Response to Chp 5 "Get them to like you"

I really enjoyed reading Chapter Five. Chapter four went over ethos only very slightly, and I was left with a very vague idea of what ethos really was.

Again, after learning more about the tactic of using ethos, I feel that this is something I do on instinct. When I went to a job interview for the Bureau of Land Management, I dressed similarly to their presenters – in jeans and a ponytail rather than a skirt and flip-flops. It showed that I would be fine with an outdoor job like the one I was applying to, and that I wasn’t a “girly-girl.” However, I didn’t try and wear heavy boots and work pants, because that would have been too far from a representation of any part of me. I feel that this is completely compatible with what the author said about dressing to be the character your audience will relate to and trust.

I liked what the author said about fitting in a lot. In my early years of high school I occasionally dressed up in silly outfits just for the fun of it, and on completely random days. As I got older I stopped doing this as much, reserving the costumes for special events and Halloween. I didn’t really think about why I did this, but after reading this chapter I see that I probably sensed that dressing up was changing peoples’ view of me and they didn’t take me as seriously as I wanted them to, because I didn’t dress as though I wanted to be taken seriously. The connection the author made between fitting in and the survival of the fittest really portrayed this idea clearly. Even though we want to come out and be who we are, we have to conform to the larger group at least some of the time in order to rise in society.

Society has always shaped individuals in a way. Society’s rules generally have an effect on most of us. What the author said about going with the audience’s rules and expectations directly relates to this idea. I’ve often thought about how unfair it is that we are judged and judge so quickly based on the appearance of our character, but this chapter brought a new view on this subject. Instead of sulking about it and settling on always being an outcast, the outcasts can actually use this general rule to their advantage. It’d kind of be like working behind enemy lines. If you can conform to your audience enough to get them to trust you, you can eventually use other types of argumentation to bring them about to your ideas.