Throughout the passage "Is American Nonviolence Possible?", Todd May portrays his appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos effectively; however, the most powerful appeal he emphasized was pathos. He addresses several sensitive events that have occurred over the past decade that exploit the violence undergoing in our country. Utilizing pathos through stories of empathy, and words or phrases full of emotion, May enhances his argument that although we are a very violent country overwhelmed by our competitive individualism, we have moments where we connect with one another, and put aside our individual desires to think about the good of others - which may be the only answer to American violence. 

The argument is manifested in a very persuasive manner, especially through using the appeal to pathos. Immediately to begin his passage he has the sentence "we are steeped in violence", following a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that instills the seriousness of this piece (May 353). The quote from MLK could be considered an appeal to ethos because it exemplifies the validity of his argument to come, but the way he chose to begin with it, and follow up with a one liner sentence, appeals to our emotion as well. The passage is embodied with many persuasive words that appeal to our emotions, and they affect the other appeals of logos and ethos. May appeals to logos by stating a fact about societies growing murder rate, "clearly, we are a violent country. Our murder rate is three to five times that of most other industrialized countries" (354). This connects to pathos because it is a fact that discusses fear and injustice in our society, and it primes up his claims of how America is truly a dangerous place to live in right now. 

May list off violent events that had occurred in the past week since he wrote the passage, providing his audience with an in-depth understanding of how dangerous America has become, while using an appeal to pathos. "A searing reminder: Monday's bombing at the Boston Marathon...Tuesday, a 577-page report by the Constitution Project concluded that the United states had engaged in torture after Sept. 11 attacks ... Wednesday a turning point in the heated national debate on gun control ... and looming above all this is the painful memory of the mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School" (353). Using words like searing, heated, and painful all over this paragraph makes the audience feel the reality of the events that have taken place, and they are an example of how May effectively uses pathos. Bringing up events like these really appeals to my emotions, because I know several people who were close to the attacks of 9/11 that took place in New York City, and I can't even imagine what it would be like if they were not here today. This text is definitely intended to make us feel mindful of what is going on in American society, because violence is obviously unpreventable, but it can be controlled to a certain degree. 

The central argument of the text is, there are three specific reasons violence is cultivating in our country- "competitive individualism, the decline in our ability to control events in the world, and the welfare states have been in decline for more than 30 years now"- and the only possible way to slow violence down is by "pull[ing] together with those [we] do not know, in order to restore the web of our common existence" (May 356). Evidently it seems that we only come together as Americans whenever a natural disaster, or horrific attack occurs on our country that could be classified as terrorism, because it is America versus a foreign/natural foe. May focuses on this claim because it is something that impacts all our lives, it is personal to us, and that is why it appeals to our emotions. If this argument was not created primarily on the use of this rhetorical appeal, then we would not be as attentive and invested in what May is trying to get across. 

May had a very captivating and thought provoking closing paragraph that effectively appealed to our emotions by giving us familiar names that we can relate to, "learning this lesson will not bring back the life of Martin Richard, Krystie Campbell or the other murdered victims in Boston ... Trayvon Martin or the children of Sandy Hook" (May 357). By doing so, he attempts to reach out to us through a deeper connection, and it is achieved because most people feel sadness when it comes to the children of Sandy Hook, or the other victims he mentioned. When he says Boston Bombings, you can visualize the explosions and how they must have caused suffering to all the people around them; however, he does not really emphasize the imagery in an effective manner because he just lists out these people and events, he does not use adjectives that can build a stronger compassion around them. Although he may not have put too much emphasis around this specific portion of the piece, he did utilize pathos in an effective way to help me understand his argument.

Pathos is illustrated throughout Todd May's, "Is American Nonviolence Possible?", in order to, adequately profess his central argument in a persuasive manner with the help of small incorporations of the other appeals, logos and ethos. His vivid events, and diction intensified his argument because they were represented in a way that entertained our emotions, which in return, kept our attention throughout the piece. May's usage of ethos expressed his appeal to authority that was usually followed up by an opinion, creating a strong connection with pathos. When using logos, he would start with an emotional sentence, and follow up with a fact that made his claim even more powerful. By reaching out to our emotions, May proves that there are three specific things that cause violence in our country, and the only way to attempt to stop them, is to consciously always consider how your actions are going to affect others. 

