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Irony
Definition of Logos
Logos, along with ethos and pathos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Logos is an argument that appeals to... read full definition
Logos, along with ethos and pathos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Logos is... read full definition
Logos, along with ethos and pathos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective... read full definition
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Swift Replacement:
Throughout The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck presents snippets of conversation between unnamed speakers who represent different classes or groups within American society. In one such conversation, a male speaker who represents the tractor drivers uses logos in an argument with another male speaker, who represents the tenant-farmers who have been displaced by the tractors:
“I built it with my hands. Straightened old nails to put the sheathing on. Rafters are wired to the stringers with baling wire. It’s mine. I built it. You bump it down—I’ll be in the window with a rifle. You even come too close and I’ll pot you like a rabbit.’’
“It’s not me. There’s nothing I can do. I’ll lose my job if I don’t do it. And look—suppose you kill me? They’ll just hang you, but long before you’re hung there’ll be another guy on the tractor, and he’ll bump the house down. You’re not killing the right guy.’’
The farmer sees that the tractor driver has come to clear off his property and demolish his home. Furious, he threatens the tractor driver, claiming that he will “pot [him] like a rabbit” if he drives the tractor close to his home. Unmoved by his pleas and threats, the tractor driver employs logos, using cold and unemotional logic to counter the farmer’s charge. Insisting that there is “nothing [he] can do,” the tractor driver reasons that killing him will achieve nothing, as the farmer will be executed and, before long, “there’ll be another guy on the tractor” to demolish the house. “You’re not killing the right guy,” he concludes. Appealing to the farmer’s sense of reason, the tractor driver notes that the farmer's anger is misplaced, as the tractor driver is just one cog in a large industrial machine that will easily replace him. Here, the tractor driver’s rational tone and language mirrors that of the company owners and bankers.
Related Themes:
