the Death Penalty” by Coates is an exploratory text meant to evoke different emotions in the mind of the readers through the vivid presentation of various facts behind the death penalty in the United States of America; in what the author refers to as inhumanity. As such, the author selectively applies pathos, ethos, and logos in his text to persuade the readers in a bid to prove the point that the execution of the death penalty in the country has historically been a cruel practice. This paper will, therefore, present a rhetorical analysis of the article by identifying specific contexts where the author applies pathos, ethos, and logos to persuade the readers.
Pathos, as the first rhetoric device, is dominant over the entire article. Being the authors appeal to emotion, he carefully employs pathos from the topic of the article whereby he highlights the “inhumanity” of the death penalty in the country (Coates). Despite the fact that the sentence is part of the criminal justice system, the author terms it as inhuman to evoke the reader's emotions towards its unfair nature. By portraying it as heartless, the author implies merely that the judgment is not fair for humanity. Moreover, the author’s quest for pathos is furthered by the image of George Stinney, a 14-year old boy with a sad face (Coates). The inhumanity of the sentence is also highlighted by the argument that he is the youngest American ever to face the punishment. Coates also evokes the reader’s emotions by attaching the penalty to the white supremacy; which has historically been presented as a bitter experience for the Black Americans as a result of racial profiling and discrimination. Pathos is also evident when the state of Oklahoma tortures Clayton Lockett to death through a triple-drug cocktail; which is known to cause a painful death. The author applies Pathos in this case to highlight the inhuman nature of the sentence; since it seeks to induce pain rather than execute the offender. Pathos is also emphasized by the vivid description of how Stinney was executed with 2,400 V electric surge, which leads to his face mask slipping off and his tearful face is exposed, wide-open, and exuding saliva from the mouth (Coates). Such a description could make the reader shed tears over the pain endured by the boy.
The author’s efforts to persuade the reader are evident in the way he presents ethos, in a bid to create an appeal to ethics. The inhumanity of the death penalty is presented from the sanctity of human life (Coates). The author opines to oppose capital punishment, arguing that the state governments must adopt other means to protect the people from the death row. According to the author, it is unethical t subject people to the death sentence which is profoundly attached to racism. He posits that "let's not be racist" to highlight the appeal to ethics since all humans are equal regardless of their racial differences (Coates). He argues that death penalty is a human creation and not a godly one and creates the need for the US legal system to find a better punishment.
The author further applies logos to create a logic appeal to the readers by referring to logical facts for the inhumanity of the death penalty. The first aspect of logos is highlighted in the exemplification of Stinney, who is termed as the youngest American to ever face the punishment in Oklahoma (Coates). In his attribution of the death punishment to the white supremacy in the history of the United States, the author applies logos to highlight how black soldiers were at a higher risk to face court-martialing and execution than their white counterparts. Logos is further exhibited where the author quotes that the African-American soldiers accounted for only 10% of the military, yet they made approximately 80% of the executed soldiers during the war (Coates). This aspect of discrimination against the blacks also serves as a tool for ethos.
In conclusion, the author successful incorporates the three rhetorical tools in his text to evoke different emotions and thoughts in the mind of the reader in a bid to highlight the inhuman nature of the death sentence. Overall, the death sentence in the US is an unfair practice for which the legal systems must find a replacement.
Works Cited
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. "The Inhumanity Of The Death Penalty". The Atlantic, 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/the-inhumanity-of-the-death-penalty/361991/. Accessed 24 Mar 2018.
