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Definition of Pathos
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is an argument that appeals to... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective... read full definition
Book 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Ain't I Your Baby?:
Rufus has truly hit rock bottom when he decides to end his life by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Baldwin uses pathos and simile to make the reader feel Rufus's horror and despair as he contemplates his death:
He raised his eyes to heaven. He thought, You bastard [...] Ain’t I your baby, too? He began to cry. Something in Rufus which could not break shook him like a rag doll and splashed salt water all over his face and filled his throat and his nostrils with anguish. He knew the pain would never stop. He could never go down into the city again. He dropped his head as though someone had struck him and looked down at the water. It was cold and the water would be cold.
He was black and the water was black.
This is a grim section of the novel, as Rufus stands despondently staring at the sky and the Hudson River. By this point his suffering has left him feeling utterly hopeless. In order to make the reader understand this, Baldwin appeals to their sense of pathos. When an author does this, they describe a situation or event which causes the reader to have an emotional response with a predictable result. Here it’s pity, as the reader “hears” Rufus's desperate cry to God, desperately asking why he is ignored despite his suffering. Baldwin also evokes the reader’s sympathy by reminding them that Rufus sees himself as one of God’s abandoned children, when he piteously asks “ain’t I your baby, too?” Rufus’s identification with the black water of the river in the final line suggests a bleak unity between his identity and the world around him. He sees his life as a Black New Yorker experiencing homelessness as being as “black” as the river. Both his identity and the river are colored and burdened by forces beyond his control.
The simile here compares Rufus to a “rag doll” as the invisible force of misery shakes and tumbles him. The violence of his despair disturbs and rocks him, as though he’s utterly boneless and powerless. It’s almost as though he has already jumped into the water, as the salt of his tears “splashe[s]” him painfully and threatens to choke him.
Related Themes:
